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Canadian Wine Culture Debated
Webcast Tasting & Discussion Trended Across Canada
Suggested Tweet: WATCH highlights from Canadian #wine culture panel via @plwinescanada: http://bit.ly/plwines #plwines #Kelowna
The Story:
A first-of-its-kind webcast tasting and discussion on Canadian wine culture took place last week. Organized by Australia's Peter Lehmann Wines, the groundbreaking event, called The National Tasting, featured writer and broadcaster Anthony Gismondi, along with a panel of top sommeliers and wine educators gathered from across Canada.
Seven minutes of video highlights from the 1.5 hour event are now online at www.nationaltasting.ca.
The panel discussion was webcast, with queries submitted via social media. Supporting this, a conversation on Twitter was fast and lively, making the #plwines hashtag a trending topic across the country at the time.
Topics covered included how Canadians can make wine fit into their lifestyle, whether or not the Canadian wine industry is driving our food culture or vice versa, how social media is humanizing the wine business, and how Canada needs to embrace a unified national wine culture in order to make itself stand out on a world stage.
A few users noted technical issues at the time of the webcast, so if anyone missed part of the discussion, they may catch up via the key points in the summary video.
It's an incredible accomplishment that a world renowned Australian winery held its inaugural mentorship retreat in the heart of British Columbia's Okanagan Valley. The program was aimed at building bridges between Canada's thriving wine trade, industry professionals and wine enthusiasts. This gesture of selecting Canada to launch this international program, was made with the intention of giving back to the wine community and to help unite Canada's wine scene.
Due to feedback gained from the retreat, Peter Lehmann wines expects to hold regular online chats on the topic of the development and future of wine culture in Canada. Details will be announced soon.
About the Mentor Award and National Tasting:
The first-ever Peter Lehmann Wines Mentor Award was aimed at bringing together industry professionals and wine enthusiasts with an opportunity for up-and-coming Canadian oenophiles to grow and share their knowledge.
A two-day retreat took place in Kelowna, BC on October 20-23 and was led by noteworthy author, internationally acclaimed wine expert and inaugural program mentor, Anthony Gismondi.
The following are the mentees for 2013: Britnie Bazylewski, student liaison & instructor, Canadian Food & Wine Institute at Niagara College, St. Catharines, Ontario Taylor Douglas, assistant manager, Kitsilano Wine Cellar, Vancouver, British Columbia Jonathan MacCalder, sommelier, e11even (Air Canada Centre), Toronto, Ontario Alex Keevil, assistant manager, Bin 905, Calgary, Alberta Michaela MacMullin, sommelier & manager, Bertossi Group, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia Agostino Teixeira, sommelier & director of purchasing, 40 West Steakhouse & Raw Bar, Montreal, Quebec
This December one of the mentees willl be selected by a panel of esteemed judges to travel with Gismondi to Australia in 2014, and take part in the annual grape harvest. This five-day trip will further acquaint this year's recipient mentee with the Peter Lehmann winery and with Australia's famed Barossa Valley wine growing region - truly a once in a lifetime opportunity. For more information, visit mentoraward.ca or follow the conversation on Facebook and Twitter.