Tastes from the Food and Wine Show in London, Canada

Luckily the weather cooperated, so with good weather and snow-free roads, my sister and I went to The London (Canada) Food and Wine Show Friday evening.

Was it due to the season or that it is Canada that the preponderance of exhibits was alcohol – whiskey, beer, vodka, gin, wine and craft beers?  Not that I am complaining, but there were too many to try and still be able to drive home!  I got around this by asking for just a small taste rather than the 2-ounce sample which cost 2 or 3 coupons/tickets ($1 each ticket.) And sharing with my sister helped both of us reduce our consumption.

First up was the cranberry wine from Muskoka winery.  The word winery makes me think grapes, so I was surprised that grapes could be grown that far north.  But no, it is a wine made from cranberries grown in Bala, the Cranberry Capital of Ontario.  And since cranberry juice is good for the bladder, I would be willing to drink the cranberry wine as a health drink.

Then just like at a fair, a man was demonstrating the Perfect Wine Opener, wine sealer and a device to keep the bottle of wine cold and offering the expected on-site discount.  Aside from them being cool products, his salesmanship with humour was worth watching.  Disappointingly, the bottles that he opened for the demonstration were not for consumption – he recorked them and opened them again 2 minutes later!  And I watched the whole demonstration before I found that out!

Craft breweries covered everything from coffee flavoured (Sons of Kent), cherry and honey flavoured (Bayside), the IPL not IPA India Pale Lager (Cameron’s Brewing Co from Oakville) and the “migrated from Vancouver”, Sneaky Weasel beer from Balderdash Brewing Co. And many, many more!

Wineries were also too numerous to mention. The most charming category is won by Dancing Swallows, Amherstburg, Ontario, a family affair set to open this spring

Unfortunately, the writing on the posters from Villa Maria doesn’t show up in my photo, but the first one finished with “…screw it”.  In 2001, Villa Maria switched all of their bottles to screw tops, and obviously have been happy with the results. Switching from cork to screwtops means less waste of wine but also in lower environmental impact from not shipping corked wine. It took a lot of experimentation on their part to create the cap in a way that would let in just enough oxygen to let the wine age.  And just for the record, Villa Maria is New Zealand’s most awarded winery.

And while we are offshore, the wines from South Africa are great and some with a great price point of less than $10, too.

It was fun to revisit wineries from a wine tasting trip to the north shore of Lake Erie, six years ago already!  I still remember the lunch at Viewpointe Winery, sitting outside on a warm sunny day, overlooking the lake.

I avoided all but one of the hard liquor samples.  Being a gin fan, I tried the one from Junction 56 Distillery where they were nice enough to give me a plain sip, and I have to say, it was perfect without any mix – more emphasis on floral and less juniper influence.

There were also lots of options for food covering a range of cuisines, just a few with free samples.  Right at the entry to the hall, we grabbed half pints of chocolate milk.  Then the Kalamata exhibit had free samples of olives and of the honey almond cake, a good way to start the tour! Staffords had a full range of salamis and based on the venison sample, it would be worth the trek to Petrolia to buy some.  The chicken on top of saffron rice from Osmows was also delicious, especially with the hot sauce.

But there were plenty of other food offerings to be able to have eaten dinner there. Cuisines were from Mexico, Hungary, Germany (spaetzle), the Mediterranean.  And I still wish that I had bought the butter chicken pie from The Pies Guyz.  And there were 3  cheese booths, and of course chocolates and desserts.

I guess I was too busy talking to the exhibitors because I missed the stages of cooking demonstrations and musical entertainment.  And I only sat in one cool lounge to finish off my last red wine sample for the night.  By that time, the place was packed so I was happy to depart.

I would definitely recommend going next year, possibly with a designated driver to try different things and also have dinner there from one of the food places.

http://www.westernfairdistrict.com/wine-food-show/tastings-demos-music