18
Mar
2009
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Category: On the Road with the Grape Guy
This event was interesting, not just for its wines, but for its venue … we congregated at The Spoke Club on King Street. Now, I’m a Western grad and at Western (London Ontario) we had a pub on campus called "The Spoke", Rick Magee played there regularly and to graduate you had to have stepped into the place and ordered a beer at least once (I believe that was written into the constitution of the University); the other stipulation was that you had to understand the irony and on occasion question, but never get an answer to, the reason why they named a building University College. But as usual I'm off topic.
Today, I visited The Spoke Club (but not the one I knew in my youth) to taste what Woodman Wine and Spirits were offering up; a decent little tasting of 18 wines – the perfect amount for an afternoon tipple. Woodman is the agent for the Ontario winery Angels Gate in Niagara; I’ll have a separate review of their 2007 Gewurztraminer in an upcoming newsletter in the next little while. Right now let's focus our attention on the other wines from around the world Woodman brings in. I came up with my ‘top of the crop’ list for the tasting, this time it seemed a little tougher than usual, but I finally managed to cull it down to a top five. The good news is some are even LCBO bound or already there. In no particular order here are my top five: ... (Read more)
To read about more interesting adventures thru the world of wine check out the On the Road With the Grape Guy blog.
03
Mar
2009
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Category: On the Road with the Grape Guy
The Ontario wine Oscars were announced Friday night and its easy to encapsulate them by saying that the big winner was Creekside, taking home four awards; while both Tawse and Hillebrand walked away with two each. This year they added a new wrinkle to the format of the presentation, by announcing the silver and bronze medal finishers in some categories; this elicited a few groans from the audience as favorites just missed the mark. There were also some ties along the way, like the inevitable Riesling tie (there's just so much made in Ontario that this is bound to happen) between Tawse 2007 Sketches of Niagara and Legends 2003 Reserve (thinking about it I think this is a greater coup for Legends, putting in an the aged wine up against all those fresh and fruity ones took guts - good for them). Peninsula Ridge, tied with themselves for best Sauvignon Blanc (only thing worse than that would be to beat yourself); and the best Limited Edition White award was shared between Cattail (2007 Barrel Fermented Chardonnay) and Creekside (2007 Reserve Viognier). I seem to have a good track record for picking winners, going 9 or 16 with my choices from the Cuvee Media Pre-Tasting. Considering there were multiple winners and not all the winning wines were up for tasting that day, I think that’s pretty good score ... if you wish to check up on me then just click on through to my picks, I've updated the posting ... (Read more)
To read about more interesting adventures thru the world of wine check out the On the Road With the Grape Guy blog.
