Tuesday 23 November 2010

Food, Wine and Travel

How do you like the title of this post?  Can't think of what more you could want from life!

This past Saturday I attended the Gourmet Food and Wine Expo in sunny downtown Toronto.  It's an annual event that takes place every November and I highly recommend that anyone who can get themselves to GTA check it out next year.

The show floor is divided into sections, each of which has it's own booths.  There are collections of booths serving food everywhere, but the wine booths tend to be grouped into the country of origin, which makes for really interesting sampling.  Also starting to make their presence known a little more this year were the beer and liquor booths.  It's our third or fourth year attending the Expo, and it's interesting to see the shift in what's being offered at the show as it diversifies away from just food and wine.  The other type of booth that is starting to become more prevalent is the travel booth.  It's a sensible thing really when the wines are already being divided up by country; a tourism representative for each country just nestles in amongst the wine vendors and reminds everyone that if they're enjoying that wine there's a place where it can be found in abundance.

While I was visiting France (the section... sigh) I was able to pick up a package of tourism information for Gray and Susan who are in the process of planning a European Adventure.  Also I drank some French wines, which failed to upset me in any way.

I sampled a 1985 Port while I was in the vintages section, which I think may be the oldest thing I've ever drank.

It seems like I can't attend the Expo without making some startling discovery, and this year was no exception.  For the first time at the Expo there was a massive representation from The Republic of Georgia (that's the one near Russia, not the American State) which came as a huge surprise to me.  Even more surprising than finding out that Georgia makes wine was discovering how good it is!  I was told by one of their representatives that the region has been producing exceptional wines for centuries, but that in recent years the entirety of their stock has been exported to Russia; the demand was there and it was close so why not?  Now that relations with Russia have soured however they are looking for new markets and have been kind enough to bring their wines to North America.  They're right in the midst of a major marketing push to get the word out about their wines, and I'm here to help spread the good word.  Well worth checking out.

In a couple weeks Gray and I will be attending The Tequila Show downtown, which should be interesting.  If it follows the same format as the Food and Wine Expo (buy tickets, trade tickets for booze, drink booze) then I think the Show may last about 20-30 minutes for me before I fall over.  2oz samples of wine can be consumed for a long period of time without the effects getting too distressing... tequila?  Hmmm....

Well my friends the time has come once again for me to get out there and find some adventure.  I'll report in again next week on whatever I come up with.  Until then, be well.

1 comment:

Jabbles said...

Sad I missed out this year. As I mentioned on facebook I too partook in some drinking that night. Not sure why but I decided to try PBR (Pabst Blue Ribbon) that night it's actually not as bad as I thought but I don't really see the appeal.