Membership does have its privileges.
The lone wine club to which we belong — Tawse — netted us an invite to a special event last night: a 6-course tasting menu at Campagnolo restaurant, long on my to-hit list, in which the food would be paired with wines from the new Tawse offshoot winery, Redstone. We sat at the tasting bar with another couple, and shared cooking tips and winery recommendations, and watched the kitchen do their thing. Here’s what the kitchen hit us with:
Daisy Bay oysters
2012 Limestone South Riesling
Scallops and saffron with carrot butter and sicilian lemon
2011 Redstone Chardonnay
60-day aged beef tartare with truffle sauce and brioche
2010 Redstone Vineyard Syrah
Celeriac agnolotti with chanterelle mushrooms and tallegio
2010 Redstone Vineyard Merlot
Roasted Ontario lamb rack and braised lamb neck with swiss chard and toasted farro
2010 Meritage
Rhubarb zeppole
2010 Cabernet Franc Icewine
The food was spectacular, and the wines were VERY good. I think Redstone will be a great compliment to the Tawse lineup, adding varietals like Pinot Gris, Sauvignon Blanc, and Cabernet Sauvignon, and a very different Riesling. Both winemakers — Paul Pender from Tawse and Rene Van Ede from Redstone — were on hand to talk about the wines, and I’m looking forward to where this could go. Side note: it turns out Paul Pender has (had?) ties to Springhill, NS, near where I’m from.
Here’s hoping Tawse and Redstone throw more shindigs like this.
.:.
Cover photo by Ken Lewis, used under Creative Commons license
Skirl | Dan Dickinson 
[…] I’m not sure what the reception wines were paired with, because the seniors who made up 95% of the attendees would swarm any server with a tray before they got ten feet from the kitchen. Some of them were taking 3 or 4 hors d’oeuvres at a time. It was weird. The food was okay…good steak but otherwise nothing special. We felt a little underwhelmed by the evening and, frankly, in need of a proper full glass of wine. This event was okay, but it was no Tawse wine members dinner. […]
[…] But this event, put on by Tawse for their wine club members to introduce their new Redstone wines, was outstanding. Not just “good for an event like this”, but some of the tastiest food we ate all […]
[…] a few Toronto eateries this year, some new, some old but new to us: Carbon Bar, Monk Kitchen, Campagnolo, Stock, Parts & Labour, Boxcar Social, Patria (twice), Byblos, Pizzeria Libretto, […]