On the Road with the Grape Guy
Report from - Wineries of Niagara-on-the-Lake, Taste the Season 2012 ... November 3-4, 2012
13 Nov 2012- Details
- Category: On the Road with the Grape Guy
This year’s Taste the Season was probably the best and most consistent I’ve ever seen. The food was consistently good, except for one winery’s offering, which might just be one of the worst I have ever had (more on that in a bit) – but considering that 28 wineries take part, the event is batting .964 – and that, to put it mildly, is pretty darn good.
We started (my wife Erica – the foodie – and I) by going through the list of pairings being offered as we waited to pick up our tickets at the Niagara-on-the-Lake (NOTL) Chamber of Commerce office in the heart of NOTL. We decided to check off our top five or six wineries that we had the most expectations for based on the description of the pairing. Our expectations lists matched pretty closely, with each of us picking six wineries that we were most looking forward to trying their food at. In total we ended up with eight wineries on our combined list. Erica chose Chateau des Charmes, Colaneri, Palatine Hills, Pillitteri, Ravine and Jackson-Triggs … mine dropped the Chateau and Pillitteri in favour of Hinterbrook and Stratus. We marked all the wineries out of 5 on an ascending scale for Poor (1) to Excellent (5).
13 of the 28 wineries scored a 2 or 3 (which was Fair to Average), and those that scored 2 were based on our personal preferences instead of lack of flavour, enjoyment or forethought on there part. For example, Cattail Creek served Wild Mushrom and Pencetta Ragout topped with Crispy Onions … a big portion with lots of mushrooms – but if you are not a mushroom fan (as I am not) the food would be lost on you. While we scored it a 2, someone else who digs mushrooms would score it much higher.
Exceeded Expectations … (to read the full report and see the pictorial tour, click here)
