Best of Beamsville Bench, EPIC Restaurant Fairmont Royal York June 27/13

 The Date and Time:  Thursday, June 27, 2013   6Pm to 10 PM
The Event: Best of Beamsville Bench
The Venue: EPIC Restaurant, Fairmont Royal York
The Target Audience: consumers, wine media
The Availability/Catalogue: I was an invited guest, along with my wife,
to try out one wine from each of Angels Gate, Bachelder, Fielding,
Hidden Bench, Malivoire, Rosewood, Rennie Winery, and Thirty Bench.
The Quote/Background: along with Tyler Yarema Trio for some light jazz,
it was a show of exciting wines from VQA Beamsville Bench of Niagara.
Wines were paired with locally inspired foods from EPIC's new chef de
cuisine Joshua Dyer.
The Wines:

 

**** BEST -- Four Stars (91+ in Quality/Price Rating terms):
-Bachelder Chardonnay Niagara 2010
-Fairmont Sparkler Angel Gate 100% Chardonnay
-30 Bench Small Lot Riesling Triangle Vineyard 2011

 

***1/2 BETTER -- Three and a Half Stars (88 – 90 in Quality/Price
Rating terms):
-Malivoire Chardonnay Moira 2009
-Hidden Bench Pinot Noir 2009
-Rosewood Reserve Merlot 2009
-Rennie Winery Appasimento 2010 [merlot50/cabranc25/cabsauv25] 16.5%
ABV

 

*** GOOD -- Three Stars (85 – 87 in Quality/Price Rating terms):
-Fielding Pinot Gris 2011

 

The Food: there was a platter of Italian style charcuterie, cheeses (no
blues, unfortunately), and breads. The staff brought out pass around
platters of shrimp with remoulade, scallops and pea shoot risotto (best
plate here tonight), bison and tubers, fried wedge of baby artichoke
with potato croquette and date sauce. There may have been more, but we
left by 7:15, having noshed and tasted all the wines.
The Downside: it was lightly attended.
The Upside: a chance to talk to wineries and agents.
The Contact Person: Catherine.Tschannen@fairmont.com
The Event's Marketing Effectiveness and Execution (numerical grade): 89

 

Chimo!  www.deantudor.com