i attended Taste Ontario for the first time this year. i was lucky enough to have won a few tickets to the event so i invited mandy and susan to come along with me. the event was coordinated by wine country of ontario and the lcbo. it was advertised as a taste and buy event and showcased many ontario wineries. of all wineries present, i was mainly interested in two producers - Bachelder wines and Charles Baker wines.
Bachelder wines is owned by Thomas Bachelder, who was the former winemaker at Le Clos Jordanne in Niagara. Thomas Bachelder also owns vineyards in Oregon and France and his wines are often highly rated. The wines are also a bit on the pricey side (ie. around the $40 mark). I really wanted to try his chardonnay and to see what all the hype was about.
Charles Baker wines was another Niagara producer that have caught my attention in recent days. The wines are sold through stratus winery and are popping up on a lot of restaurant wine lists. They were offering two versions of their riesling at the show .. and i love rieslings. :)
So what did i taste?
first up .. some bubbly from Henry of Pelham. they had the cuvee catherine brut. it was a great way to start off. tiny bubbles releasing aromatic notes of toast, citrus, and minerality. it was dry and a great palate refresher.
my favorite vineyard, Vineland Estates was there with their Expressions in D collection. I have the entire set of rieslings so it wasn't something I was interested in trying. besides, when i was at the winery this summer, I got to try all four rieslings and they were fantastic. my friends tried it and was impressed with the medium sweet rieslings.
susan was on the hunt for some fabulous pinot noir, so i steered her towards one of the best producers in Prince Edward county - norman hardie. Norm was behind the table pouring and he remembered me from the harvest event the week before. susan was impressed with the county pinot noir but it was the first one so it set the bar high.
we also tried the pinot noir from Le Clos Jordanne. they had the village reserve and the claystone reserve pinot noirs. behind the table pouring was winemaker Sebastien Jacquey, with whom i've had the pleasure of meeting during the summer. his pinot noir was very nice. the claystone was the better of the two. the difference is the lot in which the grapes were picked from. susan also liked their pinot but norm's still had the edge.
while at the tawse booth, i sampled their cabernet/merlot blend. it was one of the best red blends i've had - bursting with fruit. well done, tawse.
at the cave spring table, they had their chardonnay musque. i didn't visit the winery but i heard that they had one of the better chardonnay musques in the niagara region. and indeed, it's one of the better ones. it was definitely more aromatic than the one by chateau des charmes that i tried a few months back. it was a fan favourite and it's not an easy one to find at the LCBO. i highly recommend you try this if you're looking for something different.
unfortunately thomas bachelder wasn't at the bachelder wines table but Mrs. thomas bachelder was there. She was so lovely! i tried the wismer vineyard chardonnay and it was buttery goodness. is it worth $40? well, i'm not a big fan of chardonnay to begin with so if i had $40, i would probably spend it on something else. but if you're a chardonnay fan .. go for it.
thomas bachelder may have been MIA but charles baker was not. he was actually pouring the wines! i introduced myself and sampled the ivan vineyard riesling. classic niagara riesling and oh so good. clean, crisp, minerality, citrus .. loved the wine. then i compared it to the picone vineyard riesling. the picone vineyard riesling had some petrol notes on top of the usual riesling characteristics. it's a gorgeous riesling and available for purchase at the Stratus winery or through Vintages online.
other less impressive wines that i got to try included Good Karma, a chardonnay by Flat Rock cellars, a 2008 fume blanc by peninsula ridge (this was awful, imo), jackson triggs entourage grand reserve method classique brut (this was pretty good), and pillitteri's vidal icewine (my sample had a piece of wax in it. eww).
wow .. one of the best wine events i've attended so far. i loved the selection of wines offered but unfortunately, the organizers fell short on the "buy" part of this taste and buy event. there were no order forms whatsoever and susan wanted to buy! that's a fail, LCBO.
anyway, next up is the Tasting Alley event at the ottawa food and wine show. i'm attending the Saturday night event and it's sold out! i usually get dressed up for events like this so my black chiffon mini dress will have to come out of the closet. ;)
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