Tasting Wine Like A Pro At La Grande Dégustation de Montréal 2013 Wine Tasting Event
La Grande Dégustation de Montréal, roughly translated as The Montreal Grand Tasting from French, is an annual wine tasting event held in Canada’s cultural capital and most charming city of Montreal, Quebec. The event, sponsored by AQAVBS and the SAQ, is now in its third year running and this year’s version featured some 1200 products on display from some 160 guest producers. We can say that choice was not missing at the party this year!
La Grande Dégustation is an event for everyone over the legal drinking age applicable in this province. It is a great event for wine aficionados on any side of the wine expertise spectrum. Newbies will find friendly producers along with their local staff ready and willing to explain any questions one might have pertaining to country, region, terroir, vinification process, aging process, grape varietals, different vintages, or any other ‘stupid’ question one might have. You won’t find any producers treating your questions as such. Experts will revel in the fact that so many of the wines are private imports and therefore absent from the local alcohol distributer known as the société des alcools du Québec (SAQ). This is a truly unique opportunity to get acquainted with wines one normally wouldn’t have the chance to in North America.
The event is located in Place Bonaventure (Bonaventure Square) in downtown Montreal, which makes it as easy for access as an event could be in this city. You can get to it by car, metro, and you can even walk to it from the other side of Montreal’s downtown area using the subterranean RÉSO (Montreal’s underground city). We say thank you for that since temperatures tend to be quite chilly in early November around these parts. After you check in your coat, you will need to get your wine glass right after you pay your admission fee of 15$ which includes your glass. You then proceed to exchange your dollars for tickets as you won’t be able to use your cash once inside. A wine tasting will cost anywhere from about 2 tickets (2$) to around 14-15$. Based on my experience, a 2 ticket tasting usually means a bottle costs 15-20$, while a 12 ticket tasting will run you over 120$ per bottle, but there is no exact conversion rate. You’ll find yourself spending about 4-5 tickets for most tastings. You will see the sprawling wine stands as you enter the main room and that’s when the fun starts. Behind each stand you see the flag of the country the wine comes from along with the name and importing house. This makes it simple to navigate if you’re looking for a specific country in very general terms but not so easy if you’re looking for exact regions as there doesn’t seem to be an exact method to all the madness. This will be your main problem as a wine taster so you will have to do your homework before the event to know which stands you want to visit mainly. If you don’t this you run the risk of being in a state where all wines taste the same by the time you actually get to where you want to go. Not what you’re looking for at an event like this and you can trust that I know from experience(this wasn’t my first time attending after all!). Of course, you should be spitting most of the wine right out in the metal container you’ll see at most stands but if I like a wine I tend to like to drink it.
This year the focusing theme was California Wines (YES!!) with around 40 Californian producers showcasing some 250 Californian products. And boy there were some pretty spectacular products (more on that below). Californians have a special place in my heart because of their bodies, fruitiness, and over all balance. They tend to be unbeatable when you take the price/enjoyment ratio into account which also helps. Just make sure you pair a powerful full-bodied Californian Cab with its proper counterpart and times shall be good. The spotlight at the event is undoubtedly shared by the vast French and Italian private import wines. If you want to learn more about wines then you have to start with French and you will seldom find a better place where theory and practice can meet. You can also get acquainted with some of Italy’s finest brunellos, chiantis, barolos, and taste some truly wonderfully crafted supertuscans. Last year I had my first introduction to Turkish wines which was a truly eye-opening experience to a world I was quite unfamiliar with previously. This year, I had an excellent introduction with Spain’s Castile-La-Mancha which was really more like a re-introduction. The point to an event like this is to get out of your box and try new different things. Why would you focus on French wine if you drink French wine all the time? You get the idea.
The 2013 version of La Grande Dégustation, which took place November 7-9, attracted some 13000 wine lovers, representing a 7% from last year’s numbers. I’m sure we’ll see an even bigger increase next year as the event builds more momentum.
Below you will find some of the standout experiences I had this year. You might or might not be able to find these, as I said most of the wines being available for private import only makes things a bit tricky.
Duckhorn, Napa Valley, Cabernet Sauvignon, 2010: I enjoyed this 2010 Californian Cab which has a decent round mouth for such a young wine.
Tenuta Sant’Antonio, Amarone Del Valpolicella, 2010: This consisted in my first experience with Amarone wine which is made by first drying the grapes. This was an excellent wine that should start at about 50ish or so dollars. Great for keeping too.
Marianne, Stellenbosch, Shiraz, 2008: I’m pretty sure this is a 2008 vintage but the image is a little fuzzy and my memory is as well, having tried this later on in the day. But, this was maybe my favorite wine of the day. It’s the bottle in the center with the red label plastered with the award stickers. An example of how South African wines are getting better year after year.
Disclaimer: The Travel Moms have not received any payment as a result of this post, though TTM was provided tickets to attend the event for review purposes. All opinions are our own.