On the Road with the Grape Guy
Report from - Calamus Futures Tasting at Cafe Taste ... January 27, 2009
31 Jan 2009- Details
- Category: On the Road with the Grape Guy
A cold Tuesday night sees me arriving late (I did not know it was a formal sit down event) at Cafe Taste for the Calamus Futures Tasting. First, a little note about the venue: located at 1330 Queen Street West in Toronto, this little hole-in-the-wall bills itself as a European-style wine, cheese and coffee bar that specializes in the local: serving 80% VQA wines (40 by the glass - which includes dessert wines), and over 30 cheeses from both Ontario and Quebec. They also bake their own bread and biscotti … very impressive stuff. While there I tried cheeses, bread and a variety of sliced meats, but failed to get even a nibble off the end of a biscotti - dang. I’ve gotten sidetracked here it’s time to move on to the main event, the new soon-to-be offerings from Calamus.
For those who've never been, Calamus is located near Balls Falls in the Twenty Valley region of Niagara. They used to boast the area's smallest tasting room (maybe in all of Ontario), but they have greatly expanded the room and added an upper level and at deck for use during nice weather (yes we do get some here) … and one should not forget the telescope dome complete with operating telescope.
Winemaker Arthur Harder led a room of about 30+ people through a tasting of six wines (two whites, four reds) from the outstanding 2007 vintage; my top three were as follows: ... (Read More)
