18
Mar
2009
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Category: On the Road with the Grape Guy
April is California Wine Month … I say that because it's the month the California Wine Fair rolls into town with some 450+ wines to taste. I never get through the whole event … I think it's physically impossible … but there sure is a lot of wine on offer. That's why I take any opportunity I can to taste beforehand, giving me an outside shot at doing the entire show properly. This evening we got a chance to try about ten percent of the wines that would be at the show, as we got an insider preview … an opportunity for me to glimpse into the world of California wine before hitting the floor of the Royal York on April 6. This event always gives me an idea of what interesting wines or producers I should be putting on my must try list. If you're going, here are some of my selections you might like to search out and try: ... (Read more)
To read about more interesting adventures thru the world of wine check out the On the Road With the Grape Guy blog.
18
Mar
2009
- Details
-
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.
