April, 2004- Nr. 4
Toronto Wine and Cheese Show 2004
This annual, extravagant Exhibition had another successful run at the International Centre in Malton. This year it opened without great fanfare but Hazel McCallion, Mississauga’s intrepid mayor, paid a visit to the show anyway and was jubilantly received by many of the vendors and visitors who knew her.
The title of the show is a bit misleading since it is not only a wine exhibition with the traditional introduction and tastings of the latest vintages by the visiting public, but a great deal of emphasis is focused on food. Especially gourmet food and condiments that include salad dressings, chutneys, spicy and hot sauces, jellies and marmalades, truffles, fudges, chocolates, caviar, sushi, seafood – like the wonderful clam chowder at Captain John’s booth – oysters, pâtés, breads and baked goods in great varieties plus much more to delight the palates of the gourmets and gourmands among the (sophisticated) visitors.
For those visitors to whom cooking is a serious affair, demonstrations and seminars were available at the demo kitchen area, where you could see how the other half "lives (and cooks)" plus attend all the educational seminars that explained wines and beers, what they go with and how to use them in your own kitchen to create truly outstanding and remarkable meals.
Of
course there was also cheese at the show and one of the more prominent
exhibits was the large booth of the "Cheese Boutique" from Toronto. It
offered roast beef but also a variety of cheeses for tasting.
The
friendly and knowledgeable staff really took great efforts to educate the
interested public about the many cheeses from around the world that are
available at the store on Ripley Avenue.
Of course there were wines – most of them available for tasting – from around the world. Napa Valley, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Austria, Hungary, South Africa, chile, Spain and more.
Our
Ontario wines were a feature attraction again. Reif Estate Winery won a Gold
medal for the 2002 Icewine, a Silver medal for the 2000 Vidal Icewine, 2001
Vidal Select Late Harvest and the 2002 Cabernet and a Bronze medal for the
1999 Chardonnay Reserve.
Konzelmann
Estate also did very well in the "Best Value Sweet Wine category with the
2001 Riesling Late Harvest (Gold medal), Silver for the 2002 Riesling and
Bronze for the 2002 Cabernet Sauvignon Icewines and the 2001 Gewürztraminer
Late Harvest (Spätlese)
Downey’s Estate Winery took home a Silver medal for the new 2003 Framboise Fruit wine.
For
beer aficionados the show also offered a great variety of beers – even a
"Düsseldorf Altbier" by the Magnotta Brewery. Noticeable in the Imports
category was the Gold medal won by Beck’s beer from Germany. Labatts is
bringing it in as well as Löwenbräu and Stella Artois (Silver medal). On the
home front we should mention the Northern German Pilsner (Bronze medal) that
is brewed by the Steam Whistle Brewery in the old roundhouse at Toronto’s
Lakeshore.
But of course it is impossible to list everyone here. There was just too much to see. Put it on your calendar for next year. Old Russian proverb: If you drink a glass of wine after your soup, you steal a Ruble from the doctor (or should that now be a Euro?). And why only one glass? r.k.a.
