2012 CALIFORNIA WINE FAIR
MONDAY APRIL 2ND
TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA
EVENT PROS: Great organization; excellent wines this year; greater variety of wines than last year, including more high-end wines and sweet wines; food stations kept in full stock all throughout the night; convenient location easily accessible by subway; getting to know family wineries
EVENT CONS: Tasting time is still way too criminally short at only 2 ½ hours
Berserkers,
I attended the California Wine Fair yesterday in Toronto last night, my second time doing so. I’m happy to report vast improvements over last year’s fair in both the organization (which was pretty good last year) and especially in the quality of the wines. My first post will be my report on the event itself and then I’ll post again on my experience with the wines.
Once again, the event took place in the Canadian Room of the magnificent downtown Fairmont Royal York hotel. Easily accessible via subway and walking for the entire upscale downtown core. Unlike last year, I arrived at 7PM and was not at the head of the line as I was last year. No matter; the organization was so smooth I was literally through the doors at 7:05 PM.
With over 150 wineries present and a criminally short 2 ½ hours for the event, it was absolutely impossible to get to everyone. So I had a strategic choice to make: I could do the high-end tables I did last year that I know brought excellent high-end wines such as Duckhorn and Mondavi or I could try smaller wineries that were completely new to me. I chose to go the latter route. I’m very glad I did.
This allowed me to have greater in-depth conversations with Canadian agents and American winemakers and reps than I did last year. In doing so, I got to meet some pretty unique people. People such as an Australian wine rep working in Canada by way of England representing California wines because his expertise with the rich and ripe Aussie wines allowed him to grasp rich and ripe California wines expertly; an American food scientist and analyst turned winemaker; a young French assistant winemaker from the celebrated Domaine Chandon who made her way to California to intern in sparkling winemaking and never left; and Jody Bogle, whose family winery history is remarkably similar to that of many Niagara family wineries.
With more experience as a Berserker this year, my tasting abilities were markedly improved as I was able to go through way more tables and wineries than I did last year, visit a total of 20 different wineries and sip about 50 different wines. There was a marked increase in my tasting and spitting speed. However, this did come at the price of extensive notes so my post on the wines themselves will be very general. Keep in mind this also includes lengthy conversations with a fair number of local reps and visiting winemakers as well as breaks for food, water and the washroom.
That means 130 never even saw my face. Even if I discount the ones I felt I didn’t have to see again from last year, there’s still over 100 California wineries whose wines I never got to sip. How this event is not spread out over several days or at least given a longer time period is beyond me. It’s either that or invite less wineries to the event and I sure don’t want to see that happen.
I should also mention that the Fair visitors were much more jovial and courteous this time around. You may recall from last year’s thread I noticed quite a bit of surprising rudeness from attendees, but this year was completely different. People were extremely sociable and I was even taking pictures on my camera for other people and groups and emailing them when I got back home. There were also younger people in the crowd, not the stable of only doctors, lawyers and bankers I saw last year.
Overall, it was another great experience. I do wish there was more time for the event so that I could’ve visited and talked to more reps and especially the visiting California winemakers. This event really needs more hours or a split between at least two days. Given the huge crowd present, they’d make a killing if they did.
That’s my report on the event. I’ll go over the wines next post.