On the Road with the Grape Guy

On the Road with the Grape Guy is a on-going feature that follows me from event to event ... I post my thoughts, feelings and reviews of what happened and what I tasted ... basically it is here that I review the events I attend and the things that thrilled me.

Report from - Cuvee Media Preview Tasting ... February 9, 2011

27 Feb 2011

Here I sit tasting the wines from the fruit of the labour of Ontario winemakers for the 2011 Cuvee media pre-tasting ... It is here we taste what the competition organizers and judges have deemed the best.  Actually let's get more specific, before us is one wine from each winery that entered the competition and we are told "These wines represent each participating winery's top scoring wine from the Cuvee judging held in January".  In other words these are the top scoring wines from each individual winery's submission ... 62 wines in total.  In and amongst these wines are wines I have previously tasted and/or reviewed, while there are also some new wines and many are very good.  The wines I was most looking forward to were some of the Cabs and blended reserves from the 2007 vintage, sadly at least 5 were loaded with volatile acidity (a nail polish-like smell).  The ones that were clean were beautiful, including a Vineland 2007 Reserve Cabernet Franc, a Thirty Bench 2007 Small Lot Cabernet Franc, a Peller Signature Series 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon, a Jackson Triggs 2007 Delaine Syrah and a Henry of Pelham 2007 Reserve Cabernet-Merlot ... these were fantastic, well made wines worthy of their price (especially the Pelham which was an absolute steal at $24.95).  But then there were others, whom I will not mention here by name but instead ...

(To learn about the whites I liked and the prices of the nasty wines click here ...)

 

 

Report from - My Lunch with Andrzej ... January 17, 2011

18 Feb 2011

Earlier in the week I accepted an invitation to lunch from Ontario's Roaming Winemaker Andrzej Lipinski ... I dubbed him that in a review I wrote a few weeks ago and I think Andrzej wanted to set the record straight.  Andrzej has quite the interesting story to tell of a young man coming to Canada in the early 90s and getting his start at Vineland Estates ... interestingly enough he was not a winemaker by trade, but in fact an auto mechanic - though he did grow up in a town that had the only wine festival in Poland.  But the wine industry has a lure and Andrezj was soon working in the cellar of Vineland before he became the assistant.  The rest of the story is one of a man who won awards, made a name for himself and has really been looking for a proper fit ... Now I won't start getting into the misunderstood artist toiling at his craft story that you've heard a thousand times before, and I don't think that fits Andrzej anyway, but I will tell you he has some pretty interesting wines being made at the two wineries we visited, and that's really what this story is all about.

Starting my day in Niagara-on-the-Lake's newest addition to the winery landscape, Colaneri, we began our tasting at the tasting bar with some of their current releases: (to read about the releases the tasting and the lunch, click here)

 

 To read about more interesting adventures thru the world of wine check out the On the Road With the Grape Guy blog.

 

 

 

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