The Toronto Wine Tasting Challenge has quickly become the largest wine competition in North America. It is an exciting event for wine professionals, students and enthusiasts. I always enter for fun! It is a great excuse for a trip into the city and a day off work. The last competition was held at The Four Seasons Hotel Toronto in November, 2007. The competition is limited to 250 participants. The wines and spirits were served to us on a silver tray. In under an hour I was challenged to determine the grape variety or source, country and region of origin and vintage of ten wines and three spirits. To me, the challenge is a fun game of detective work to pick up on sensory clues to match with the wine information I have learned over the years. I never enter to win, but to add to my tasting education. I felt really confident and happy about my answers in the competition. A reception was held after the challenge. It is a chance to catch up with friends and rub shoulders with the professionals, as well as enjoying the lunch buffet and wine bar!Just before the Christmas holidays I received a phone call from Brock University, the organizing sponsor of the Tasting Challenge. I could only think of one reason why they would be calling me. I won the spirits portion of the Challenge! The three spirits that I identified were; gin, Armagnac and a single malt whisky. An awards reception was scheduled for January, 2008 at which time the prizes would be announced and the winner’s names published in Toronto Life Magazine. I had to keep quiet until then. It was very difficult!
I returned to class at Niagara College after the Christmas holidays. In the first sensory class my teacher David Hulley, a host of the Tasting Challenge, spilled the beans and told the class that I had won the spirits competition and my grand prize was a trip to Scotland. It was an exciting moment!
The awards reception was hel
d at Via Allegro Restorante in Toronto on January 25th, Robbie Burns Day. We were greeted with a glass of 18 year old Talisker. All the winners sat together at the front table. CBC was filming the lunch. I felt like a superstar! Duo wine pairings were poured with each of the six courses! Between the courses, speeches and awards were presented. When it was my turn, I received five sets of Spiegeleau stem ware, $200 towards my wine education, an evening with food and wine critic James Chatto and the distillery trip to Scotland.Winning was great not just because of the prizes, but the sense of accomplishment from my studies and a boost of confidence and reassurance that I am passionate and knowledgeable. What a rush! More blog entries are sure to follow on the experience of Scotland and reviewing a hot Toronto restaurant with James Chatto.
Cheers!
http://www.winetastingchallenge.com/
