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A Survivor’s Guide to Upcoming Wine Events
May the tastings begin!

It’s that time of year when wine events, like early spring flowers, start popping up everywhere. Unfortunately, they don’t all come up smelling like roses. It starts with Canada’s biggest wine event, the Toronto Wine & Cheese Show taking place next weekend. This massive, commercial, hodgepodge has something for everyone with the proviso that it tends to be a bit of a minefield filled with all too many mediocre wines.

The antithesis is the Vancouver International Playhouse Wine Festival, which takes place March 15-21. Instead of focusing on the commercial stuff, the folks in Vancouver built a quality-based event for discerning consumers. Rather than permitting anyone to buy their way in, organizers forced prospective exhibitors to demonstrate that their wares were actually worth tasting – no Russian roulette here!

A real winemaker and/or principal must be in attendance and only 4 wines may be poured by the 166 participating wineries from 15 countries (each in an identical booth). The focus is strictly on the product and the result is a terrific show, which is now in its 26^th year and is consistently sold out with potential wineries lined up to get in. By making entry pricey, it keeps out casual drunks. Better yet, no tickets are required to taste the 650+ wines on show. In addition, there are 48 professional tasting seminars and special dinners/luncheons to quench the thirst of wine fans making it the best event of its kind in North America! For full details on this event click here.

Back in TO, some of the best tastings are specially focused events where you are able to taste wines, which have something in common for comparative purposes. These are often organized by wine clubs and/or commercial organizations, such as German Wine Information Bureau of Canada. The latter, for instance will be presenting the 14th Annual Taste of Germany on Tuesday, March 23^rd where over 100 wines will be presented at Roy Thomson Hall (North Lobby) from 6:30 to 9:00 pm. Tickets are $55 – call 905-815-1581. For a full list of wines being served click here.

Wine clubs also have interesting tastings for their members. The Winetasters Society of Toronto, for instance, is one of Canada’s best. It is holding a St-Julien vertical of the esteemed Chateau Ducru-Beaucaillou next Wednesday, March 10^th. Unfortunately, serving old wines (1967. 1978. 1981. 1982, 1983, 1990 and 1997) is not without its perils. In this case, the wines are poured through coffee filters into decanters and then pre-poured for some 100+ attendees. The problem is that this extended extreme aeration may well cause the wines to collapse robbing tasters of the joys of freshly-opened, carefully decanted bottles. For information call 416-690-0281 ($73 for non-members).

Other clubs include: the Australian Wine Society - Cabernet Sauvignon tasting on March 30 (416-323-1155); Ontario Wine Society – a double vertical of 1998-2001 Hillebrand’s Truis Red and Chardonnay Lakeshore on March 23 (call Bob Moore at 416-964-3341); and the Society for American Wines (416-323-1155), Toronto Vintners Club (416-209-1442) and Spanish Wine Society (416-927-9464) with nothing yet scheduled. Updated event details will be posted on my website as they become available. To go to tastersdiary.com click here.

The next big wine event is the 2004 Oregon Wine Festival, which takes place happens on Wednesday, March 31st at St Lawrence Hall from 7:00 to 9:30 pm with some 14 wineries featuring some five dozen wines.

Tickets are $50 for guests ($45 for wine club members) call 416-410-4630. The list of wineries attending and wines being served will be posted on our website shortly.

After that, more than 100 wineries will be converging on the 24th annual California Wine Fair on Tuesday, April 6 at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel from 7:00 to 9:30 pm. Tickets are $55 per person, call 1-800-558-3675. The list of wineries attending and wines being served will be posted on our tastersdiary.com website shortly.

Finally, adding to last week’s scoop on today’s Vintages release, here is one of the best buys to pass these lips: Penfolds 2001 Bin 2 Shiraz Mourvèdre (468629) at $18.95. Sourced from a number of vineyards in South Eastern Australia, this 60-40 blend has a deep intense red colour and an alluring, spicy, ripe plum purée nose. On the palate it is juicy, well balanced and yet dry with ripe cherry-blackberry flavours followed up by a hint of slightly smoky, ripe strawberry on the lingering finish. While great today, it is made to last another year or two and fortunately the LCBO acquired 500 cases of this winner.

2001-2002-2003-2004 Tasting Note Database

Our tasting note database from December 31, 2000 to March 2004, covers every Vintages release product for the past 39 months. There are more than 6,000 notes in the database data. Just enter the name of the product, supplier name or CSPC number. Or you can search by type of wine, country of origin, even wine agent! Nothing could be easier. Also you can get information on the agent by clicking on the agent’s name, as well as current LCBO store inventory by clicking on "Check LCBO Availability", which will automatically tell you the number of bottles at LCBO as of last night.

To use our winefind.ca Tasting Notes Database: click here

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