My Article: A Canadian Wine Tasting

(MONTREAL) I was excited to do a big tasting today here in the laboratory of the Société des Alcools du Québec of a range of top Canadian wines. I am not an expert in wines from this friendly country. In fact, I was hesitant to even do the tasting, but so many of my Canadian friends – including my business partner James Orr – urged me to try them because they said that so many good wines were available now.

I asked my office in Los Angeles to write most of the top wineries in Canada and have them send samples to the SAQ for my tasting. And 84 samples were amassed for the tasting this morning. We lost a few bottles from the cold weather; they froze in transit to the tasting in the post!

Anyway, I was really excited to try these wines. I love discovering new wines and areas. Check out my photo before the tasting. Rock on Canadian wines!

I took a deep breath and a rocked through them in a blind tasting. A couple of friends from the SAQ also tasted through. We started with light and fruity reds and moved up to Cabernets, blends and Syrahs. Then we went through dozens of dry whites, from Chenin Blanc to Riesling to Sauvignon Blanc to Chardonnay, and finally sweet wines such as ice wines.

I found that 39 of the 84 wines were 90 points or more – or outstanding. Granted, I only scored one wine 95 points; it was a red blend from Okanagan. But I found many other interesting wines. I am really psyched about the Rieslings. I tasted a range of Rieslings, which were mostly from Niagara, in different styles like those from Germany, Austria and Alsace. Some reminded me of different appellations from Germany, such as Rheingau and Rheinpfalz.

My tasting wasn’t all love though. The ice wines at the end of the tasting almost killed me! I had to put my head down at the end. And just one thought: Does Canada really need to make a sparkling ice wine?

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