Friday, April 11, 2008
It's Five O'Clock Somewhere #6: Toronto Wine & Cheese Show
For the second year in a row, Jacquie and I make the drive across the city to attend the Toronto Wine & Cheese Show, but we came very close to not attending at all. Having a cold makes wine tasting difficult and not enjoyable, so I put off committing to the trip until Friday night. When I felt that I'd be about eighty percent the next day, I agreed to go to the show.
Although I had to twist Jacquie's arm to go last year, it was the other way around this year. Last year, neither of us had realized that the volume of food vendors would rival the wine, beer and liquor vendors -- and while I spent the Saturday afternoon of the 2007 show sampling several different alcohols (and getting a buzz on while doing so), she took full advantage of the food merchants.
This year's event was a very similar vibe, even though we showed up closer to 1:00 instead of noon. While she scoured the floor for good eating, I took to tracking down a list of must-try beverages.
Before leaving in the morning, I looked over the list of exhibitors and the wares they would be sporting (but sadly not selling -- this is the biggest disappointment of the show; vendors aren't allowed to actually sell anything except tasting samples). I made a list that includes two breweries, a winery, a meadery, one hard liquor and an additive.
The breweries
Two breweries stood out in the list -- Big Rock Brewery, which I was slightly familiar with, and Church Key Brewing, which I wasn't familiar with. Although I've sampled one or two of Big Rock's beers before, I wanted to try the Grasshopper Wheat Ale (I may have actually tried this before). It was about on par for a wheat ale -- nothing really special.
At Church Key, I'd scribbled down notes to myself to try the Northumberland Ale, the West Coast Pale Ale and the Cranberry Maple Wheat beer. While I didn't try the Northumberland, I did try the other two.
Church Key's West Coast Pale Ale is a beer that would make hop addicts extraordinarily happy. The hops covered up the malts, but I enjoyed it. The Cranberry Maple Wheat, on the other hand, was a bizarre brew that smells of cream and cranberries. Unfortunately, the taste didn't live up to the aroma, and I found it to be fairly weak tasting.
I tasted one more beer that wasn't part of my original list. The Warsteiner Dunkel is a dark beer made in a Pilsener style, and it definitely tasted more like a Pils than a Dunkel. I swear if I couldn't see it was a dark beer that I would have thought it was a golden Pilsener.
The wineries
You'd think that since it was a wine show, I would have had a lot more wineries on my list, but the truth is I don't need a game plan for most wines at the show. They're everywhere, and everyone plays around with the same varietals.
I'd made special note of Downey's Estate Winery, with the intent of trying their Regal Raspberry and Maple wines. When I tracked the Downey's booth down, though, I realized both of the wines I was interested in were dessert wines. I have a bit of a sweet tooth, but dessert wines are generally too sickly sweet for my tastes. Instead, I looked at the rest of the Downey's selection and chose the Gooseberry wine.
From what the gentleman manning the booth said, calling most of Downey's wines "wine" is pushing it, as most of them aren't made with grapes. Still, I was curious what a gooseberry wine would taste like. I sipped it and found a clean, crisp wine with a hint of ... well, gooseberry flavour.
Unfortunately, I don't think Downey's currently distributes through the LCBO, so to further sample their wines, I'll have to take a trip to the Brampton area.
Another wine I sampled was the Smoking Loon Cabernet, which was perfect for my tastes. As you'd expect, it had a smoky, oaky smell and taste, with a nice dryness and hints of what I believe are black currants. Very nice, indeed.
Only wine I sampled that day was not to my liking, but I had just been tasting a sweet mead when I found my way to Cornerstone Estate Winery. The Pinot Noir tasted sour, and while I did finish drinking the little one-ounce sampler, I briefly considered giving it the drainpour treatment.
The liquors
The guy I spoke to at the Kaban booth proudly explained to me that Kaban's tequila was made from one hundred percent agave. The Kaban Flavour Infused Tequila brand comes in two varieties -- lime and tangerine flavours (and apparently tropical and natural, as well, but they weren't serving those).
I turned up my nose at the tangerine and instead settled for the more "natural tasting" lime. It was a good choice, and I'll look forward to buying a bottle when the tequila hits the LCBO in the summer. The tequila was incredibly smooth with just a hint of the lime "flavour infusion." In fact, the last time I tasted such a smooth tequila, I was on a bus trip with SOE that left from San Diego and toured around the Mexico/California border.
The meadery
Munro's Meadery was the best and worst part of the show for me. Munro's brought all six of their meads/melomels with them -- Dry Mead, Mead (semi-sweet), Sweet Mead, Raspberry Melomel, Blueberry Melomel and Cranberry Melomel. I sampled all six of them and fell in love with the Mead, Sweet Mead, Raspberry Melomel and Blueberry Melomel. I wasn't too fond of the Dry Mead, and I'm just not enough fan of cranberry to enjoy the Cranberry Melomel.
As I told the gent running the booth, he made my afternoon.
So how could a place like this also be the worst part of the show? Simple. No sales on site, and the place is located in Alvinston (down near Sarnia). I would have happily picked up a case's worth of mead and melomel, but the only way that's going to happen is take a trip down Sarnia way -- or to trust Canada Post not to break any bottles and get Munro's to ship some mead to me.
The verdict
Not much else to say. The Toronto Wine & Cheese Show isn't the cheapest way to spend a day ($18 admission and $1 tickets, with some samples costing several tickets -- thankfully, the mead samples were only one ticket apiece), but it is worth the trip.
For those who stick around for the evening, there is supposedly a lot more entertainment, but my goal was really to sample several different things and then get the hell out of there. Jacquie had a similar goal.
I look forward to next year.
Although I had to twist Jacquie's arm to go last year, it was the other way around this year. Last year, neither of us had realized that the volume of food vendors would rival the wine, beer and liquor vendors -- and while I spent the Saturday afternoon of the 2007 show sampling several different alcohols (and getting a buzz on while doing so), she took full advantage of the food merchants.
This year's event was a very similar vibe, even though we showed up closer to 1:00 instead of noon. While she scoured the floor for good eating, I took to tracking down a list of must-try beverages.
Before leaving in the morning, I looked over the list of exhibitors and the wares they would be sporting (but sadly not selling -- this is the biggest disappointment of the show; vendors aren't allowed to actually sell anything except tasting samples). I made a list that includes two breweries, a winery, a meadery, one hard liquor and an additive.
The breweries
Two breweries stood out in the list -- Big Rock Brewery, which I was slightly familiar with, and Church Key Brewing, which I wasn't familiar with. Although I've sampled one or two of Big Rock's beers before, I wanted to try the Grasshopper Wheat Ale (I may have actually tried this before). It was about on par for a wheat ale -- nothing really special.
At Church Key, I'd scribbled down notes to myself to try the Northumberland Ale, the West Coast Pale Ale and the Cranberry Maple Wheat beer. While I didn't try the Northumberland, I did try the other two.
Church Key's West Coast Pale Ale is a beer that would make hop addicts extraordinarily happy. The hops covered up the malts, but I enjoyed it. The Cranberry Maple Wheat, on the other hand, was a bizarre brew that smells of cream and cranberries. Unfortunately, the taste didn't live up to the aroma, and I found it to be fairly weak tasting.
I tasted one more beer that wasn't part of my original list. The Warsteiner Dunkel is a dark beer made in a Pilsener style, and it definitely tasted more like a Pils than a Dunkel. I swear if I couldn't see it was a dark beer that I would have thought it was a golden Pilsener.
The wineries
You'd think that since it was a wine show, I would have had a lot more wineries on my list, but the truth is I don't need a game plan for most wines at the show. They're everywhere, and everyone plays around with the same varietals.
I'd made special note of Downey's Estate Winery, with the intent of trying their Regal Raspberry and Maple wines. When I tracked the Downey's booth down, though, I realized both of the wines I was interested in were dessert wines. I have a bit of a sweet tooth, but dessert wines are generally too sickly sweet for my tastes. Instead, I looked at the rest of the Downey's selection and chose the Gooseberry wine.
From what the gentleman manning the booth said, calling most of Downey's wines "wine" is pushing it, as most of them aren't made with grapes. Still, I was curious what a gooseberry wine would taste like. I sipped it and found a clean, crisp wine with a hint of ... well, gooseberry flavour.
Unfortunately, I don't think Downey's currently distributes through the LCBO, so to further sample their wines, I'll have to take a trip to the Brampton area.
Another wine I sampled was the Smoking Loon Cabernet, which was perfect for my tastes. As you'd expect, it had a smoky, oaky smell and taste, with a nice dryness and hints of what I believe are black currants. Very nice, indeed.
Only wine I sampled that day was not to my liking, but I had just been tasting a sweet mead when I found my way to Cornerstone Estate Winery. The Pinot Noir tasted sour, and while I did finish drinking the little one-ounce sampler, I briefly considered giving it the drainpour treatment.
The liquors
The guy I spoke to at the Kaban booth proudly explained to me that Kaban's tequila was made from one hundred percent agave. The Kaban Flavour Infused Tequila brand comes in two varieties -- lime and tangerine flavours (and apparently tropical and natural, as well, but they weren't serving those).
I turned up my nose at the tangerine and instead settled for the more "natural tasting" lime. It was a good choice, and I'll look forward to buying a bottle when the tequila hits the LCBO in the summer. The tequila was incredibly smooth with just a hint of the lime "flavour infusion." In fact, the last time I tasted such a smooth tequila, I was on a bus trip with SOE that left from San Diego and toured around the Mexico/California border.
The meadery
Munro's Meadery was the best and worst part of the show for me. Munro's brought all six of their meads/melomels with them -- Dry Mead, Mead (semi-sweet), Sweet Mead, Raspberry Melomel, Blueberry Melomel and Cranberry Melomel. I sampled all six of them and fell in love with the Mead, Sweet Mead, Raspberry Melomel and Blueberry Melomel. I wasn't too fond of the Dry Mead, and I'm just not enough fan of cranberry to enjoy the Cranberry Melomel.
As I told the gent running the booth, he made my afternoon.
So how could a place like this also be the worst part of the show? Simple. No sales on site, and the place is located in Alvinston (down near Sarnia). I would have happily picked up a case's worth of mead and melomel, but the only way that's going to happen is take a trip down Sarnia way -- or to trust Canada Post not to break any bottles and get Munro's to ship some mead to me.
The verdict
Not much else to say. The Toronto Wine & Cheese Show isn't the cheapest way to spend a day ($18 admission and $1 tickets, with some samples costing several tickets -- thankfully, the mead samples were only one ticket apiece), but it is worth the trip.
For those who stick around for the evening, there is supposedly a lot more entertainment, but my goal was really to sample several different things and then get the hell out of there. Jacquie had a similar goal.
I look forward to next year.
// posted by Chris @ 8:47 AM 
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