As my last post mentioned, one of the big Ontario wine events is heading to the capital on February 11th and I’m giving away a pair of tickets. Check out the bottom of this post for details on how to enter.
LCBO Vintages and the Ontario Wine Council partner up for this grand Winterlude event hosted in the National Gallery of Canada a week from this Monday. 32 wineries are represented – a large number of Niagara area wineries with good representation from Prince Edward County (PEC) and Pelee Island Winery being the sole representative from the EPIC (formerly LENS) region of Ontario. This event is a large one for the wineries as it is also combined with a trade session in the afternoon where they get to show off their wines for area restaurants, which is a large source of revenue for most wineries. Due to the importance of the event, it is not uncommon for the winemakers and/or owners of the wineries to show up, making this a great opportunity for you to talk to the people making the wines and learn so much more about what goes in your glass.
A big focus for this year’s event is to show that Icewine isn’t just for gift-giving. To support this idea, there will be a large decorated area (with Ice of course) and food pairings to match the themes of “ICE + Sweet”, “ICE + Spicy”, and “ICE + Sassy”. “ICE + Sassy” will feature an Icewine Cocktail ad “ICE + Sparkly” will showcase a sparkling Icewine that sounds really interesting.
As I mentioned in the previous post, the format for this event is “Walk-around Tasting” which means that each winery has an easily-identified station (in the past they were colour coded to the appellation within Ontario, so likely again this year). There’s a great lineup of food in the back alley – not so much that you want to skip dinner but delicious to try with the wines.
Details of the Event:
Taste Ontario! Ottawa
Walk-around Tasting
Monday, February 11, 2013, 6:30pm—9:00pm
National Gallery of Canada, 380 Sussex Drive, Ottawa
$65 per person
Tickets available to purchase here:
www.vintages.com/tasteontario
Wineries Attending:
13th Street Winery, Calamus Estate Winery, Cave Spring Cellars, Closson Chase Vineyards, Coyote Run Estate Winery, Creekside Estate Winery, Featherstone Estate Winery, Fielding Estate Winery, Flat Rock Cellars, Henry of Pelham Family Estate, Hidden Bench Vineyards & Winery, Huff Estates Winery, Inniskillin Wines, Jackson-Triggs Niagara Estate Winery, John Howard Cellars of Distinction, Kacaba Vineyards, Keint-He Winery & Vineyards, Malivoire Wine Company, Norman Hardie Winery & Vineyard, Palatine Hills Estate Winery, Pelee Island Winery, Peller Estates Winery, Peninsula Ridge Estates Winery, Pillitteri Estates Winery, Pondview Estate Winery, Rosehall Run Vineyards, Sandbanks Estate Winery, Stratus Vineyards, Tawse Winery, The Foreign Affair Winery, The Grange of Prince Edward Vineyards & Estate Winery, Vineland Estates Winery.
*the wineries with underlining are ones I have yet to visit. Of the ones visited, many are captured in posts on this site. For a complete list of the wines being served, see www.vintages.com/tasteontario
How To Win Tickets!
So you’ve read this far…to enter to win tickets, I’ve tried to make it easy. You can enter up two ways until 8PM Friday February 8th (maximum two entries per person). Name will be randomly drawn later that day.
1) Follow (or be following) @UncorkOntario on Twitter and tweet the following (exactly as typed): “I just entered to win tickets to Ottawa’s #TasteOntario event Feb 11th from @UncorkOntario & @WineCountryOnt http://uncorkontario.com/?p=2038”
And/or
2) Like UncorkOntario on Facebook here and share the post here:
That’s a fantastic list. I’d add The Foreign Affair, Vineland and Tawse to my “must see” list. And maybe Keint-He for their interesting Pinot Meunier – everyone deserves a second chance. 🙂
Wish I could be there ..
P.S. surprised that Colaneri (sp?) is not on the list.