Date Night |Winetario

Last week we took full advantage of my brother being back in town (after 6 months of travelling around in South America) and escaped for a date night. I didn’t even think about leaving any rules or worrying about diaper changes because I was sure my brother could figure things out. Much to the dismay of our friends, this year I didn’t organize our annual wine tour and most weren’t amused by my lack of planning. I too wasn’t pleased but we’ve had a lot on our plates lately and I knew that escaping to Ontario’s wine country was just not an option for us this past spring. Which is why we were thrilled when the hubs and I were invited to attend the 22nd annual Winetario event in downtown Toronto!

The chance to sip and chat with award winning Ontario winemakers in downtown Toronto is a rare treat. As many of you might know, Ontario Wine Week celebrations took place all of last week and there were plenty of events to explore for wine lovers across the province. For our date night we were hosted by Wine Country Ontario as they celebrated the amazing VQA wines that had won awards earlier in June at the Ontario Wine Awards (think of it as the wine Grammy!).

Winetario started at 6 p.m. and went until 9 p.m. but as usual, the hubs and I rolled in a bit late and closer to 7 p.m. The event was hosted at the George Brown College Centre for Hospitality and Culinary Arts by our friends at iYellow Wine Club. Having attended iYellow events, I had warned the cheese hating hubs that we’ll have to grab dinner after the event-I was right! The focus of this event was the fab wine available in our province and there wasn’t any food available by the time we arrived.  71 wineries entered over 473 wines into the Ontario Wine Awards and there’s no doubt that the 30 judges had a tough mission! I was glad that they had narrowed down the award winners because choosing between the winners was hard enough! Being surrounded by award winning wines, was not a shabby way to kick start the weekend! 

We started our evening with the Château des Charmes 2015 Rosé, Cuvée d’Andrée (Gold winner – Niagara Airbus Rosé/Blanc de Noir Award) and it marked the tone for the evening for us. We were on a mission to sample all the Rosés on site! Henry of Pelham N/V Cuvée Catharine Rosé Brut (Gold winner – Q water Sparkling Wine Award) was my favourite-AGAIN! You may recall that I enjoyed this wine two vintages ago as well! This winery keeps producing a fab sparkling Rosé.  

iYellow Wine Club’s Gold Cabernet Franc Award went to Kacaba Vineyards’ 2014 Cabernet Franc and I can see why.In fact, most of Kacaba’s wines are on my winning list! If you’re in the Niagara area, be sure to check out this cute little spot.

George Brown College Centre for Hospitality and Culinary Arts Winemaker of the Year Award went to Trius Winery’s Craig McDonald, so be sure to grab a few bottles from this beauty winery the next time you spot it on shelf! It’s one of our favourite wineries in the Niagara region and I was glad to see them recognized.

It came as no surprise that Pelee Island’s Lola won the Gold ASL Print FX Best Label Design Award. It was a very pretty and easy drinking wine as well. Of course the Rosé was my favourite! It’s all about the Rosés this year for me!

Of course we had visited quite a few of the wineries in attendance before, but there were also some that were new to us. Most of these are from Prince Edward County where we haven’t been back to since our first wedding anniversary 6 years ago!! Clearly an area I need to get to, especially as I’m on a mission to explore Ontario’s beach towns this summer and Sandbanks is not just a fabulous winery but also the name of a brilliant beach area! Perhaps I’ll spend my birthday weekend there!

Tickets were $89 for a pair and so for under $45 one was able to enjoy unlimited samples of award winning Ontario wines at Winetario. What better way to celebrate Wine Week and a date night? As I mentioned above, do have a couple snacks before you attend the event or get there early. We totally missed a gorgeous cheese and chocolate board (based on the Twitter pics I saw!) but that was okay because we capped our evening with some BBQ at Triple AAA around the corner! We came home to see that Baby Boy tricked my brother into reading in bed with him and they were all awake at 10 p.m.!! Doh!!