Review Of The 2013 NSLC Port Of Wines Festival

This post is way overdue considering we attended the Festival on September 28th but such is life.  We absolutely relish attending this event each year.  In fact we have attended every year since we returned from living in the US in 2005.  This year's event was VERY different for us.  Our son was born at the end of August which made it a very challenging decision to attend. Shannon was torn about leaving him with his grandmother right up to the week before the Festival.  So, once she decided that it would be a go I went and purchased our tickets to the Saturday afternoon Grand Tasting which is by far our favorite session to attend.  It is always busy but it is during the day and you tend to find it a manageable crowd versus the evening sessions where, let's be honest, it becomes partly a nightclub.  When we were in our 20's that was absolutely a plus...not so much now.

So, tickets are purchased and not two hours later the phone rings and a nice lady from Air Miles is on the other end telling us we've been selected to attend a VIP Tasting at this year's Port of Wines Festival for, you guessed it, Saturday afternoon.  Well that blew our minds.  I mean it was fantastic to be chosen for the VIP Tasting but if I had only held off buying tickets by one day...BUT, putting on the Wine Blogger hat we figured why not give away the tickets we just purchased.

So we set about figuring out how to do this.  We didn't just want to do a random thing as people may have done so we came up with a Your Best Winery Tasting Room Experience contest.  It was very well received with traffic to our post somewhere above 10 times our normal traffic.  Trouble was there was only one entry.  So that winner was Jill Linquist who runs Goose Landing Vineyard with her partner Al Begin.  Al also has a regular column in the Truro Daily News.  Jill and I sat next to one another at the Atlantic Wine Symposium and she is super nice.  As she was the default winner we arranged to get her the tickets day of the show.

The Goose Landing Team!

Well, all of that story is preamble to what was an awesome Port of Wines Festival experience.

As usual we were running late and we met Jill and Al out in front of the Cunard Centre to given them the tickets.  They were so kind as to bring us some Homemade Preserves and a Goose Landing Vineyard hat (awesome).

To Jill and Al: Thanks again you Guys and we apologize for not being able to spend more time with you during the show.  We hope it was a successful one.

Anywho, we were late for the VIP entry which was to start at 12:45  pm sharp.  We abandoned poor Jill and Al and ambled our way to the entrance.  We were met by an NSLC staffer who took us upstairs to a balcony room where the NSLC had on display their Award Winners for this year's Festival.  Each set of wines, Lighter Whites to Heavier Reds was set up with Food Pairings.  VERY cool.

Our view from upstairs

We had a personalized tasting with the Wine Staff who were quite knowledgeable about the wines up tasting.  Some really good wines and we understood why most had an award given.

Some highlights from upstairs:

2006 Château Senailhac Bordeaux Superieur ($22) - Sold out before we could buy some
2008 Bodegas LAN Edición Limitada ($55) - Bought one to lay down
2010 Ernie Els Proprietor's Blend - Didn't buy but great for the price
2012 Les Jamelles Sélection Spéciale Chardonnay Viognier ($20) - Bought one and it is awesome
2008 Bolla Le Origini Amarone Della Valpolicella DOCG ($45) - Awesome Amarone but a little too rich for our blood
2012 Luna Negroamaro Primitivo Puglia IGT ($20) - Appassimento style and delicious...purchased
2010 Saint Clair Pioneer Block 15 Pinot Noir ($38) - So nice and elegant, another purchase
2012 Waimea Sauvignon Blanc ($27) - Luscious Kiwi Sauv Blanc, purchased

We then ventured downstairs into the masses of tasters to try the rest and we really had a great time picking and choosing what we wanted to try.  There were a lot of choices and the price point under $30 was fairly easy to find.  To be honest our purchases skewed into the $20's this year where we normally try and keep things under $20 but hey it is what it is.  Some highlights from downstairs:

2012 Sileni ‘The Straits’ Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough ($20) - Another great Sauv Blanc...purchased
2011 Wente Charles Wetmore Cabernet Sauvignon ($25) - Hey it's Wente, bought
2011 Cigar Zin ($23) - Great Zinfandel from California, bought
2010 Ignacio Marin Old Vine Garnacha ($17) - Great value Spanish wine....of course we bought it.
2011 Trapiche Broquel Cabernet Franc ($17) - Cab Franc under the Broquel brand...wicked but oops, it wasn't in our basket at the end so we had to go buy it afterwards.

The Loot!  All ready for Blogging!

All in all we had a blast, it was such a great time.  Many thanks to Air Miles and the NSLC for letting us have that experience.  Next year, hopefully we will be seasoned parents and not so nervous to leave the boy for a few hours.  We also put our names in to serve at next year's festival.  It would be another great experience to work that side of the table next year.

If you have the chance to go to this next year for any of the tasting...do it.  If you like wine this is such a great experience.



Keep on tasting!

Chris & Shannon