The Toronto Wine Scene

Happy 5th Birthday to WineOnline.ca

Congrats to WineOnline.ca! WineOnline has offered some of my favourite wines including Domaine Pegau and Radio Couteau.

http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/June2009/01/c9295.html

Canadian Online Wine Company Celebrates Five Successful Years With Launch Into Alberta

TORONTO, June 1 /CNW/ - Five years ago WineOnline.ca launched its website with the goal of making high quality and high value wines more accessible to wine lovers. Launched in Ontario in 2004 with just a few excellent wines (13 to be exact), the pioneering online wine company WineOnline.ca now offers an unrivalled and exclusive portfolio of over 300 wines from international and local producers with delivery across the three provinces of Ontario, Nova Scotia and Alberta.

Vintages Classics Collection - May 2009

Vintages has mailed out and posted online the Classics catalogue for May.

I've passed on the last couple of Classics releases but this one might tempt me.

There are some interesting Burgundy's from 2006 (a nice, very forward vintage) and some blockbuster wines from Chateauneuf-du-pape.

Of course a Classics release wouldn't be the same without over priced Bordeaux :)

Order deadline for the lottery is: 5:00pm, Tuesday, May 26, 2009

New Zealand Wine Fair

I just received my notice about the 2009 edition of the New Zealand Wine Fairs taking place in Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver this year (and according to the website Edmonton & Montreal).

The fair last year was excellent. I was impressed both the the number of high calibre wines that were poured as well as the variety of styles and wines from New Zealand. From a world class Gewurztraminer to some excellent Pinots and Chardonnays all the way to some delicious bordeaux-styled and syrah-based offerings, NZ is an exciting wine region.

The detailed winery listing isn't posted, but here are the event details for Toronto:

Toronto New Zealand Wine Fair
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Design Exchange
234 Bay Street, Toronto

Trade Fair: 2:30pm - 5:30pm
Public Fair: 7:00pm - 9:30pm

Ticket price: $60

http://www.nzwine-events.ca/

Vintages Event: Meet Burgundy's Top Negociants

Vintages is hosting what looks like a decent tasting event featuring some of the larger, big name producers from Burgundy.  83 wines are being poured largely from the 2006 and 2007 vintages. It should be interesting to see if the 2006 vintage offers the “charm” that many reviewers suggest it does.

Event Details Here

Anyone planning on attending?

February 2009 Classics

Vintages has posted the February 2009 Classics Catalogue here.

I haven't gone through in detail yet. Any offers catch your attention?

VINTAGES Exclusives - 300 customers and counting!

A press release was issued discussing the newish VINTAGES Online Exclusives site today.

(UPDATE: While the release appears to be from the LCBO as I previously suggested, it was issued by QLogitek, the company that collaborated with the LCBO on the site).

There's one tidbit that caught my attention.

Launched in October, the site has more than 300 registered customers and sold more than $100,000.00 of products on its first day of operation.

While selling $100K in the first day is reasonably impressive, 300 total registered customers is a very small number for a province the size of Ontario.

Here's the full press release after the break…

Niagara Icewine Festival

Looks like Niagara is planning a great week-long party to celebrate Icewine. Here's press release that details the different festivities.

Embrace the Winter Like Never Before at the Niagara Icewine Festival The Best of Niagara Showcased during a 10-Day Celebration featuring Ontario Icewines, Celebrity Chefs, Outdoor Ice Lounges and Fabulous Entertainment

WineAlign Press Relase

Here's the press release for the new WineAlign.com service.

WineAlign.com

Here's an interesting new site for Ontario wine buyers. WineAlign.com can search across wines available at the LCBO (and your local store or stores) and links available wines with professional and user ratings and reviews.

I've only taken a cursory look at the site but I'm very impressed. You need to sign up and register to see reviews but the pros include Robert Parker/The Wine Advocate and several local reviewers. Until the community grows (substantially), the user reviews don't seem very helpful (the Arrowood I posted on early has a 90pt and 70pt rating for example - quite a range).

There's an iPhone interface as well which I haven't tried, but that would be super convenient while shopping.

UPDATE: There's a mobile version of the site but it is not optimized for the iPhone. It's disingenuous to claim iPhone support in the press release if you ask me as the mobile version is basically unusable (everything is rendered microscopically small).

Currently, subscription is free for a limited time (my subscription will expire in March).

As impressed as I am, I'm left with two questions.

1. Why isn't this the LCBO's online storefront? The design is clean and simple and provides the services that LCBO customers are looking for.

2. Will I be willing to pay for this service once the trial expires? At this point, I'd probably pass given that I think that this is the type of website that the LCBO should be funding with the excessive taxes applied to wine sales in the province.

Cheers!

2002 Arrowood Le Beau Mélange Syrah

Your local Vintages location likely has several bottles of this amazing Syrah from California and best of all, it's under $30.

This is one of the best under $30 bottles of wine that I've had this year. It's clearly from CA with plenty of rich red fruits but also has the complexity that you expect from a much more expensive bottle.

And, given that its from 2002, it's already enjoyed 6 years in bottle to round out and mature. The release price was $26 (USD) so this is a rare bargain from CA here in the great white north.

Robert Parker rated the barrel sample (90-93) points and the bottle I picked up was closer to 93 than 90 points in my book.

Arrowood has a nice website and if you want to read the detailed wine makers notes, you can find them here.