The Event: The inaugural Trillium Chefs Canada Awards Dinner prefaced by a talk by Miguel Torres, the Riedel Wine Maker of the Year Award

The Date and Time: Tuesday, April 21, 2015 3:15 to 6PM

The Event: The inaugural Trillium Chefs Canada Awards Dinner prefaced by a talk by Miguel Torres, the Riedel Wine Maker of the Year Award. The event benefited the Trillium Chefs Canada in their bid to win Gold at the 2016 IKA Culinary Olympics in Germany.

The Venue: Lai Wah Heen Restaurant

The Target Audience: writers and guests

The Availability/Catalogue: wiens are available through the LCBO or through the agent, Family Wine Merchants.

The Quote/Background: Torres' presentation was about corporate responsibility in being green and returning the earth to a good shape. They are committed to reducing carbon emissions, using solar panels, reducing water usage, reducing gas consumption, encouraging wind farms, reducing bottle weight, and experimenting with new vineyard management techniques in the Pyrenees. These are all for their properties world wide in California and Chile as well as Spain.

The Wines: we sampled what was in the market at the current time in Ontario. There was an excellent Cordillera Brut (all pinot noir) from Chile's Curico Valley (90 points), a brilliant Vina Esmeralda 2014 (moscatel and gewurztraminer) from Catalan that has been a regular summer drink of mine for about 40 years (so I'm biased, 90 points), a tight Gran Coronas Reserva 2010 (cabernet sauvignon and tempranillo) from Penedes (88 points), and the oaky Estate Mas La Plana 2010 (all cabernet sauvignon) surprisingly more approachable than the Reserva (91 points). We also had a sample of Torres 5 Brandy.

The Food: earlier on, with the interviews and media scrum, we had some sushi from EDO.

The Downside: there was a dinner afterwards.

The Upside: a chance to meet and greet Miguel Torres.

The Contact Person: spuritt@hotmail.com

The Event's Marketing Effectiveness and Execution (numerical grade): 87.

Chimo! www.deantudor.com