This month's 2 Bottles & 2 Questions is with Sommelier Lindsay Groves, WINNER of the recent 'Sommelier of the Year' award given out at the Ontario Wine Awards Gala; She won a blind (VQA) tasting challenge against other top Sommeliers.Lindsay is gracing the cover of this month's City Bites magazine (see picture to the left) and she too was singled out as one of Toronto's 'Hot Nine of Wine,' along with yours truly! She has also been mentioned in The National Post.
Lindsay is currently working with the Sommelier Team at Via Allegro Ristorante , an award-winning restaurant in Etobicoke, which boasts one of the best wine cellars in the world (4900-5500 selections of wine). We managed to get Lindsay away from her busy schedule to share some wine recommendations with us. Enjoy!
2 Bottles
1. Peninsula Ridge Inox Reserve Chardonnay 2005
This is my favourite unoaked Chard ever! Medium bodied with great intensity and fullness, fresh crisp acidity with aromas of apple, pineapple, citrus and peach. A very versatile wine, perfect as an aperatif or with an array of cheeses, cream based pasta dishes. This wine would be perfect with white-fleshed fish such as seabass with a saffron risotto.
Vintages LCBO $20.15
2. Delheim Pinotage 2004
After working in South Africa I have made trying Pinotages into a bit of a hobby. This one is a great buy for under $20. Rich, juicy cherry and red currant with soft tannins complemented by restrained use of oak. Great for the BBQ season approaching, would go gorgeously with roasted portabellos.
Vintages LCBO $19.95
2 Questions
1. Did you have a good time at the Ontario Wine Awards?
I had a great time at the Ontario Wine Awards! It was good seeing friends that I had gone to school with at Niagara College, as well as some of my previous teachers. Deacon Dr. Fresh was hilarious and did a "super lurch!!!" job as the mc. It's great to see the number of younger people that are in the industry as well, along with long-established Canadian wine legends such as Tony Aspler, Larry Patterson and the like.
2. If you were to travel to any wine region in the world where
would you go and why?
This is a really hard question as I love to travel and have a hard time narrowing it down to just one region; I will hopefully get around to visiting them all at some point! One of the next regions on my list however is Chile/Argentina - I hope to get a chance to visit next winter during their harvest. Chile in particular is so unique in regards to its climate and geography, and it is considered to be the most naturally blessed wine growing region on the planet, even having been able to escape phylloxera due to its isolation. It will also be really interesting to see what happens in Argentina over the next few years, with all the money being invested in the country recently things seem to be progressing at a rapid pace. It would be very cool to have the chance to go and see how the industry is changing first hand, and to try the wines being produced by some of the newer and smaller wineries.
See the online PDF issue of City Bites magazine here.
Cheers,
Pax & Ange
