So far this year, my wine travels have taken me to Germany, France, England, Italy (four times) and Edmonton.
Edmonton? No, I didn't mistakenly overshoot the Okanagan by a few hundred kilometres. I was there to soak up the city's thriving food and wine scene at Northern Lands (northernlands.ca). This five-day festival is the brainchild of journalist and wine personality Gurvinder Bhatia. Created in 2015, it brings together wineries, craft brewers and distillers as well as chefs from all across Canada. The idea behind Northern Lands is "to move more towards the European philosophy of wine as food and wine and food together as part of our cultural identity," explains Bhatia, "and highlight Edmonton as a culinary destination."
While the festival focuses on Canadian wine, this year's edition featured Italy as special guest. Through a partnership with Vinitaly International (vinitalyinternational.com), Northern Lands welcomed over 40 Italian wineries along with scientific director Dr. Ian D'Agata, the world’s foremost authority on Italian wines.
Add this to the 60 Canadian wineries, breweries and distilleries, as well as the 35 participating chefs. That's a whole lot of tastiness and talent together in one city. Between the educational seminars, gala tastings, secret wine parties and collaborative dinners, Bhatia was thrilled with the turn out.
"Over 5,000 tickets were sold and 30 per cent of the ticket purchasers were from outside the city."
And behind the scenes, a baker's dozen of wine professionals gathered for three days during the festivities to judge Northern Land's Canadian Wine Competition. Bhatia managed to assemble some of the country's best palates, like Masters of Wine Barbara Philip and Rhys Pender as well as international experts such as London-based Stephen Brook, contributing editor of Decanter Magazine.
While I always appreciate my Canadian colleague's opinions, it's a treat to get a foreign perspective on our wines. From Atlanta, Cathy Huyghe, co-Founder of Enolytics and wine columnist at Forbes.com called icewine and sparkling wine our ambassadors, representative of much more to come.
"It was thrilling to see the beginning of what we can look forward to — the Rieslings, the Syrahs, the Pinot Noirs — as Canadian wines mature and become more widely available," raved Huyghe.
My favourite moment was after a long Pinot Noir flight. Boston-based, Michael Apstein columnist and wine reviewer for WineReviewOnLine.com looked at me with sheer amazement remarking how fantastic the whole line up was.
As for the official results, all three of our wine producing provinces had their victories. Nova Scotia was awarded Best Bubbles for the Benjamin Bridge Methode Classique Brut 2009 ($45.99, BC Liquor Stores) while Ontario took runner up with the Henry of Pelham Cuvee Catharine Brut NV (not available in BC).
Ontario can boast Best Riesling with the Tawse Quarry Road Riesling 2015 which also won Best White of the entire show. This gem is soon to be available in BC for $25.15. In the meantime, you can enjoy runner-up Monte Creek Ranch Riesling 2016 ($16.99, winery direct).
BC's shining moment was a huge tip of the hat to 50th Parallel Estate. The winery cleaned up, winning not just Best Pinot Noir, but also Best Red overall and Best In Show with their Unparalleled Pinot Noir 2014($50, winery direct). As if this wasn't enough, their Estate Pinot Noir 2014 was named runner-up ($29, winery direct)
Other highlights included Best Syrah with Painted Rock Estate Grown Syrah 2013 ($39.99, BC Liquor Stores) and Best Pinot Gris, Poplar Grove Pinot Gris 2016 ($17.99, BC Liquor Stores).
Check out all the winners at Northern Lands' Canadian Wine Competition here.
Northern Lands only happens once every two years. I look forward to being lured back to Canada's Festival City in 2019.
