I hosted tutored tasting at a local restaurant for my professional organization annual general meeting.
Theme: Local Wines
Charity: Forest without Borders
This tutored tasting featured local wines from Ontario and Michigan to show the impressive quality of wines available in our province and the adjoining state of Michigan. Four wines were featured, two whites and two reds.
We started out with a 2012 old vines riesling from the Ontario winery Chateau des Charmes. This pale yellow wine had nice citrus and petrol notes on the nose. The wine tasted of lemons and grapefruit and had a finish that lingered nicely on the palate. At least one person declared this wine as their favourite wine of the night. This wine was matched with prosciutto wrapped melon which brought out the fruit and lemon acidity in the wine.
Our second wine was a 2013 gamay from the Ontario winery Malvoire. This light red wine had a nice fragrance of earthy cherries and currants. The wine tasted of red currants and strawberries and had a short finish. Paired with baked goat cheese topped with mushrooms and olives, the food made this wine taste a bit lighter and fruitier. A good light red wine perfect for summer sipping at the cottage.
Our third wine was a 2012 cabernet sauvignon called Bricklayers Reward from Colio Estate vineyard located on the north shore of Lake Erie. This beautifully dark red wine had an expressive nose of black currants, blackberries and oak. This full bodied wine had great mouth feel of smooth tannins wrapped up in dark fruit flavours of currants and black raspberries. The long finish of this wine just extended the pleasure of drinking it. Paired with a wild rice risotto that had crimini mushrooms and gorgonzola, the wine just loved the Italian blue cheese and created a flavour to please virtually all the palates at the table. A true food wine that just lit up with the food and was a really nice sipper as well.
Our fourth and final wine was a 2007 botrytized riesling from Chateau Grand Traverse winery in Michigan. This rich amber wine had a deep and sumptuous nose of honey, orange blossoms and a hint of caramel. It was like drinking pineapple nectar infused with liquid gold honey with a really nice bracing lemon acidity to balance out the sweetness. And, oh my, what a finish it had, so nice and long. When experienced with the raspberry crumble, this wine showed off its food friendliness by expressing even better fruit notes of juicy ripe pineapples and dried apricots. A fitting wine to finish out our tasting of local wine gems.
Wineaux in residence: Tom Noland
Sean is not listed at all under people at Grand Traverse.
as it seems to have more structure than most gamays. However, I have not seen it listed for some time at LCBO.