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Monday, February 7, 2011

Ontario wineries may very well begin to tap into a neglected market segment

I've been reading around lately on whats happening and have found out that sweet wines were the largest category at the Cuvee Awards, which represent the best wines in Ontario as judged by their winemakers. Apparently most grapes varieties are represented including Syrah and Pinot Noir. This is great news to me because Ontario has an opportunity to be on the forefront to tap into a neglected market segment.
If your an Ontario winery and you feel you got a quality sweet wine you want to show off then consider submitting it to the Lodi wine awards being held in Napa California. Just go to Tim Hanni's blog Swami of Umami for more info, the URL is in the links section here.
There has also been comments regarding the quality of the sweet wines being introduced and currently being made for approval by the VQA.
The V.Q.A. inspects member wineries to ensure that their production practices are in keeping with industry accepted standards. I know because they have asked me if I was an inspector when I have visited them. If a sweet wine is sampled by a taster with a tolerant tasting profile, they will be much more likely to say that any sweet wine is cloying and lacks acidity. They naturally prefer strong tannic wines. A hyper-sensitive or sweet taster would more than likely say the exact opposite. I am not saying this is the case for the people that have said this but it might be. Any winery that is putting out a "white Zinfandel type pop wine" and trying to pass it off as world class wine will be very quickly found out and exposed to their detriment. Most wineries are in it for the long haul and will put out the best quality sweet wine they can produce affordably.
I have some more off dry V.Q.A. wine to review and will be putting out the videos for them in due time.
The opportunity is there for any Ontario winery that can innovate and can produce a world class value added sweet wine.
There is a very good article from the New York Times that gives a good picture of the quality sweet wines from around the world and how they can be matched for the main course of a meal. Click the title of this entry if you want to read it.