The root of the ‘new niagara winery tour problem’ is two fold:

1. I don’t want to skip my favorite wineries
2. There are so many new wineries I can’t chooose

So my old favorites which I am going to skip are: Kacaba Vineyard, Lailey Vineyard, Maleta Winery, Pilliteri Winery, and Konzelman Winery.

This breaks my heart because Lailey’s Pinot, Kacaba’s reds and the 2009 Riesling, Maleta’s riesling, are amazing and not to be missed.

Here are the new wineries and I would love some feedback on other people’s experiences.

• Cattail Creek
• Flat Rock Winery – how have I not been here before?
• Calamus Winery
• Hidden Bench Winery
• Peninsula Ridge Estates Winery

My learning, the longer you live close to a wine region…the harder it is to plan a trip. So after 5 years in Toronto, I AM going to do the ‘all new Niagara wine trip’. I would love your feedback.

Note: The Ontario Public Service Employees Union, which represents workers at the Crown-owned LCBO, are mounting a campaign to convince the government not to privatize the monopoly liquor board. Here is the press released issue on June 1.

Toronto (1 June 2010) – The Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU/NUPGE) is ramping up its campaign to prevent the sale of Crown corporations, especially the ultra-profitable Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO).

“In the face of Ontario’s $21 billion dollar deficit, selling Ontario’s crown jewels is getting another round of debate,” the union notes.

“Our message on this is clear: selling off any of Ontario’s assets, including the LCBO, is foolish. Why sell the goose that lays golden eggs year after year?”

Last year alone the LCBO, OLG, formerly the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation, Hydro One and Ontario Power Generation (OPG), brought in $4.3 billion dollars in profits. Each year these funds go directly into the provincial coffers to support health care, education and other public services that benefit the people of Ontario.

“The Ontario government is reportedly considering combining these enterprises into a ’super corporation’ and selling a minority stake to private investors,” OPSEU says.
“Premier Dalton McGuinty is attempting to soften privatization by claiming that this ’super corporation’ will be partially privatized. It is more than likely however that the scheme is to work towards complete privatization. It will be a déjà vu, reminiscent of the days when Petro-Canada and Air Canada were publicly held, before being gradually sold off to the private sector.”

OPSEU notes that the Ontario Liberal government has turned to Goldman Sachs, the notoriously greedy New York investment bank, to provide advice on the sale of Ontario’s crown jewels.
“With Goldman Sachs offering advice to McGuinty on privatization, it is unlikely that the ‘best interests’ of the people of Ontario will be served,” OPSEU argues.

“We don’t want Dalton McGuinty to make the same mistake Mike Harris made when he sold off Highway 407 at a bargain basement price.”

OPSEU says the experience of Albertans since liquor sales were privatized in 1993 has shown that the idea is not only bad socially but costly financially. Impaired driving rates went up and crime increased.

“As a public agency, the LCBO has a mandate to sell alcohol responsibly,” OPSEU says.

“Each year, LCBO employees refuse to serve thousands of people who are under-age or intoxicated. Social responsibility keeps our communities safe.”

To hear more about my opinion on LCBO Privatization read “To privatize or not to privatize that is the question”

My highligts of the night were from three different wineries. The first ‘wow’ was from Cattail Creek and their well-spoken and modest wine maker, Colin Ferguson. He produced two fantastic wines at great prices. A 2009 Chardonnay Musque for $17…the mix of fruit on the nose was very unique. The 2008 Pinot Noir for $18 was a great Pinot at this price with some nice strawberry on the nose.

The second ‘wow’ was from a 2007 Cabernet Franc from Marynissen with good tannins; probably needs another 5-7 years to reach its prime.

The final ‘wow’ came from Maleta Winery which has been a favorite of mine since their spectacular 2002 Gamay. They poured a fantastic Meritage that is only selling by word of mouth (hmmm…is blogging about it a good idea). It has complex fruit and flavours that stood out even at the end of a tasting. Admittedly, part of the ‘wow’ is that it was a hidden wine not on the table and definately not in the tasting book.

It was organized and setup by the Wineries of Niagara-on-the-Lake and the always impressive Ange Aiello of the iYellow Wine Club. It was carried off beautifully at the Toronto Board of Trade and tickets going for a very reasonable $50. The only complaint to be heard was a lack of food which at $50 is tough at a place like the TBoT.

This event will be happening again next year… if you want a great chance to talk with a bunch of wine makers this is the event for you!

My first introduction to Ravine was last year at Wine Camp Toronto when they poured their 2007 Riesling. It was a good by itself but was amazing with some of the cheeses.

Their winery is beautiful and a cool place for a wine tasting. Wine tasting at Ravine are held along a long bench in a renovated house. Next door there is a little snack shop with great selection of cheese and other ‘winery snacks’. If you are done in Niagara (St. David to be exact) drop by… you won’t be disappointed.

How do you decide between Niagara, Prince Edward County, and Pelee Island? Here are a few pieces of advice.

On your wine tour,
Do you want to warmest weather? Choose Pelee Island, it has the best weather of the three.
Do you hate crowds? Try Prince Edward County, they are the newest wine region and still small enough to be person.
Do you want a ton of wineries to choose from? Then choose Niagara, with over 100 wineries there is something for everyone.

Just a few quick tips for wine tour season….

The Ontario Government is, once again, investigating the potential sale price of the LCBO and Hydro One (other Crown Corporations are part of this but none are as interesting).

The Globe and Mail had a great article talking about the way the province is going about the process…both now and in the past.

The article mentions a possible sale price of $10B for the LCBO! That would be a great chunk of change for the province but would be VERY difficult as the Globe points out:

Any plan to sell Crown corporations that touch the lives of every Ontario voter would likely run into opposition on a number of fronts, including from unionized employees. In 2001, Ontario’s then-Conservative government planned a $5-billion initial public offering of Hydro One, which owns many of the power lines crisscrossing Ontario, but that was derailed, in part by a union-backed court challenge.

The article goes on to mention how parts of  HyroOne could be sold off to get around the union-backed problems. But there was no suggestion about what to do with the LCBO…here is my suggestion.

Since moving to Ontario five years ago, the ‘privatize LCBO’ debate has always been an ‘all-or-nothing’ discussion. My question has always been: “WHY?” Like the Globe mentioned in their article “lets sell off some parts”.  Maybe sell off 30 LCBO stores (about 5%) around the province as a test! Or better yet, leave all the LCBOs private but sell off ‘private liquor store licenses’ this won’t raise $10B but could easily bring in $500M! And would bring the money in FAST!

So, lets change the discussion, the LCBO discussion should no longer be:

To privatize or not to privatize

Instead it should be:

One small step for provincial coffers, one giant leap for Ontario consumers!

Over the next three-five years something has to give with regards to the LCBO…lets hope the government listens to the public.

Me: What is your corkage?

Six Steps: We don’t have a corkage.

Me: Oh, I thought I could bring my wine story.

Six Steps: If you want to bring your wine, we charge you the price of our cheapest bottle of wine to open it.

Me: What range would that be?

Six Steps: $35-$40

Needless to say, I won’t be going here tonight. The obvisouly don’t want people bringing wine even if it is a ‘96 bordeaux.

Mammian’s (now closed) received alot of press when the BYOW law was passed here in Ontario for offering $5 corkage on Ontario wines and $10 on all other wines. Let hope that Pangea will get the same support…spread the word about ‘Free corkage on VQA wines’.

BTW: if the lobster risotto is on special at Pangea…order the appetizer size…it is CrAzY rich.

The first overpriced wine, that is on alot of menus in Toronto, is: Bogel 2007
Petite Syrah

Today, I had a fantastic dinner at the Harbord Room (crazy high corkage of $35) and noticed Bogel listed at $44 per bottle. This is crazy marketed up! In California Bogel 2006 Petite Syrah sells for $8.49! That is right $8.49.

This Bogel Petite Syrah seems to be a big money maker for restaurants; note, I love restaurants and want many to be around and making money. But this markup seems CRAZY to me.
If you see Bogel on the menu, then skip it and try a glass of an Ontario or British Columbia Wine.

This charity wine event supports the Fred Victor Centre and held its second annual tasting event at the C-Lounge. The venue was fantastic because it was a beautiful day and people could really take advantage of their larget outside space. Having a warm sunny day ‘might’ have affected the most popular wines…because I was surprised that two white wines were the most popular.

Here is a list of the wineries and wines that were poured:

(1) Black Prince

(2) Lailey Vineyard

(3) Strewn Winery

Justyn (of WineryToHome.com) and Nathan Arnold (amatuer wine maker who works at Yahoo!)

(4) Dan Akyrod

(5) Wayne Gretzky Winery

(same table as Creekside)

(6) Creekside Estate Winery

The huge table of cheese was provided by the Leslieville Cheese Shop and they had a TON of cheese.

This now yearly charity event raises money for the Fred Victor Centre’s Art program. This program used art to help people recover from many different problems (addiction, personal thearpy, etc) and is a great ‘out of the box’ way for an organization whose end goal is to help…regardless of the method.

Next year, we will be inviting back four of the six wineries and adding two more new Ontario wineries. Do you have any suggestions? Lets us know who we should have pouring for our event next year.