On the Road with the Grape Guy is a on-going feature that follows me from event to event ... I post my thoughts, feelings and reviews of what happened and what I tasted ... basically it is here that I review the events I attend and the things that thrilled me.
30.50 Imports (3050imports.com) is one of the many agents in Ontario and today in the bowels of Barbarian Restaurant, or more precisely, from the wine cellar of Barbarian Restaurant they had much of their portfolio on for tasting ... here are my favourites of the wines I tasted: (See the pics of the wines I rated the highest in the cellar)
The 19th Annual Ontario Wine Awards were held Friday night at the Queen's Landing Inn in Niagara-on-the-Lake hosted by celebrity TV chef Christine Cushing.
Big winners this evening were Malivoire, winning three Golds for Chardonnay, Gamay and Merlot along with 3 other awards for a total of six. Tawse took two Golds (Riesling and Cabernet Sauvignon) on their way to collecting five medals. While Inniskillin with 5 awards (including two in the Vidal Icewine category) and sister winery Jackson-Triggs took four medals for a haul of 9 for Vincor. Chateau des Charmes and Angels Gate took home 4 medals each.
White Wine of the Year was won by 3 time winner (in a row) in the Chardonnay category Exultet for their ‘The Blessed’. Red Wine of the Year was taken by Pillitteri for their Exclamation Cabernet Franc
There were no Golds handed out in the Gewurztraminer, Red Hybrid, Syrah/Shiraz and Blended White categories. No surprise that a Creekside property took the Blended red Award, that’s their fifth year in a row. There were also 5 categories that saw ties for top spot.
Winemaker of the Year went to Marlize Beyers of Hidden Bench, obviously caught totally off-guard, and by surprise, her acceptance speech was about how proud she was to be part of the Ontario wine community and to be a winemaker.
And the Gold Medal winning wines are … (click here to see all the gold medal winners)
