The Ontario Chardonnay: Seriously Cool tasting at Canada House in late May was the brainchild of Bill Redelmeier of Southbrook Winery, who was inspired by the win of Niagara's Le Clos Jordanne chardonnay at a tasting in Montreal last year.  Quebec's finest noses and palates thought they were comparing Californian and French chardonnays in an echo of the 1976 "Judgment of Paris" at which California wines won. In fact the organizer slipped in a bottle from Niagara and to everyone's surprise, it won.

Redelmeier then thought of taking a selection of Ontario chardonnays to Burgundy-friendly London to see what some of the most knowledgeable and tough critics in the world think.

Calling the London event Seriously Cool is cool considering the flak chard can attract from the wine snob crowd, some of whom bandy about the term "ABC" to define their approach to white wines: anything but chardonnay. The event name is also accurate - Niagara and Prince Edward County are at the northernmost limits of chardonnay's range in this part of the continent - i.e., any cooler and it wouldn't grow.

Read Tony Aspler's summary.