Taste Ontario Features Great Wines: Thirty Bench, East Dell

By Kristy Gardner

Out of all the fantastic wines at Taste Ontario this year, the biggest highlight for me is the vintages of Thirty Bench wines. The staff are friendly, ready to talk shop and most importantly, excited to have us taste their wines.

While their 2011 Small lot Chardonnay is surprisingly fresh and fruit forward with notes of lemon and spice, and the 2011 Winemaker’s Red – a blend of cab sauv, cab merlot and cab franc – is well balanced, juicy, bold and smooth, it’s their 2006 Small Lot Wood Post Riesling that really impresses me.

This isn’t your ordinary Riesling. A large degree of minerality greets my nose while the round mouth feel seduces my taste buds with off-dry notes of citrus, stone fruit and a clean, acidic finish.

While staying true to the classic qualities of Riesling, the 2006 Small Lot Wood Post Riesling is a refreshing spin on this grape varietal. I could drink barrels of the stuff.

Ontario Wine Tasting Room at the Royal Ontario Museum

By Faith McGill

This rainy and chilly thanksgiving along with the turkey and trimmings, we will be enjoying East Dell black label chardonnay. I first had the opportunity to sample this wine at this year’s Taste Ontario event at the R.O.M and I was very pleased as an avid lover of Chardonnays.

The crisp taste of apple reminiscent of fall with toasty accents function as a palette cleanser while enhancing the flavours present in traditional thanksgiving dishes.

Pairing with traditional turkey, potatoes, fall vegetables and gravy blends beautifully with the wine’s mild oak and subtle spices.

The wine’s flavours also marvelously compliment desserts like pumpkin and apple pie that are likely on your table so head out to the LCBO and grab a bottle of this perfect addition to your holiday table, among other Ontario wines.

By Pat Anderson

I was impressed by the Union Forte. The last time I had an Ontario fortified wine was probably while at university. It left a lasting impression!

I also tried A Foreign Affair’s White Ripasso Reisling for the first time. Very interesting! I want to put it in the same category as sauternes and vino santo, something as a dessert wine.

I’ll bet it would be killer with biscotti. It was definitely great with blue cheese and nuts. Daniel & Daniel took care of the food at the event – they were brilliant at refreshing the cheese & meat & nut trays.

You can read about the Taste Ontario Wine event in Ottawa here.