Taste Ontario Toronto 2019 Showcases the Finest Ontario Wines

Taste Ontario Toronto 2019 was held at the Royal Ontario Museum, and it hosted over 40 Ontario VQA wineries. The wineries represented the areas of Niagara Escarpment Twenty Valley, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Prince Edward County and Lake Erie North Shore. Ontario wines have the benefit of ripening and becoming flavourful slowly, leading to a good mix of complexity and balance of tartness and sweetness.

Daniel Speck at Taste Ontario Toronto 2019

Taste Ontario Toronto 2019

Taste Ontario Toronto 2019 wines

These wines also have a higher acidity, which results in a delicious crispness to them.
Each region has its own unique terroir which makes for subtle differences in the wines. So it was an excellent opportunity to experience wines from all these areas of Ontario at one time.

The varieties of wines available to sample at Taste Ontario were Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, Pinot Grigio, Gewurztraminer, Cabernet Franc, Pinot Noir, Cabernet Merlot, Baco Noir, Syrah, Gamay, Rose, Sparkling and Ice Wines.

It was so hard to decide what we liked best since there so so many choices. It was also a great learning experience talking to the various winemakers. Daniel Speck, of the family-owned Henry of Pelham Winery, offered us their Cuvee Catharine Estate Blanc du Blanc Carte Blanche 2013 and it was quite enjoyable.

Sandbanks Winery’s Reisling 2017 had a mix of fruitiness and floral. Cloudsley Cellar’s Pino Noir 2016 was quite beautiful as well.

There was a delicious spread of cheeses, charctuerie and breads which all went well with the wines.

VQA wineries live up to the standards of using 100% Ontario grapes in their wines and full transparency in their label claims of origin, grape variety content, vintage and accuracy of alcohol content. Buying VQA wines supports all of these outstanding Ontario wineries.