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Wrapped Up In The Valley 2012 Pt 1

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It may be the holiday excitement, or perhaps the end of the harvest season, or even the opportunity to spend a first weekend surrounded by the beautiful holiday décor of the Twenty Valley… but, whatever the reason, Wrapped Up in the Valley 2012 is again a hit. Popular at each stop we visited, with the tasting bar staff at every winery repeatedly professing their enthusiasm for the success of the event, Wrapped Up still has one more weekend of winter winery celebrating to go!

The Wrapped Up In The Valley event is a passport tasting program.  Purchase apassport for the weekend and you’ll have the opportunity to indulge in a tasting experience at each of the Twenty Valley wineries… if you can make it to that many! The wineries typically offer one food pairing and a taste of two wines. We selected four spots to highlight on our wine country day: Sue-Ann Staff Estate Winery, Vineland Estates Winery, Kacaba Vineyards and Winery, and DiProfio Wines Limited. Check out the videos of each, and read about the sipping and savouring we did at each location!

Kacaba Vineyards and Winery

A great stop on the wine route, Kacaba is located on King Street in Vineland but is tucked away at the end of a winding drive through the beautiful estate vineyards.! On the list for the day was the 2009 Syrah served with Pork Rillette topped with Bistro Blueberry Ketchup and served on crostini. The Syrah was round and full with big fruit flavours and classic Syrah spice. It had a lovely finish and was the ideal companion to the Pork Rillette. The dry side of the wine was on full display after the sweet blueberry ketchup and the crostini crunch rounded out the experience!

This tasting may now seem complete, but it had only just begun. At Kacaba the winery team welcomes you to taste from the tanks. Why? Because you can preorder the wines from the tank! That’s right, they will sell you your cases before the wine has even been put into bottles. This results in a very cool tasting experience for the consumer. From the tank, we tried a 2012 Riesling packed with citrus flavours – all kinds of pink grapefruit on the palate. The cloudy appearance had visitors buzzing with questions and those curious inquiries resulted in one more special tasting experience – a Cabernet Franc Rose from the tank that was still mid-fermentation. A nice effervescence on the palate, it was just moving from juice to wine. Our stop at Kacaba was truly a unique experience!

Di Profio Wines Limited

This was my first visit to Di Profio, and it will most definitely not be my last. It offered a unique building, incredibly passionate people, and most importantly, divine fruit of the vine! This winery is the most recently opened in the Twenty Valley and the two people behind the brand are retired educators looking for a passion project. They’ve found it, and are doing a marvelous job. The winery is producing about five hundred cases of wine, and has received accolades for their very first vintage. The wine we were able to taste as part of the pairing with Wrapped Up in the Valley was the 2011 Gamay Noir. A beautiful Gamay, just as the varietal commands, this is a lighter red wine that is easy sipping but full of complex flavour. Fruit forward with hints of earth, the pairing that they had prepared was spot on! Pistachio-Crusted Pork Tenderloin with Greens was, simply put, ideal. The earthy notes of the wine were pulled out and given the opportunity to shine with the pork tenderloin. The fruit forward flavours were front and centre with the addition of fresh berries to the greens. I can’t say enough about how much we enjoyed our time at this location, and I really hope that you decide to give them a try!

Click here for Part 2!

The Author

Allie Hughes is the wine and culinary contributor to Naturally in Niagara, feasting on the decadent experience that is life in this region. With a fine wine sensibility honed at the International Sommelier Guild, Allie is taking the journey of Niagara by the glass with you with each new taste. Allie is also the creative mind behind the marketing of the Canadian Food and Wine Institute, and owner of Hughes & Co., a boutique social strategy firm.

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