From left: Lawrence Buhler, Rob Power, Emma Garner, Natalie Reynolds and Eric Pearson. Not pictured: Richie Roberts, Tom Green and Jason Roller. Photo: Julie Jocsak, St. Catharines Standard (www.stcatharinesstandard.ca)
Graduates of Brock’s Oenology and Viticulture program won half of the coveted Cuvée gold awards at the 22nd annual Cuvée Gala.
Rob Power, Natalie Reynolds, Marc Pistor, Eric Pearson, Emma Garner, Lawrence Buhler, Richie Roberts, Tom Green and Jason Roller — all of whom have gone on to work at some of Canada’s leading wineries — collectively won 13 out of 26 awards given for winemaking.
Cuvée is a competition whereby Ontario’s winemakers submit a selection of their finest wines to be judged by a panel of their peers.
The winemakers and assistant winemakers won awards for their wines in the following categories (makers’ names in brackets):
- Red wine: Inniskillin Wines, Reserve Series Cabernet Franc 2007 (Marc Pistor)
- Limited edition white wine: Creekside Estate Winery, Reserve Viognier 2008 (Rob Power)
- LCBO white wine: Creekside Estate Winery, Pinot Grigio 2008 (Rob Power)
- Sweet wine: Konzelmann Estate Winery, Vidal Icewine 2007 (Eric Pearson)
- Riesling: Thirty Bench Wine Makers, Small Lot Riesling “Steel Post Vineyard” 2008 (Natalie Reynolds and Emma Garner)
- Sauvignon Blanc: Creekside Estate Winery, Reserve Sauvignon Blanc 2007 (Rob Power)
- Viognier: Creekside Estate Winery, Reserve Viognier 2008 (Rob Power)
- Cabernet Franc: Inniskillin Wines, Reserve Series Cabernet Franc 2007 (Marc Pistor)
- Meritage: Thirty Bench Wine Makers, Small Lot Benchmark Red 2007 (Natalie Reynolds and Emma Garner)
- Merlot: Peller Estates Winery, Signature Series Merlot 2007 (Lawrence Buhler)
- Red assemblage: Wayne Gretzky Estates, Estates Series Shiraz Cabernet 2007 (Rob Power)
- Syrah/Shiraz: Fielding Estate Winery, Syrah 2007 (Richie Roberts)
- Sweet wine: Dan Aykroyd Wines, Signature Vidal Icewine 2006 (Tom Green and Jason Roller)
The Cuvée Gala was Feb. 19 at the Niagara Fallsview Casino.
