Friday 6 April 2012

Niagara College Reception/ Tasting

Sorry about the delay everyone. I have been quite busy as of late. The job search is never ending and if you didn't already know, I've been putting a lot of thought into going to college in September. I've already applied and been accepted for Culinary, Winery Tech. and GIS, but applying is the easy part. Now I must decide what I wish to pursue. Somehow having more options makes it so much more difficult.
I've weighed the pros and cons a 100 times in my head and it still plagues me. I do love and have always loved food but I'm questioning whether culinary school is worth it. GIS is a relatively new system that a lot of jobs are looking for and would be very compatible with my degree, however, Winery tech. seems very appealing. I love wine and have always wanted to make it and I'd like to think there are a lot of opportunities for work once out of school.
Either way, before I could make my ultimate decision I had to check out the campus and find out more about the programs. Luckily this past weekend there was a open house day in which all prospective students could come and attend information sessions on their desired programs. Needless to say, I was excited to go and with the promise of free food, wine and beer, I could not miss this chance.
The afternoon of information went fairly quick and thank god because I was eager to get to the wine. Instead of taking a tour of the campus we bypassed straight to the wine store. Tastings that would usually cost $2 a pop, were completely free so I had to take full advantage. There were at least 12 different wines to try and I tasted about 5; a Riesling, a Chardonnay, a Pinot Noir, a Cabernet Franc, and a Cabernet Franc Ice wine.
Overall, I'd have to say that the wines were unique. I understand that for some, wine is an acquired taste, and in this case there is a lot of different tastes to be acquired. For a couple of these batches I just didn't get what was going on. The Riesling was toted as having citrus flavours, particularly lime. I am a fan of lime and citrus flavours in most all forms, but for some reason it just didn't work here. The structure and flavour presented by this Riesling made me think of juice or pop rather than wine which disappointed me, but was not nearly as disappointing as the Chardonnay. It was atrocious! I was admonished by the tasting notes that this wine would have strong butterscotch and smokey flavour and I should have heeded the warning. In a lot of ways it tasted like a scotch and to some that might seem like a bad thing. However, I am a huge fan of scotch but not when it is watered down. The issue for me was that it was in between two separate drinks that I enjoy and this grey area was very unpleasant and almost undrinkable. Never wasting a drop of wine, I drunk the sample down and begged for something else. The Pinot Noir and Cabernet Franc were far superior to both of the whites, but once again were nothing special. Both were medium to light bodied, full of cherry and red fruit flavours, with a smooth finish.
The star of the show was with out a doubt the ice wine. On account of its price, I've drunk very little ice wine but I've found that red ones, specifically Cabernet Franc ice wines are my favourite. It was fruity, jammy, cold, and sweet. Like taking a bit out of a raspberry or strawberry pie.
Keeping in mind that they were produced by student winemakers, I was impressed by the quality of the wine in general. The taste wasn't always there but the structure and passion for the product was. Having tasted the competition my urge to create my own wine has been renewed and my perhaps my mind has been made up? Winery Technician program, here I come?

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