LCBO Food & Drink Holiday 2018

Southbrook’s Triomphe Chardonnay VQA ( VINTAGES ESSENTIALS 172338, $24.95) is a lovely match to our creamy pasta dish. It’s a precise, perfectly balanced wine that braids hints of peach, pineapple and caramel with oaky spice in a firm, muscular body.     With the Chocolate-Mint Pots de Crème, serve Warre’s Otima 10 Year Old Tawny Port ( LCBO 566174, 500 mL, $21.95). Ten years old is an interesting age for tawny port. There is still red fruit left in the wine, but that decade in the barrel has brought in other spicy, caramelly, oaky notes. Otima is an excellent illustration, with a heart of sweet cherry, fig and apri- cot jam woven with walnuts and licorice. It pairs beautifully with chocolate or caramel desserts.

CHOCOLATE-MINT POTS DE CRÈME recipe on page 216

FUN AND GAMES

The internet is a great source of party game apps. Play Heads Up on your iPhone using formatted answer decks or one you design yourself. Make a homemade version of “Ex Libris,” where everyone writes a fictional first (or last) sentence to a book the host chooses; the real line is shuffled in and people guess which it is. A more surreal game involves giving every guest a secret sentence they must work into conversation without being detected (for example, “Does anyone mind if I take a shower?”).

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