Formerly known as the Savvy Grapes.

Foods from Savvy Company

Comments

2008 Jun 22
Nice to see another fan of the Savvy Grapes. We go to their tastings on a regular basis, but haven't made it out to one of the Savvy Suppers.

I've done two tastings: Viva Espana and Wines to Warm Your Winter. Both were fabulous! Mr. Nanookie has been to more than I have, and he swears by them. The wines are always under $20 a bottle and they provide LCBO product numbers so you can find after, as well as the standard booklets with a bit of history on the wine/region/theme and tasting notes. The last two wine tastings were catered by Arowhon Pines (a resort in Algonquin Park) and matched to the food by their chef. The tastings take place at the Nicolas Hoare bookstore on Sussex and you get discounts on your purchases at the store in the evening. The samples are generous, so I highly recommend walking or taking a cab.

Debbie and her team are fabulous. Debbie always responds to emails and is very helpful - she even provided us with a little guide she made for traveling to Niagara, which came in handy on a recent trip to the region.

2008 Jun 21
I just got home from "the Savvy Supper Series", last Thursday night,a food & wine matching evening at Trio in the Novotel hotel. There are potentially 3 matches here for tags--Trio, Novotel (not to be confused with Trio in Westboro--totally different op's), The Savvy Grapes and Huff Estates Winery.
Lets just say that all matches are good. Spotted this in Gay Cook's column in previous Thursday Ottawa Citizen. We called (& emailed but call was responded to almost immediately) to see if 2 guests—one with food allergies could slip in—no problem! Debbie Trenholm of Savvy Grapes personally responded.
What a great evening! Food was good—menu is available on the Savvy Grapes site. The service at Trio was awesome and interestingly the servers were extra attentive to the allergy sufferer (understandably often not treated well in a busy serving environment). Her food was hotter than mine—cooked individually and one of her options (tofu with fennel salad and pommello coulis actually tasted better than my scallop version!)
It was a fun entertaining evening with good wine, food and info. The chef, Scott Lucas made rounds and spoke with everyone—he has developed the tasting plate series for all the Novotel’s in North America. Winemaker Frederic Picard from Huff Estates Winery stopped by twice at our table and was informative and entertaining whilst describing his wines…The love shone through! The tasting pours were very large and we were glad we had walked (8 glasses of wine! And extras, if desired!)