On the Road with the Grape Guy
Report from - VQA Ontario Terroir Tour Day 1 September 3, 2009
08 Sep 2009- Details
- Category: On the Road with the Grape Guy
A group of writers, invited by the VQA, descended on Niagara last week to see what all the fuss about appellation is all about. Back in 2005 a new map was drawn by VQA, which included 10 sub-appellations within the Niagara region … think smaller pockets of terroir (soil), or sub-dividing based on attributes of a specific region. “Actually the computer made us do it,” jokes J.L. Groux, winemaker for Stratus, “it kept asking us for sub-region and we did not know what to put.” He smiled mischievously while looking around for Laurie MacDonald, VQA’s Executive Director, and our host for this appellation excursion.
This 16-hour in-depth look at Niagara started at Hillebrand with a dinner created by executive chef Frank Dodd, based on specifically chosen wines that were to show the best of “sub-appellation character”. Before I continue to tell you about the wines and dinner let’s get one thing straight: the VQA, it was stressed to us (on more than one occasion), is not a marketing branch of the wineries, they do not promote any specific winery or the wineries as a whole, they are the governing body of 100% Ontario wines that bare the VQA logo … they are the testers, tasters and enforcers of the rules. So any wine poured over the next 16 hours is poured solely on it’s typicity of the region, not based on some favoured winery. Finally, it is important to note that the wines were chosen blindly by a panel.
Tonight because we were being hosted by Hillebrand for dinner, they chose Darryle Brooker, winemaker for Hillebrand, to lead us through the tasting.
1st Course: ... (Read further and see pictures of the dinner)
