Last year’s visitors enjoyed both scrumptious taster portions and fantastic full meal offerings from the Festival Epicure food vendors. Wine vendors also offered sampler servings or wine by the glass. Wiser’s Canadian Whiskey and Polar Ice Vodka will be this years spirits vendors with a full array of spirits in their Summer Refreshment Tent! Of course, your Epicurean experience wouldn’t be complete without entertainment! Festival Epicure 2009 will deliver toe tappin’ tunes featuring the area’s top R&B, pop, jazz, swing and Latin artists.

2009 WILL BE EVEN BIGGER AND BETTER THAN EVER!!
With 28 vendors and a musical lineup that will prove to be the summer’s best, EPICURE 2009 will definitely be Windsor’s greatest summer event!

Wineries at Festival Epicure
Aleksander Estate Winery
Colchester Ridge Estate Winery
Colio Estate Wines
D’Angelo Vineyard Estate Winery
Mastronardi Estate Winery
Pelee Island Winery
Sprucewood Shores Estate Winery

On my way home I stopped by the Roundhouse LCBO and picked up two bottles of Cabernet Franc. The two I picked up were Mastronardi Cabernet Franc 2006 and Erie Shore Cabernet Franc 2006. Both are the same vintage, both are VQA wines from Lake Erie North Shore region, both are for sale at the LCBO for about the same price.

One final thing before I began my taste comparison. Calabria is a great little pizza restaurant in Cottam and they have a pepperoni and cheese special on Wednesday. Both of these wines taste great with pizza so I ordered one for my tasting evening.

Back and forth between the two wines it was hard to say that one was better than the other. In the end I decided that they are both very similar in taste. Both have a nice green bell pepper taste up front and both paired perfectly with the pizza.

Good wine and good food. What a great evening.

Gary

This is the first corporate type of restaurant that I am aware of locally that has made an attempt to offer local wines in their restaurant. I applaud them for doing this. 

Applebee’s gets it while other corporate run restaurants  are missing the boat. One of the main reasons I started the web site Essex Wine Review was on a visit to the downtown Windsor Keg I asked if they served  any local wines. When I was offered the wine list the Keg believes that local wines come from the Niagara Region. They just don’t get it.

It was explained to me that the Keg’s  wine list is set by head office out of Toronto and that while the local manager would love to serve wines from Essex County he couldn’t.

Just last evening (New Year’s Eve) on a last minute whim we decided to go out for dinner after a movie. Bed Time Stories with Adam Sandler was the movie in case you were wondering. Having no reservations on one of the busiest evenings of the year for restaurants left us with little choice. We decided to see if we could get into Tony Roma’s at the Devonshire Mall. We had been at the one in Banff and really enjoyed it.

It was busy there but our timing was good as they did have one cancellation and were able to seat us right away. The ribs were good, our server Ashley was fantastic  but like the Keg, they do not offer any local wines. They also do not get it.

If anyone from the Keg or Tony Roma’s reads this and has enough power and sense to change this no local wines policy let me know and I will return to your restaurant. Until then, I am going to Applebee’s.

Happy New Year!

Gary Killops