So there we have it – another year in the books for I4C. I made it down to the School of Cool, Flights of Chardonnay, and I found lunch at Leaning Post on Saturday. The event continues to deliver a world class experience. I needed to take a few days to reflect on the weekend because it does make me sad that I have to wait a full year for the next one.
This was my second year where I was able to sneak away from the Newstalk 1010 studios to check out the School of Cool. The day long seminar was very well done this year. We started with keynote speaker Julia Harding MW schooling the room on Chardonnay and England – most of it is sparkling. But it was interesting to see what factors have to be taken into account when it comes to growing grapes. I don’t want to get into the details of the talk – but needless to say English grape growers are crazy – just like their counterparts from elsewhere. School then continued with an nerdy interesting conversation about lees – ok, it was really nerdy – but if you can’t be nerdy at the School of Cool then where? The morning ended with a talk about Climate change and Chardonnay, and how the consumers perception of Chardonnay may be changing.
The evening I attended Flight of Chardonnay – easily my favourite wine event of the year. I think for most writers it’s the event that captures the spirit of how we hope an “average” consumer enjoys wine. I have to put “average” in quotes – because let’s face it – the consumers who go out of their way to attend I4C have a base love of wine vs. your grocery store wine shopper. Flights is a highlight because it’s well priced, the variety of wine is impressive – and it’s just relaxed. Oh, and given the very exciting evolving food scene in St Catharines/Niagara it’s impossible to leave this event hungry.
This year at Flight of Chardonnay it was exciting to see the return of Le Clos Jordanne with winemaker Thomas Bachelder proudly pouring his first vintage of the resurrected label. This wine is definitely something to look forward to – but at I4C it still felt quite young and restrained. It was impossible to pry any definitive information out of Thomas about the future of the resurrected Le Clos Jordanne brand – but I believe that we are seeing just the beginning.
Wine-wise another highlight of mine from Flights was having Adam Lowy of Cloudsley Cellars, and Kevin Panagapka of 2027 Cellars pouring their wines side by side – they both work from the same Wismer Foxcroft vineyard to make their Chardonnay. So, if you want to see what impact a winemaker has on the end result of the product this was a great place to do it.
I already said it’s impossible to leave the event hungry. Leading up to the event Chef Michael Olson was giving us all a sneak peek on social media of the wares he was preparing for the event – you can follow him here – https://www.instagram.com/chefmolson/. There is just something satisfying about biting into a dish that tastes as good as it looks. What was even better about the Pork-A-Leekie pie was that it was served cold – not a bad proposition on a night where it was over thirty degrees in the hanger.
The following day I headed to Leaning Post to enjoy a walk around tasting and picnic lunch. I think the real theme from the weekend is that it’s relaxed. If you’re reading this and are maybe intimidated by fine wine this is the event for you. Nicholas Pearce brought his merry band of winemakers to Leaning post to pour their wines. Oysters were shucked by Tide and Vine. It is impossible to pick a favorite wine at Leaning Post that day – Fresne Ducret Arquemi N02 Blanc de Blancs Champagne is hard to beat on a hot day especially with the Oysters. Then again it’s hard to beat 2017 Domaine de Bellene Savigny les Beaune Blanc – it’s hard to ignore the infection enthusiasm that oozes out of the bottle when it’s being poured by winemaker Nicolas Potel. Of course, the strong portfolio from Leaning Post formed a great foundation for the day. Given it’s I4C I need to give a shout out to the 2017 Senchuk Chardonnay and the 2017 Wismer-Foxcroft Chardonnay (jeez – that’s the third winery mentioned in this post connected to that vineyard).
And now, I guess that’s it – I just have to count the days until next years I4C. I hope you are too.
