Some blogger friends and I have started getting together for brunch every once and awhile – you know for some real life facetime. I decided to change things up a bit this time and along with my friends at Union Wines and Linda Modern Thai I hosted a wine tasting social at my own loft in the heart of Kensington Market on a sunny Sunday afternoon. It’s so nice to step away from the computer every once and awhile and mingle. It also gave me a reason to clean my house. Just don’t open the door to my closet. We had a fun afternoon filled with delicious wine, super tasty food and lots of conversation – a great way to spend a Sunday don’t you think? Keep reading to see all the details of our great afternoon.

It’s not every day that you get to host an event with professional chefs and a wine maker. We were honoured to have Andrew von Teichman, co-owner, and sommelier of Union Wines (left) there to tell us everything we wanted to know about wine and Chef Chris (middle) and his sou-chef from Linda Modern Thai to cook up some delicious pairings. These guys handled a room full of chatty women like the pros they are. The problem with being the host AND photographer is that you are suspiciously not in any photos. Ooops. So you’ll just have to imagine my pretty little face standing with these guys.

If you’re not familiar with Union Wines, it’s a top selling VQA wine founded in 2010. It’s a brand that’s become known as being sophisticated but unpretentious – kinda like us bloggers (that’s not a joke). They use all Ontario sourced product and are known for their blending of multiple grape varieties to create consistent, reliable, award winning wines. You can read more about what the word on the street is when it comes to Union Wines here. 

The menu and my photos do not do the food justice. It tasted amazing! All four dishes had completely different flavours and each one was better than the next.

It was kinda fun to have the chefs right there and watch the food come together. These bloggers had such a treat. If it was up to me in the kitchen they would be snacking on some crackers and cheese. 
Instead they got to feast on all of this. Clockwise from top left: Salmon with Tom Yum sauce,  Glass Noodle Salad, Crispy Beef Panang (the fave), Chicken Lemongrass Siu Mai. You can find all these items on the Linda Modern Thai menu. What’s so great about Union wine is that because of the blending and their selection, it’s very versatile and pairs well with so many foods, especially Thai which can be challenging sometimes.  

Andrew passionately told us about each wine – it’s flavours, how it was made etc. and then we tried it with the Thai pairing. It gave us a chance to chat about what we were eating and drinking in between each one. It’s a much more civilized way to eat and drink, don’t you think?

These are the four wines that we tasted – Union Gold, Union Red, Union White and Union Noir. I really liked them all. I was surprised how much I enjoyed the reds because I’m not usually a red person but I especially like the Union Red. It was lighter than most reds and went well with the thai food which you wouldn’t necessarily expect. All these bottles are available at the LCBO. Check your local store to see exactly which ones they have on their shelf. They’re all also under $20, which is great. Stay tuned for the Union Rosé, which is going to hit stores in a few weeks, perfect for summer!

Once all the wine tasting was done it was mingle time.

Lots of pretty and happy blogger faces.

And of course I couldn’t let everyone leave without a little somethin’ somethin’. On top of a belly full of great food and drink each guest took home a bottle of Union Wine to enjoy. Thanks Union!

I wanted to say thanks again to Union Wines and Linda Modern Thai for making our social event such a success. It really was a great pairing!