wine filled weekend of Cuvee and the Experts Tasting, but wow what a weekend I had! It began with an evening at Cuvee 2009. Cuvee is an annual awards and gala celebration that is also known as "The Oscars of the Ontario Wine Industry". Friday night was the Gala at the Fallsview Casino Resort and Hotel. This year was the 21st Annual celebration presented by the Niagara Community Foundation. Cuvee is also celebrated at the wineries and by visitors during the weekend with Cuvee en Route, where you can visit all the winning and participating wineries and try some great VQA wines.Cuvee is a very special event and competition in Ontario. Many other competitions are based around wine judges/writers/sommeliers grading the wines blind and then the awards being distributed based on the results of the judges. What makes Cuvee so unique is the fact that the panel of judges for the awards are the winemakers themselves. So as you can imagine, all the winemakers were present at the Cuvee Gala that evening.
I, myself don't attend too many Gala's and in fact don't really have too many occasions to get al
l dressed up, so when the Wine Council of Ontario Invited Pax and I, we were excited to be part of the evening and I was excited to find something to wear (special thanks goes to good friends, who lend out their fabulous dresses!). I love being able to try many different wines and mix and mingle with my favourite winemakers and other local wine supporters. I showed up around 5:30 for the VIP tasting before the Awards Ceremony taste some of my favourite VQA Wines from Ontario (and we all know that I love Ontario!). At 6:30 the awards Ceremony started and Pax and I sat second row, (I like to call us wine keeners, who like to sit front row). There were many awards given out, with some of my favourites taking home Golds including (but not limited to):Tawse 2006 Meritage - Meritage Winner
Deans List 2007 Pinot Noir - Pinot Noir Winner
Creekside 2006 Broken Press Shiraz - Syrah/Shiraz Winner
Peninsula Ridge Sauvignon Blanc 2007 wismer vineyards - Sauvignon Blanc Winner
Wayne Gretzky 2006 Shiraz/Cabernet - Red Assemblage
Peller Estates Signature Series 2007 Sur Lie Chardonnay - Chardonnay Winner
Trius 2007 White - White Assemblage
Although I have to admit, there were many great 2nd place winners and lots of great wine that was entered into the competition, I can imagine how hard the judging for this event would be.
So after the awards ceremony everyone went back to tasting all the winners and enjoying a fabulous Friday evening at Casino Niagara tasting more wines and socializing with everyone else you bump into.Speaking of bumping into people and Oscars, I have a true one of a kind story to tell about the evening! Last week I received an email from a Rick Schofield from New York who mentioned to me that he appreciated what iYellow was doing here in Ontario and was hoping I would be at Cuvee (which I was). When I met Rick on Friday evening he had brought me quite the gift. Rick awarded me with an "Oscar" for the Best Canadian Wine Personality. I was in shock and awe, and was very surprised. Above is a picture with both Rick and I. I can only hope I have the ability and support of the industry to earn this great title.
Rick also gave to Pax a bottle of 1993 Cakebread Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa Valley (ironically one of the wineries we visited while in California - Pax and I both got to sit right next to Dennis Cakebread at our VIP Dinner too!)
The evening was absolutely outstanding and very memorable. I can't wait for the 2009 Ontario Wine Awards to see everyone and give my congratulations to all the great people who have dedicated their time, energy and lives to making Ontario a world class wine region once again.
Saturday morning I woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed after going out for a girlfriends
birthday after Cuvee, and attended the Experts Tasting at Brock University. I tried 5 flights of sparkling wines all blind, with a big challenge at the end of the tasting. It was very cool to be able to try 25 sparkling wines totally blind and try to figure out which wines they were, and where they were from. I sat at a table with a Sommelier from St.Catharines as well as some of the folks from VQAONTARIO.ca and I think that overall I definitely pulled my weight in the wine challenge! The 4 of us at our table all made a great team (even though our score didn't quite show it!).Below is a video from the Cuvee evening that Pax taped when Rick gave me the "Oscar". Sorry it may be a bit hard to see, it was fairly dark in the reception room - but it definitely has the "off the cuff" and in the moment type of feel to it!
Cheers to Cuvee, Wine and a great weekend!
Ange
