2012 Ottawa Wine and Food Show - Part 1

It was a smorgasbord of wine, beer, whisky and food at the 2012 Ottawa Wine and Food show held at the Ottawa Convention Centre and it was phenomenal once again. I was able to attend one of the wine tastings hosted by Rod Phillips called "Tasting in the Dark" which was both unique and informative.

I also had an opportunity to meet with whisky sommelier Davin de Kergommeaux who hosted a Canadian rye whisky tasting. Davin is a certified Malt Maniac, sommelier and Canadian whisky guru. Davin was doing a tasting featuring some of Gibson's finer rye whiskeys. I wasn't able to attend the tasting as it was sold out but I did chat with him (very briefly) about whisky and his new book Canadian Whisky: The Portable Expert

The "Tasting in the Dark" wine tasting was led by Rod Phillips who writes a wine column for the Ottawa Citizen. This was a fun tasting. The room had 60 plus people anxiously waiting for a unique wine tasting experience and they got it. Shortly after Rod's introduction, the lights were turned out and with a few whimpers from the people with Nyctophobia, the sommelier volunteers started serving the wine using night vision goggles. Yes that's right.. night vision goggles. There were a couple of "excuse me" and "sorry" as the volunteers got used to moving around the room using their new form of artificial sight but after 15 minutes with no glasses broken everyone had a glass of wine in hand. The first challenge was to figure out if you were drinking red or white wine. Once you reasoned that out, the next task was to identify the varietal which proved to be the interesting part as people started yelling out wines that in some cases were both red,  white and rose.
Out of the 4 wines served, the Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand and the French Beaujolais seemed to be the easy guesses as a lot of people were on the same track with those wines. The lights were eventually turned on and Rod revealed the answers to everyone. Like I said, a lot of fun.

 After the tasting I headed up to the main show floor to scout out some good wines. The Zinfandels from California (Ravenswood Old Vine, Gnarly Head and Fancis Ford Coppola) were all excellent as usual. Big and bold.

I did find a few of gems that I thought stood out on their own.

2011 Stanners Cabernet Franc. 100% Cabernet Franc barrel aged in French oak. The usual heavy herbecious aroma of green peppers was not as strong which made this wine more enjoyable. A good balance between fruit and acidity. Very pleasant. Sorry. I didn't get a chance to take a picture of the bottle but here's their website http://www.stannersvineyard.ca/

2011 Cono Sur Bicileta Pinot Noir was smooth, subtle and layered. A great sipping wine or it could be paired with pork tenderloin.

 2007 Ruffino Riserva Ducale "Oro" Chianti Classico was everything a Chianti should be. The barrel aged Sangiovese was smooth and elegant. Loved this wine










Cheers !