Category: apluswines

Gourmet Food & Wine Expo 2011

Gourmet
Food & Wine Expo 2011
Go Local!

Each November I look forward to the Gourmet Food & Wine Expo. The Expo is a large showcase of everything food and drink.  I attended the opening VIP night on Thursday and then back on the most popular evening – Saturday. I really didn’t mind battling the crowds and endless choices of wine. It was all in the name of research right? It was fantastic to see many Ontario wineries featured this year.

Always a great time!

The annual Gourmet Food & Wine Expo is held in November at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, South Building. Each year the Expo offers 38,000 guests an unparalleled opportunity to sample over 1,500 fine wines, spirits and beers from around the globe.
www.foodandwineexpo.ca

Angela Aiello, Erika Neudorf &
Tran Bronstein – wine lovers!

The energy of the show was great! Everyone was in a good mood, relaxed and looking to have a great time. Don’t come to the event to save money. Splurge a little and indulge your taste buds. Give yourself a budget and stay within in…or around it. Samples are purchased with tickets. How many tickets something will cost will vary, depending on what exactly you’re trying. One sheet of 20 tickets will run you $20. The expo is a great way to sample a wide array of food and to tour the world of wine under one roof.  Sometimes you’ll be lucky and meet the actual people behind the wine from winemakers to the winery owners. There was a photo booth in the center of the pavilion that you could go in and take candid photos. That was a great idea…take some before and after shots. 😉

David Lawrason & Bryan McCaw
http://www.winealign.com

Another highlight of the event each year is the Tutored Tastings. These are 22 seminars during the course of the show. The seminars for this show included: Taste like a Pro Vitners’ Barrel Tasting, Blind Value, Awesome Argentina. Special guest speakers guide you through the tastings. Saturday evening is usually the night of the Gourmet Gala (extra cost):

The Gourmet Gala will give you the opportunity to taste gold medal sparkling wines and six exquisite courses of chefs’ finest creations, each paired with two top rated International wines. www.foodandwineexpo.ca

Other features of the event included:
Celebrity Chef Spotlight
Connoisseur’s Corner
Food Network Stage
Fine Wine Tasting Lounge
All You Need is Cheese stage

Tara and Nicholas Colaneri
www.colaneriwines.com

My highlights:
* Discovery Burning Kiln Winery www.burningkilnwinery.ca
* Wines of Georgia pavilion
* Talking with the Colaneri’s of Colaneri Estate Winery
* Discovering some gems at the Vintages booth
* Running into friends and just talking with people!

I learned so much about the wines of Georgia. It’s definitely on my list of places to visit. One of my favourite wines of the show was the Bagrationi 1882 Reserve Brut sparkling wine. Wow. I also enjoyed the various wines from Kindzmarauli Marani (Kindzmarauli Wine Cellar). I’m still practicing how to pronounce this. There are so many indigenous grape varieties in Georgia that I’ve never heard of! I urge you to look up the Georgian alphabet. I’m now fascinated with this country.

In Georgia’s most famous wine making region, Kakheti, there is a small place, Kindzmareuli, which the renowned Georgian wine derived its name from. Its situation at the foot of the Caucasian mountains, in the Alazani Valley… http://www.gwineimports.com


A good resource for Georgian wine: www.gwineimports.com

Wines of Georgia
More about Georgian wine
Jolene Aiello &
Erin Nicholson
Thanks for pouring Jo!
Wines of Georgia!

Dos and Don’ts:

* Do go out of your comfort zone: seek out new regions or unexplored grape varieties!
* Do buy more than 1 sheet of tickets at a time so you don’t have to wait in those long lines.
* Do purchase tickets to the show in advance. You can purchase tickets online!
* Do dress light. It gets quite warm with so many people in the pavilion.
* Do spit the wine: you’ll be able to try a lot more and maybe even remember what you’ve tried.
* Do drink plenty of water.
* Don’t drive!!
* Don’t wear parfume. It distracts from the wine aroma.
* Don’t come to the event looking to get your drink on. Everyone is always on pretty good behaviour but you do have the odd person that didn’t really monitor how much they were drinking. 
 * Try not to lose your tasting glass!

See you at the 2012 show!
For more information: www.foodandwineexpo.ca

Visit the Gourmet Food & Wine Expo on Facebook: www.facebook.com/gourmetfoodandwine

Follow the Gourmet Food & Wine Expo on Twitter: www.twitter.com/gfwe

http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=109615

Winefox goes Aussie…

Winefox

Last week I attended the Winefox Media Tasting featuring the wines of Australia. The event was held at the ever-so-fabulous Eight Wine Bar inside the Cosmopolitan Hotel. The goal of this tasting was to showcase Australian wine for good value. None of the wines were over $20. That sly fox! He’s a sleuth when it comes to finding that quality to price ratio.

The tasting book

This was probably the most casual media event I’ve been to in recent history. It was small and intimate. There were individual tasting stations for each of the 8 steps of the Winefox tasting chart. Along with various bottles at each station, there were also delicious food pairings to match. Yum! Good thing I skipped lunch that day (well, if you minus the Starbucks cheese plate I ate at my desk).

Cute tasting cards!

Check out the easy-to-follow Winefox tasting chart: www.winefox.ca/taste-chart

Eight Wine Bar

It was a pour-yourself style of tasting. I can’t say I’ve ever been to one of those before! What a great idea. You could just go from station to station, helping yourself to whatever you wanted to try.You could take your time trying each wine. I had to be more mindful to spit though. When it’s self-serve, one must always stay focused and in-control. I’m sure the fox agrees. 😉

Winefox.ca is a website dedicated to “taking wine from snobby to hobby”. It’s an approachable resource for those who are new to wine and for the seasoned experts. It has everything: an online magazine, store and community. It also contains interesting articles, wine reviews, videos and blogs. I like this site. It’s modern, easy and fun to use.

A kangaroo in the bar!

“Winefox is all about giving insight that will help you discover fabulous new wines and learn more about who and what makes wine so great.” –  www.winefox.ca

On the site, there are lots of videos, including the unique Winefox tasting chart: www.winefox.ca/tools-tips/wine-101

Following the WineFox tasting chart, here were my personal favourites:

Bubbly station

Bubbles
“Low temperatures and CO2 bubbles emphasize the brightness, making it oh so refreshing and fun.”

Jacob’s Creek Sparkling Chardonnay Pinot Noir NV $14.95

The Whites

Crisp Station

Crisp
“You know that juicy, fresh burst of flavour you get from biting into a green apple? That’s what these wines are like. Light, happy and refreshing.”


James Oatley Tic Tok 2009 Sauvignon Blanc $14.95

Loved the Pinot Gris
Mellow Station

Mellow
“Just like jazz baby, it’s smooth all the way. Medium-bodied, balanced soul. Blissed out and relaxed.”

Cooralook 2008 and 2010 Pinot Gris $15.95

Lush
“Rich, deep and full-bodied. Like a plush velour throw on a cool winter’s night. This wine comforts with joy.”

Xandu 2009 Next of Kin Chardonnay $14.95


The Reds

Vibrant Station

Vibrant
“It can be delicate. It can be powerful. It can be a symphony of delight for your palate. Vibrant wines sing with excitement.”

Lenswood Hills 2010 Pinot Noir $17.35

Smooth Station
Ok now that sounds funny

Smooth
“With sweet fruit and soft tannins, these wines are the smoothest of operators.”


Mitolo 2010 Junior Shiraz $16.20

Bold Station

Bold
“Intense and uncompromising. Strong tannins. Assertive flavours. A bully that will win you over in one sip”

Stone Dwellers 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon $19.95

Sweet Station

Sweet

“You taste the sun in every glass. Sweet rays and concentration give this wine a warm heart. A classic with dessert or as dessert – and who doesn’t love dessert?”


Matt Fowler’s wife designed this
label of the Shiraz
“Ladies Who Shoot Their Lunch”

I have to admit that I don’t drink a lot of Australian wine. Not that I don’t like it! I just find my wine rack stuffed with all sorts of bottles from Ontario, Germany, California and France. This is probably due to the fact that I’ve traveled extensively to these regions and visited many of their wineries (minus Germany). I remember talking to Erika Neudorf, who works for Wines of Australia telling her that I just need to really discover this vast wine producing country. When one thinks about Australia, they think Shiraz. Am I right? However, the more I attend tastings like this and the more research I do, I’m continuing to discover what wide-range of wines Australia has to offer the consumer.

“Australia has a diverse range of climates, from cool and crisp to warm and dry. This diversity ensures there will always be a great location for each grape variety to prosper. No matter what your taste or occasion, from white to red and sparkling to fortified” – www.apluswines.com

I made a small video at the event featuring Lindsay Gavey who is the brand manager at Winefox.ca as well as Matt Fowles, who represents Plunkett Fowles winery. Enjoy!

Love the swag!

At the end of the event, we each received a pretty cool bag with various items such as a bottle opener (always need those!), an apron and some learning materials on Australian wine…plus the bag itself which always comes in handy. Thanks!

For more information on Winefox.ca and Australian wine you can go to the links below. Both sites are well-developed and have a ton of information.

www.apluswines.com

Follow on Twitter:
@WinefoxCA
@apluswines

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