Any interest in wine tasting? [General]

2016 Jan 23
Hi all,

Any interest in a wine tasting session?

I went to a specially organized tasting at LCBO on Rideau St last night and there were 15 or 16 people and we had 6 bottles (2 whites and 4 reds) of $30 wine of which I only liked about 2.

Afterwards I wondered around the Vintages floor and it was like kid in a candy store :D. Fortunately I only had 20 mins left on my free parking so I had to be fast.

I found the 2012 Famille Perrin Les Sinards Châteauneuf-du-Pape on special this week for $32 ($5 off) rated 91 by Jeb Dunnuck, erobertparker.com, Oct. 2014

www.lcbo.com

and I wondered around and found a 2008 St. Emilion Grand Cru from Chateau Grand Barrail Lamarzelle Figeac from Vignobles Dourthe for C$40 which @ current exchange rate of 1.53 is about EUR26. I doubt if I can easily find a St. Emilion Grand Cru for 26 Euro in Paris so the CAD-EUR exchange rate 12-18 months ago may have helped with that. Ratings I saw were 92 by Roger Voss, Wine Enthusiast, Feb. 2013 on LCBO to 93.

www.lcbo.com

Looking through LCB0, there are some excellent looking 1er Cru and some Grand Cru in the $30-$50 range.
I was wondering if there is enough interest to organize either an informal or tutored wine tasting session on that? I try some of those wines once every so often and hope for the best.

These wines are better cellared but don't want to blind buy when they are in those price ranges so finding one I would really like to cellar would be great and more the merrier in terms of tasting.

2016 Jan 23
I would be interested.

2016 Jan 24
I am playing with the ideal of trying one of the restaurants that have a 10-15$ corkage ... Preferably one with a sommeliar on staff who would be working on a slower night if we work out an arrangement (maybe fee) ahead of time. This way those who would like to can order some food to go with the wine(s)...

Unless someone knows a sommeliar that would do tutored wine tasting but allow us to choose some of the wine and maybe he could choose some of the wine if we give parameters ?

I was surprised some of the wines I had at the wine tasting that I did not like were $30 a bottle since you can get some decent wines at that price point.

2016 Jan 24
There's a wine tasting at the museum of nature
February 18, 7 pm – 9 pm

nature.ca

"On February 18, explore the myth and reality of terroir (how soil and climate affects wine-making) with Museum mineralogist, Dr. Scott Ercit.

Enjoy wine samples that will be paired with specially-selected edibles.

Cost for February 18: $40 (taxes not included)"

It's the first in their "nature taste" events. Not sure what the number or source of samples or format of the event. Price point seems a bit high but might be interesting and different.

2016 Jan 24
That looks interesting... If it comes with some food, not unreasonable price. I know about 15 years ago in Montreal, I paid something like $120 for 4 wine tasting sessions specially organized by a colleague and ended up only making it to 2 of the 4 sessions due to work lol..

2016 Jan 25
FNT -I'm interested

A couple years ago, I gave my BIL a GC for a wine tasting in home, through Groovy Grapes. Our sommeliar was Kippy. kippysipswine.com

Divino wine Studio does wine tasting. Eric is the sommeliar/owner there. They would probably put together a wine tasting/food pairing. www.divinowinestudio.ca


2016 Jan 25
For those interested, please specify the limit you would prefer to keep the wine tasting under for the wine tasting alone.

Any food pairing organized I think I want to make it optional to make it more accessible for those who would like to attend.

Any feedback and thoughts?

2016 Jan 25
FoodTravel, all the activities you have organized were fantastic so if schedule allows count me in anytime;)
LCBO tutored tastings are good, divino cooking class fun, walked by food and play cocktail parties, wonder if they would be an option? Potluck might be fun too? And have over your food crawls! If you need a hand for anything count me in:)

2016 Jan 26
Play I think and definitely Gezellig have in addition to small plates that we can order an option for corkage. I think Gezellig's was $15 the last time I did it.

Not sure about Petit Bill's BYOW policy but they have some sommeliers on staff and they might be willing to go for it on a slower night. They are scheduling some tutored tastings to such as the Sazarac whiskey with 4 course food pairing on Mon Feb 29 for $65 or Mon Feb 8 for the bicycle craft brewery one for $55 and talking about wine academy so might be willing to customize a wine tasting for us then open it up to make it more affordable. Might talk to Terry next time I stop for a bite and feel him out on the idea.
petitbillsbistro.com

Murray Street Kitchen has on Sunday a $10 corkage for BYOB and live music as well as $25 chacuterie sharing boards.

Have anyone been at Divino recently? I tried to go on their website and cannot go beyond the initial page or navigational pane and it said the hosting contract expired last August?

LCBO tutorings are good but sometimes classes are a little large and the sample a tad small. We had 15 people and a bottle each so 50ml of each which I guess for 6 plus ice wine is not a bad size. But for those nice wines premier crus / grand crus I think might be better to go for 75 ml per tasting to really try them if we end up organizing a customized or DIY tasting ourselves if we can get 9-10 people (9 if we can organize a sommelier for a reasonable fee who would like tastes of some nice French wines).

I will also try and talk to LCBO Rideau to see if they handle customized wine tasting. Another option I was thinking off was LCBO Rideau Street have a tasting bar in the bottom...I wonder if we can arrange something with them for that but it would not be as comfortable and might be a bit cramped.

Alternatively we can do it potluck style but would need a place and all those glasses lol..

LF Thanks for offering to help for wine tasting and the food crawls :D.. When my parents are a little more stable / settled I might organize something for the spring and help would be appreciated.

Some easier ones I though of were
* Le Cordon Bleu blind tasting menu with wine but does not seem to be much interest
* tapas Monday night at Allium - only reservation required.
* Navarra if the Industry Mondays are open to others by arrangement?


2016 Jan 26
List of interest so far for 1cru / Grand Cru tasting:
* FoodTravel
* Pasta Lover
* lovetoeat
* LF

Damn, just checked my calendar again and have something regular booked for Feb 18th around the corner or would be interested in the wine thing at Museum of Nature. Kind of promised someone I would give them a lift home to Lees after my meeting but might circle back to El Camino for a bite after. I was thinking about it last week when I was attending the same monthly meeting but was a little too tired to sit in a restaurant for long so ended up doing the take out pizza route from Pizza Hut.


2016 Jan 26
FoodTravel I too have enjoyed the events you have organized so will go to a wine tasting regardless.

2016 Jan 26
lol winter is too hard for a food crawl but maybe in the summer. But we can do a 1 restaurant get together.

2016 Jan 26
FT - I was at Divino on Saturday and was picking Eric's brain about a wine pairing. Which is why I thought of them. Their website is working for me. It looks like it has recently been updated.

If you like, I can shoot Divino an email and ask if it is something they would be interested in.
To clarify- we would like a tutored food and wine pairing dinner. Are we looking for something in February? Would anyone want to do say a Saturday afternoon time slot?

I think with their menu we could easily order dishes to share (antipastini/Pasta/main) and do the wine pairings from there. Or on Thursdays, they have a half off wine list. We could pick a couple (or so) bottles of wine in advance and ask them to pair the dishes with the wine we have selected. One of the fun things for me about Divino is that they have an open kitchen, so you can watch the chefs cook.

I would be happy to assist with any planning.

2016 Jan 26
ah okay. Your link was .ca and they are now on .com and I found it with .com.

What are your thoughts on full meals pairing vs smaller plates and/or optional?

I was more thinking of food we can do for smaller plates, sharing plate, or optional since if we end up getting good wine and paired good food, it might go close to $100 or more as I see in some of the nicer ones. I am okay with that price point personally but I think we might want to keep it slightly more affordable. It might work for full meal if we can get a reasonable fee plus corkage deal on the tutoring since the wines would be more mid-range and I would rather not get the 3x+ markup on them on top of paying for a full meal. If we are paying full prices for the wine side, maybe some small plates, sharing plates, cheeses or half order of something for pairing.

I suggested my idea at about the same time to the meetup group that did the LCBO wine tasting but the organizer seem to think they have a $40 limit to interest some of their group member. I think I paid around $35 under the group rate for 6 50ml tasting of wine and a small ice wine sample plus 2 pieces of cheese (of which the Blue Benedictine from Quebec was excellent) for the LCBO event but would rather I had paid more to get something more to my tastes. I could not find anything that really jumped out at me from the LCBO catalogue while I was flipping through it but have to admit I had not digged around that much. I was being a tad lazy since it would have been easier if someone else organized it but I have no problem rolling up the sleeves to do some organizing if it means we can have something more interesting.

I was thinking more late Feb or even March but pretty flexible about that.

Open to discussion :D

had a look at Divino and they have some interesting stuff that had smaller portions even on the menu such as pasta in 2 sizes and you can add on 2 ribs of rack of lamb to the $29 half rack main for $15.. interesting.. wondering if we can arrange to have 2 lamb chops as a small plate for $15....

Lovetoeat, Is their wine list online?


2016 Jan 26
Most of the wines are online but they always seem to have some new ones coming in.

My preference is for small plates or shared plates. They are pretty flexible in what they do. When I was in 2 of us shared the scallop appetizer which normally comes with 3 scallops. They added an extra one to the plate, so we would each have two.


2016 Jan 26
Yeah just had a quick look at Play and Gezellig. Their 1er Cru and Grand Cru on the list are $90-$166 per bottle which would add up very quickly..

2016 Jan 26
sorry can you give me the link the the wine list? I cannot seem to find it lol

2016 Jan 26
It's under menu and then you select wine list. Doesn't seem to have a separate link/address

2016 Jan 26
yeah just called them and while talking to them found out that they changed the website this weekend. They did not realize that their old page is not pointing to their new website.

Checked it on all 3 browsers and it seems that their web developer is not very good. He checked it on Firefox and Chrome but only the main menu link works in IE. Don't have a Ipad or iphone so did not check it on safari


2016 Jan 26
I figured it was pretty recent b/c the website didn't look like that last week. I'm using Chrome right now. The web developer needs to tweak a few things on the site. I noticed a few errors

2016 Jan 26
I tend to go back and forth between chrome and IE with some occasional firefox thrown in lol.

2016 Jan 26
Divino or Allium Monday tapas sound good:)

2016 Jan 26
You guys should check out Savvycompany.ca Debra offers special wine tasting events in the city with exclusive wineries from PEC and Niagara falls. I did a tour to PEC last summer and it was well worth it plus decenty priced.

2016 Jan 26
The wine tasting and Allium tapas (if there is enough interest) would most likely be different events. From what I remembered of the Monday night evening, I think the main chef was not working that night and it was more dimly lit so not as conductive to a wine tasting.

But if there are interest in Allium, we can start another thread to discuss dates. Nice a simple event to organize since it only need a reservation :D

2016 Jan 28
A trip to Allium in addition to a wine tasting sounds good to me!

2016 Jan 29
If having a vegetarian in the mix won't make the food side of things too complicated, I'd be up for wine tasting.

2016 Jan 30
If we do the food as optional or if the restaurant / location has some small plates already substitutions and/or custom ordering should be possible if you want food with your wine.


2016 Feb 19
List of interest so far for 1cru / Grand Cru tasting:
* FoodTravel
* Pasta Lover
* lovetoeat
* LF
* Strawberrygirl (vegetarian)

Checked out a few options on websites and some casual conversations, but with our numbers, a custom event featuring some nicer wines might get up there in costs and not enough in number to get someone to set up something for us to piggy back on.

Checked into LCBO tasting bar but that is to push whatever the product consultants are trying to market. Custom tasting would get expansive I think but will try to call tomorrow.

Might give a couple of the sommelier services mentioned a call to get an idea of costs.

But at the moment, I think I am leaning more towards a more DIY approach with a BYOB to a restaurant with low corkage but have small plates and maybe a sommelier on site. I can try to see if they can loan us the sommelier for some tutored tasting for a small fee?

Thoughts?


2016 Feb 19
At our current numbers, I am thinking maybe 3 wines. We can increase the number of wines if we get more people.

* a white 1ere cru - likely a chablis or Montagny since they are the more affordable ones likely 2010 or 2012 since they were the better years in the last 5.
* a red bourgogne 1ere Cru
* a red bordeaux 1ere cru or grand cru


2016 Feb 20
Please read the previous 2 posts as well.

So would we prefer:
* restaurant / venue with small plates
* private with potluck food?
* more formal tutored tasting?
Open for discussion please...

2016 Feb 21
I would be interested in the first two options.

2016 Feb 23
My preference is for the 1st two. I think something at a restaurant might be more cost effective.

If we do BYOB - How would it work? Who will be selecting/purchasing the wines and how will we know what foods to pair it with?

2016 Feb 23
My preference would be for the first option, but any of them would be fine.

For numbers, my husband would probably be interested in joining in as well.

2016 Feb 24
Strawberrygirl - the more the merrier.

2016 Feb 24
Strawberrygirl, your husband would be welcome too.. Just for logistics, is he a vegetarian as well?

I went to a LCBO cooking class last night and it was a sous chef Jesse Bell doing the class rather than Stephan LeSalle as in the brochure. Afterwards had a little chat with Jesse and I said I had not been at Albion room yet but have been meaning to try it for a while but reasonable priced parking is more difficult around there so I often end up just driving to Westboro to one of my favourite restaurants.

He used to work at restaurants in Westboro and we started comparing restaurants and he said Soif in Gatineau is excellent and it had Jamie Stunt from Oz Kafe and one of the top sommeliers in Canada, Veronique Rivest, and she actually came 2nd in an international competition a few years back. I now see wheresdafood's recommendation here but I have not paid much attention to the other side of the river before this.

I see they have having a wine and food dinner dinner in a couple of week...

soifbaravin.ca/workshops
Wine & Food matching dinners
March 9th, 2016
Reservations available at 5:30-6:30-7:30-8:30 pm
Our chef Jamie Stunt and sommelier Veronique Rivest will present a 5 courses dinner with matching wines. Explore the fascinating world of food and wine interaction with us! Join us for an evening of tasting and discovery as Véronique and her team reveal the secrets of wine and food matching.
85$/person +tx and service which would be $110 all in or thereabouts.

Is this of interest to anyone? What do you think of the price point? I can probably offer car pool for a few without a car.

Alternative an easy to do one is dinner/small plates at Divino Wine Studio. They don't have the wine flight specials 4x2 oz for $12 anymore but they can make it available to us and there are at least a couple of formats. So one can take the wine flight and ask for match to some small plates. There is also a 3 course dinner on Tuesday for $35 but the wine pairing for that is $35 for a glass of prosecco and 3x 3oz tastings to match the food.
www.divinowinestudio.com/
The menu does not display on IE so you need to use chrome or firefox or something else.

2016 Feb 24
My husband is not vegetarian.

I've been to Soif for lunch and really enjoyed it. The matching dinner sounds interesting but I'm guessing it wouldn't work so well for vegetarians.

Divino Wine Studio looks like a good option.

2016 Feb 25
Here is a short 2.5 minute documentary about Veronique Rivest.

aupif.soifbaravin.ca/

2016 Feb 25
There is a Groupon for wine tasting lessons in Gatineau this morning.

2016 Feb 25
I vote for taking the easy option this time.

2016 Feb 25
I did make a quick call to Soif just out of curiosity and they could potentially accommodate vegetarians if they know what type of vegetarian in advance but only reservations they have left is at 8:30 pm except a few tables for 2 at 5:30pm.. Thought 8:30 pm might be a bit late on a school night lol.


2016 Feb 25
I won't be joining this outing but am piping in just to recommend Tuesday night at Divino. I've had a couple of really good meals there, with great wine - and it's an excellent deal.

2016 Feb 25
So it seems that the preference is for Divino Wine Studio, maybe on a Tuesday night with the special wine flight deal and the @35 3 course dinner or a la carte?

Maybe we should start an OF Wine and Dine club... and people take turn organize outings :D

2016 Feb 27
Has anyone been to the County in the Capital last year or before?
If so how did you like it?

savvycompany.ca/savvy-events/

2016 Mar 7
I would love a wine tasting!

2016 Mar 7
There are some cancellation and 19:30 reservation available for Mar 9 wine dinner at Soif if anyone is intereste

Options or dates being looked at for the Divino dinner are Tuesdays apr 19th or apr 26th


2016 Mar 8
Divino dinner on either date would be good for me. I will have finished my class at Ottawa U by then and I will probably enjoy a celebratory glass of wine by then ;)

2016 Mar 8
I have an message into the event manager at Divino. I want to make sure that the Sommelier will be available when we are there.

2016 Mar 8
Great lovetoeat. Thanks for taking the lead on this wine dinner :D

2016 Mar 8
Either date is ok, my preference would be the 26:)

2016 Mar 8
Currently 4 people interested in Divino Wine Studio dinner on Apr 19 or 26th
* LovetoEat
* Pasta Lover
* FoodTravel
* LF

So far both dates are okay with LF have a slight preference for the 26th.

2016 Mar 22
Okay, just want to throw up some ideas for future wine and dinner locations so we can see what the interest is in each

* New Carmichael restaurant on Spark St Riviera is suppose to open in April but both El Camino and Datsun were late so I am guessing May or later since we are almost in April lol
* Soif Bar a Vin in Gatineau
soifbaravin.ca/menu/evening
* Gezellig
gezelligdining.ca
* Atelier - 1st place for Gold Medal plate
www.atelierrestaurant.ca/menu/
* Fauna - 2nd place for Gold Medal Plate
www.faunaottawa.ca/
* Coconut Lagoon - 3rd place for Gold Medal Plate
www.coconutlagoon.ca/
* Pomeroy House
www.thepomeroy.ca
* Albion Room
thealbionrooms.com/food/

Or other suggestions :D


2016 Mar 23
If the purpose of the dinners is food and wine pairings then my comments are as follow based on that criteria

* New Carmichael restaurant Riviera - I would put this on the back burner until it is open and we get a sense of the wine list

* Soif Bar a Vin in Gatineau - I'd be interested to check it out.

* Gezellig - extensive wine list and they usually have some interesting bottles on their "bin end sale"

* Atelier - 1st place for Gold Medal plate - An event on it's own, price point could be limiting for arranging a group

* Fauna - 2nd place for Gold Medal Plate - Has some interesting naturale wines. The sommelier at MeNa recommended the wine list there.

* Coconut Lagoon - 3rd place for Gold Medal Plate - they really don't have a wine list. There are only a few wines on it and nothing that interesting imo

* Pomeroy House - Has some really interesting wines on the list. Not the usual suspects

* Albion Room - Wine list to me is meh, the cocktail list on the other hand, looks good.

I would North and Navy into the running as well. We could do the Bacaro and have cichèti (small plateish stuff) and wine

2016 Mar 23
Nice.. good feedback lovetoeat and more contenders are great since we can gradually work down the list :D

It does not have to be specifically wine but food and alcohol is the general intention, not that I am a heavy drinker ;)

BTW, Divino wine studio has fixed their IE web issues and it is working fine now. So I do not have to remember only use firefox or chrome on them.