Taste of Ontario (2024)

On April 15, at the Park Hyatt hotel, in Toronto's posh Yorkville neighborhood, we enjoyed an afternoon of tasting wines local to the province of Ontario as well as accompanying hors d'oeuvres. 


As the tasting started at noon, we first had the delicious hors d'oeuvres, designed to pair well with some of the more usual wine varietals on the white side.


We began our tasting at Drea's vineyards' stand. This winery is owned by the daughter of the founder of the now famous Inniskillin winery. We first tried the Blanc de Blancs, a dry, fresh bubbly, 18 months on lees of which only 30 cases were made. We also sampled the Rosato (not pictured) ranked among the top 30 roses in Canada. It has great acidity and made its entrance at LCBO during the week of April 22.


We proceeded to Icellars Estate Winery where we tasted the 2019 Sauvignon Blanc that opens up with delicate acidity and floral notes.

At Lighthall Winery, hailing from the south shore of Prince Edward County, we tried first the Cab Franc, first aged in concrete then in oak with 20% being new French oak. It's a wine with nice, earthy aroma and good tannins. We then sampled their Pinot Noir, exhibiting lower acidity and tannins than the Cab Franc.

We moved on, to Broken Stone Winery, another Prince Edward County winery, where we tried their bubbly, a blend of Chard, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. It's sweet and floral, with biscuit notes. We then tasted their rose, which has not yet been labelled for LCBO, a blend of Gamay and Riesling with 8g of sugar per liter. 

Arriving at the Grange of Price Edward winery (not pictured) we tried the La Fontaine bubbly, a blend of Pinot Noir and Chard with sweet, floral, with smooth bubbles.

Equally not pictured is the Chard from Cloudsley Cellars, within the Bench appellation, retailing for $20.95 at the licensee level. It is a smooth, interesting wine with some metallic notes. 

We then got to Meldville Vineyards, a virtual winery, where we sampled the Cab Franc Rose, a floral, mid-sugary wine.

At the Vivace Estate Winery, formerly Di Angelo Wines, on Lake Erie's north shore, we tried their Sauvignon Blanc (that contains 3.3% Malbec), a wine with lots of strawberry notes.


The final stand we visited was that of 180 Estate Winery, on 10 acres within the Bench appellation. We first tried their Gamay Noir, aged in bourbon barrels, having a deep, smooth taste. We concluded with the Cab Sauvignon , a medium acidity wine, perfect with meats.













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