On the Road with the Grape Guy

Report from - Rhone Valley Tasting and Lunch ... January 27, 2011

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Category: On the Road with the Grape Guy

Cel-ebrate the Rhone come on.
It's time to celebrate and have a good time ...

The Rhone just won Wine Enthusiasts magazine's "Region of the Year" award and they are thrilled. 

Fresh off the trophy presentation they made a sojourn to Toronto where a small contingent of writers and Rhone Valley principals got together to taste some wines and have a little lunch at George Restaurant on Queen Street.

The first part of the days program was the tasting of some 15 wines that represented the region, from $10 simpletons to $59 behemoths, and there were many values along the way.  I'll rank 13 of those wines below, from 3-star (good) to 4.5-star (excellent), with a few words about each.

But first, a few words, (or numbers) about the award wining region ...

The Rhone Valley is France's second largest AOC wine region in surface are and production:
77,175 hectares
6000 wineries
420 million bottles sold in 2007-2008
Exported to over 150 countries
The wine industry is the premier employer of the region

The Wines: (to see the wines, the lunch and the award - in pictures - click here)

To read about more interesting adventures thru the world of wine check out the On the Road With the Grape Guy blog.

Report from - Discover Bordeaux ... January 25, 2011

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Category: On the Road with the Grape Guy

Bordeaux.  Bordeaux. It's off to taste we go (prolonged whistling)
Bordeaux, Bordeaux, Bordeaux, Bordeaux ...

I doubt the seven dwarves ever did a lot of wine tasting, but in a room with so much of the stuff it seemed like work instead of pleasure to taste them all - until you got right into it and then the pleasure was in the following wines ...

First, a quick note about the tasting:  this was a Vintages presentation of the Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux, which was established in 1973 and united 132 chateaux across seven appellations in France.  "Member estates represent over 5000 hectares of some of the best vineyards in Bordeaux, employing 10,000 workers annually.  Annual production is in excess of 230,000 hectoliters, with a total sales value of 3000 million Euros" ($415 million CAD).  There were approximately 100 wines in the room, here were the stars (and how they broke down, with selected notes):

(To see the wines tasted and their scores click here)

 To read about more interesting adventures thru the world of wine check out the On the Road With the Grape Guy blog.