So today (well Yesterday actually) I flew into Ottawa to attend The Canada Dance Festival "Fine Wine Evening" at the Hampton Inn. We flew into Ottawa via Porter and wow what an experience. I am sure many of you have flown using Porter, but if you haven't it is a must! The service was so much better than the Toronto Airport and it was so much closer andconvienient to get to, especially to be on an 8:30am flight out of the city! Not to mention the food was palatable and organic! And to boot the flight was super cheap! $69 bucks one way... who would want to fly any other way. I am now a total Porter Girl.A
fter arriving into a very windy city - with a full stomach at 10am thanks to Porter Airlines- We met our driver (yes I had a driver - it was pretty cool and he even met me with a sign that said "Aiello") and checked into the hotel. After finally putting the finishing touches on my speech (which I had been writing for the last 3 days). We took off to enjoy the City like true tourists!We stopped at Rideau Mall and did a bit of shopping and had a great handmade lunch at RichTree (aka Marche), and a great 1/2 litre of chilean cab sauv to match with our pizza and pasta cuisine. Then we were able to walk and visit Parliament Hill. The wind was so crazy and it was pretty chilly - actually quite cold, but the city was still bustling with people. We went up the Peace Tower and got a panoramic view of Ottawa and then went to visit the Memorial Room and learned about how each of the books in the Memorial Room received a daily page flip to showcase and remember every single one of the fallen Canadian soldiers. I even got to see the Prime Minister debate and battle the liberals over the recent budget and job creation promises in the House of Commons in the Public Gallery during the question period. We then headed back to the hotel to prep for the evening festivities.
The reason I was brought to Ottawa was to speak at the 2nd annual "The Fine Wine Evening" put on by the Canada Dance Festival. The night included a silent followed by a live auction, with real auctioneers, to auction off many worthy wines that were donated for the cause. Most of the
wines (in both the live and silent auction) were from France (Bordeaux seemed to be the most popular), however, there were some great German Rieslings, Italian Amorone, and a bit of Canadian wine in the selection as well (Henry of Pelham, Pilliterri, and Niagara College Teaching Winery). We fell in love with Lot A in the silent auction which included some true vintage Amarone (1975), 2 Brunellos and a Cab Sauv. We bid on the lot (a few times), and went through a bit of competitive bidding in the end, but thankfully we ended up winning the auction! woohooo! So now have some great Italian wine to bust out on a great occasion! All the silent auction wines as well as the live auction wines were donated by wine collectors to support the event, which was a fundraiser for the Canada Dance Festival.
I was the guest speaker of the evening and spoke right before the live auction about "Wine Appreciation" and after my speech they started the live auction. They auctioned off over 170 lots of wine and watching a live auction was great the experience. There were some people who were gobbling up the wine and spending a lot of money - wine collection is quite an expensive hobby! There was one bottle that was valued at over 20 thousand dollars and sold for around $2500! It was great listening to the auctioneers and bidding on a few things, but we walked out with our Italian wine and left the live auction to the pros!The evening and the event was a great success- congratulations to the Canada Dance Festival and to Mikhela for putting on such a well planned event! Being in Ottawa (or Otown - as some call it) was also a wonderful experience and I can't wait to come back again soon!
And now onto the next part of the trip - Quebec City. The sun is shining this morning and there is an ideal amount of snow on the ground - perfect for some awesome pictures! I am being whisked down to Quebec City on the VIA (first class) to experience the Quebec City Wine Festival and spend some time at the Chateau Frontenac - which I am very excited to be staying at! I also have a Wayne Gretzky Charity Dinner tonight to attend - So stay tuned for more postings on my VIA Experience and The Quebec City Wine Festival!
Cheers,
Ange
