The Oregon and Washington State Wine Expedition (Toronto) 2023

On June 12, on a very rainy day, calling for some deep, warming reds, we attended the Oregon and Washington State Wine Expedition at the Globe and Mail Centre in Toronto. The venue was luminous and inviting with the booths well spaced around, inviting tasting and conversation. 

We started the tasting with the Pinot Noirs from Solena Estate, 2 excellent wines with deep, earthy notes, perfect with steak on cooler days. 

Next we moved on to Westmount from which we tasted the Pinot Gris, full of floral, citrus notes that would go very well with fish. 

The Chardonnay from Domaine Drouhin in Oregon is a lighter wine to be sipped on a patio on a warm, summer day.

From Terra Blanca, we tasted the Syrah, a full bodied, balanced wine.


The Riesling from Charles Smith wine has floral notes, while their Velvet Devil Merlot is a surprisingly light wine, good for sipping on its own.


Long Shadows Vintners in Columbia Valley presented Poet's Leap, a solid, German-style Riesling and they also have Pirouette, a full-bodied red blend. We also found interesting to discover Pedestal, a Merlot/Malbec blend.


At Lost Peak we tried the Cabernet Sauvignon, full of tannins that would go well with steak.


We found the wines at Airfield Estate to be very interesting since the aging in concrete offers them a clean, crisp taste. We tasted their Chardonnay and the Sauvignon Blanc, both light with floral notes. More of their wines will be at LCBO starting on November 2.

We took a break in order to dive in the cheese, meat and garnishing platters that paired so well with some of the wines. This restored us to full energy and rendered us ready for more tasting.

We then hit the Elk Cove booth. Elk Cove has been family-owned since the 1970s. We tried the Pinot Gris, a wine full of floral notes. 

We then proceeded to Troon Vineyard, where we tasted the Amphora Amber, a great biodynamic wine having a pleasant underlying tea taste.


At SMAK wines, we chatted with owner about the very unusual Syrah Rose wine, full of cherry and orange notes. We also tried the white! Sangiovese wine having pleasant aromas of grapefruit, pine and kiwi. We completed our tasting with the Bubbly Syrah Blend mixing orange and hibiscus flavors. The blend is 60% chardonnay, 40% syrah, 2 years on lees with a dry finish.


At Treveri, an Italian gentleman walked us through the wines, which are exclusively bubblies. We started with Blanc De Blancs Brut, a zero dosage, dry wine. It really is a palate cleanser and would go great with oysters or ceviche. The Blanc De Noirs is 100% Pinot Noir with 8g of sugar, fruity and mineral. The second Blanc De Blancs has 12g of sugar. The Rose is full of orange notes.


A surprise awaited us at the Valley View Winery stand, in the shape of a wonderful Tempranillo, not a wine one would expect to hail from Oregon. A wine with nice acidity, not too much over the top. We also sampled their Chardonnay, fermented 11 months in French oak.


We moved on to Stoller Family Estate, for a nice, summery Pinot Noir Rose with full, balanced acidity that can be found at LCBO for $27.95.

At the Foolhardy Vintners, representing Halpern Wines, hailing from Walla Walla, close to the largest collection of dead lakes in the world, we were very surprised to encounter a Malbec varietal, with blueberry notes and nice acidity.

Then, we arrived at the Ste. Michelle Wine Estates, perhaps West Coast's most famous winery outside of California. There, we sampled the Red Blend, which at 49% Malbec, is our favorite wine of the whole wine expedition. 

At A to Z we tried the bubbly, a Chard / Pinot Noir blend, fruity and sweet.


At the same stand, we sampled the Rex Hill Chard 2019, having a clean, dry taste. 


Moving on, we reached Foris where we tasted a nice Risling with light minerality, low sugar and a lot of crispiness.


At DeLille Cellars, we encountered Chaleur Blanc, a full bodied white that went through secondary fermentation. 


At Evolution we tried the Big Red, a most unusual combination of grapes (Sangiovese, Montepulciano) for a Northwestern wine.


L'Ecole No. 41, is a winery existing since 1979, located in a historic school building. We tried both the Cab Sauvignon, having a full-bodied, deep taste and the Chenin Blanc, a refreshing wine with deep floral notes.


We closed our tasting with another usual varietal for this geography, namely an Albarino from Idilico in the Yakima Valley. This was by far the best white wine of the tasting.















 













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