Photos by Justina McCaffrey
The Canadian Museum of Nature opened its doors to wine enthusiasts all over the region to learn and taste the champagne and interesting Canadian sparkling wines. This social workshop not only included many wines and stories about each one, but a palate of tiny edibles that coincided with each sparkling wine taste.
Featured speakers included Savvy’s president Debbie Trenholm, and Dr. Scott Ercit who very appropriately has a vast body of research background focusing on granitic pegmatites at the Museum of Nature.
We were first treated to blindly comparing the Delouvin-Bagnost Brut Champagne ($44.95 LCBO) to Canada’s Chateau des Charmes Brut Methode Traditionelle ($23.95 LCBO) and guessing which one is the French Champagne. My table (of 8 wine aficionados) uninamously voted that the Canada’s Chateau des Charmes was the French Champagne.
We were then led through an odyssey of tastes that included the Segura Viudas Brut Reserva Cava from Spain ($14.95 LCBO), the sweet Bosc d’la Rei Moscato d’Asti from Italy ($13.60 LCBO), and Prince Edward County’s Hinterland Ancentral Method Rose ($25.00 savvycompany.ca) that uses a frozen method to control the amount of fermentation. The best tasting was the last selection. It was the Vieni Canada 150 Sparkling Red ($16.95 savvycompany.ca). A lovely blend of pinot noit, baco, and pinot meunier.
Dr. Scott Ercit eventually led us through a wine quiz, and all the while we were being recommended to eat popcorn through the event. Debbie mentioned that popcorn was very appropriate and a great snack to eat while at home with sparkling wine, as they both “pop”.
This confirmed with all of us that sparkling wine is not a revered drink only to be consumed at special occasions. It is a (much better) substitute for soda pop and to be consumed whenever.
