Whilst those of us in the business are well aware of just how spectacular Ontario wines can be, how much are the restaurant-going public embracing our local bottlings? This month Good Food Revolution are setting out on a mission to discover just how much VQA wine is present on the lists of restaurants.
I think that very few would dispute the fact that Ontario wines have truly come of age.
Today there is a serious global interest in a plethora of wines from Ontario (and not just Icewine), as a cursory glance at many of the most highly-regarded international wine magazines and websites will attest to. Indeed, International recognition and validation is something the industry has often chased after ever since Donald Ziraldo and Karl Kaiser took their 1989 Vidal Icewine to 1991’s Vinexpo in Bordeaux and came away with the much-coveted Prix d’honneur, and how things have progressed since those early days of a industry in its very infancy.
What with so many of our wines being perceived of as truly excellent by some of the world’s greatest wine minds/tasters/writers/judges, surely it would be hard to argue that Ontario VQA wines don’t deserve a place at the restaurant table?
Wine Country Ontario have for many years supported a terrific restaurant recognition program, one that currently lists some 170 establishments province-wide that carry a substantial number of Ontario listings, and this serves as a heartening measure of just how many restaurateurs wholeheartedly support our homegrown wine industry.
Over the course of the next couple of months we’ll be looking at wine lists from all over the province, and talking with Sommeliers about how many of their customers have come to embrace the local juice, as well as the challenges they still occasionally face to this day when presenting Ontario wines to diners and drinkers.
Watch this space in the coming weeks for our reports…
Edinburgh-born/Toronto-based Sommelier, consultant, and writer Jamie Drummond is the Director of Programs/Editor of Good Food Revolution… And this should be interesting.
