| Past Events |
| Ontario Wine Society Wine & Cheese Tasting |
| Tuesday, March 14, 2006 marked the first time the Toronto chapter of the Ontario Wine Society has held an educational wine and cheese tasting in its 15 year history. While organizing this event, we knew we needed to find not only fabulous wines but an amazing speaker that could easily discuss the re-emerging artisanal cheese industry. During our search, one name kept popping up - Kathy Guidi. Kathy Guidi is founder and president of Artisan Cheese Marketing, a unique cheese public relations and education company. Her latest initiative, the "Cheese Education Guild" is the first in-depth, certificate cheese program in Canada. A series of three Cheese Appreciation coruses allow students to explore and compare cheeses over a 24 week period so that they can communicate the artistry in a truly great cheese. On this particular evening we compared five cheeses with eight Ontario wines. The cheeses, graciously supplied by WinerytoHome.com (from its Wine of the Month Club selections), Upper Canada Cheese Company and Balderson Cheese, were: Caerphilly (from C'Estbon in St. Mary's, ON) Corvo (from Portuguese Cheese Co. in Toronto, ON) Niagara Gold (from Upper Canada Cheese Co. in Jordan Station, ON) Toscano (from Monforte Dairy Co. in Millbank, ON) Balderson 5 Year Old Cheddar (from Parmalat in Balderson, ON) The equally impressive selection of wines for the evening were: Willow Springs Winery 2004 Testa Limited Reserve Pinot Grigio Pillitteri Estates Winery 2004 Unoaked Chardonnay Hernder Estate Wines 2004 Autumn Collection Chardonnay Joseph's Estate Wines 2001 Off Dry Gewurztraminer Pillitteri Estates Winery 2002 Cabernet Franc Willow Springs Winery 2004 Baco Cab Franc Huff Estates 2004 South Bay Willow Springs Winery 2004 Vidal Icewine Kathy educated us nicely on how to properly taste cheese. Just like there is a specific way to taste wine for evaluation purposes, so is there for cheeses - your teeth don't have any taste buds. By tasting cheeses in this manner your mouth can more accurately pick up on the textures and tastes that each cheese imparts. As a result you can develop an appreciation for the processes and complexities in developing a truly great cheese. I could still taste the Caerphilly, the first cheese we tasted that evening, hours after the event was finished. To make the evening complete, we were joined by Julie & Mario Testa, Grant McLeod and Tanis Hargrave of Willow Springs Winery as well as Sue Ann Staff, winemaker at Pillitteri Estates Winery. Sue Ann and Grant intersperced Kathy's teachings on cheese with information about the wines we were tasting. Sue Ann did an excellent job talking about the three wines from Hernder Estate Wines, Joseph's Estate Wines and Huff Estates, who, sadly, could not make it to the tasting due to their busy schedules. One special treat to end off the evening was a door prize, graciously provided by Balderson Cheese of tickets to the Toronto Wine and Cheese Show being held March 24-26, 2006 at the International Centre. So the next time you are sitting at home trying to decide what food to put with the bottle of wine sitting in your fridge, think about having a cheese plate. If you are interested in learning more about cheee, check out Kathy's website for information on her amazing courses. Doug Towers of WineryToHome.com reported that they would shortly be offering many of their Wine of the Month Club selections (check out reviews) directly for sale. If you are interested in seeing soem of the pictures from the evening, check out pages nine, ten and eleven on my pictures page. |