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Winemaking and Winterlude

Ottawa is becoming more wine educated every day! On Friday night (February 12th) I attended a Winterlude event at the Lord Elgin Hotel called, “Be a Winemaker for a Night” that was hosted by Savvy Grapes founder Debbie Trenholm (www.savvycompany.ca) and Yummy Mummy Club founder Erica Ehm (www.yummymummyclub.ca). This was an amazing opportunity for people to find out a little about what goes into blending a wine and have a really fun time doing it.

Most people don’t realize the science that goes into winemaking. There is the harvesting of the grapes at a specific sweetness level (called Brix), the crushing, the fermenting of the grapes (which includes the use of specific yeast types, temperature of the juice, contact time with the skins for blush and red wines etc.), depending on the wine there is aging in oak barrels (differnt sizes of barrels, different barrels also have been burnt inside to create different levels of flavours) and finally, the blending of different grape varietals to create your wine (as they do in Bordeaux, Chateauneuf-de-Pape etc.). That doesn’t even begin to cover everything else the wine maker must do.

That having been said, on Friday night we not only blended our unique wines (everybody had 3 wines at their table which included Merlot, Cab Franc and Cab Sauv), but created our own wineries, label, history, price and then presented our creations to a panel of judges!

This allowed for a great many differing blends and what would probably be years of study for psychologists.

My table was table #1 and we all got to know each other at the beginning of the evening sharing wine, snacks and stories about our kids. It wasn’t too long after that we got down to business and created our wine. Our winery was called “Fra-geel-eh Estates” and our wine was called “Fetish, the Sassy Bordeaux”. We then decided on a blend of 50% Merlot, 40% Cab Sauv and 10% Cab Franc. There was a great deal of measuring, blending and not to mention tasting. Once we had all agreed that the blend was good, we then got to make our own label to put on the bottle and created a “pitch” for the panel of judges. While we didn’t win, we had a great deal of fun nonetheless.

Our pitch was:

Fra-geel-eh Estates presents Fetish, We Like to Mix it Up. Whether you like your wine from a ladies stiletto heel or from a Riedel glass, Fetish will give you a satisfying experience. If “fruity” is your thing, you’ll enjoy Fetish’s juicy, ripe and red fruit with soft, supple tannins, with an underlying spiciness to stimulate your senses. The next time your plan your menage-a-trois, remember your Fetish. Your friends will love it for its long, satisfying finish. Fetish is THE sassy Bordeaux. Fetish is the offical wine of the AVN Awards. To order Fetish, call 1-900-69FETISH.

The winning wines (there was a tie) were 3 O’clock Winery (Watched Clock wine), and Le Pacas Mcbnaly (Lord Burgundy wine). I have to say that I really liked the pitch from 3 O’clock Wines, because it’s always 3 o’clock somewhere. The full list of wines created that night were:

3 O’clock Winery: Watched Clock Wine
Fra-geel-eh Estates: Fetish
Panty Decapant
Cow Bay Winery: Yummy Smart Savvy
Le Pacas Mcbnaly: Lord Burgundy
Chateau Vanier: Meet Dirty Girl

The night didn’t end there as my husband Mike and I went across the street to wonder through the Winterlude ice sculptures. While the ice sculptures are
beautiful no matter what, they are particularly amazing at night. Each sculpture is lit with an array of changing colours that highlight different sections of each one. While it was a cold night, there was little wind and the people there were having a great time, especially given that they had a DJ spinning tunes and snacks like Beaver Tails and taffy on snow which was quite delicious I must say. It was a particularly nice way to finish our evening out.

I really have to thank Erica Ehm and Debbie Trenholm for putting on such a wonderful evening and allowing some tired parents a fun night on the town!

Mike and I put together a short highlight video of the night…enjoy!

[photo credit 96dpi on Flickr]

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