PEC chardonnays performed well at the recent Seriously Cool tasting of Ontario chards in London - Tony Aspler said that "the ebullient Oz Clarke was particularly impressed by the chardonnays of Prince Edward County" in a Toronto Star article about the tasting. Just as "Seriously Cool" was a good name for the London event, Terroir Wine Celebration is a good name for the PEC event.

Sunset over Lake Ontario at Sandbanks Provincial Park

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The County has limestone-heavy, rocky soil with plenty of shale - giving it a "terroir" that introduces a lot of minerality into the wines, and it's especially obvious in the whites. The other part of the terroir equation is the weather: cool even by Niagara's modest standards. So most County wines have very high acidity and whites have more delicate fruit flavours. The driest, most mouth-puckeringly acidic riesling I've ever had was made by Frederic Picard at Huff Estates.

The County is a lovely place to visit and drive around, but it's big - there can be many kilometres between wineries. So take a trip to the Crystal Palace Fairgrounds in Picton and have all the County's wines come to you. Terroir is on Sat. May 29, 2010 from noon - 5:00 p.m.

Tickets are $20 in advance/$25 at the door (cash only).

For more information and tickets, visit the website.