Participants will be guided through a tasting of carefully selected Tawse Winery wines with winemaker Paul Pender joining in as a special guest
May 26th – VineRoutes, Canada’s newest online wine publication, has announced a partnership with somm™ to present a virtual wine tasting experience that will feature special guest and renowned winemaker Paul Pender of Tawse Winery. Set your calendars for Saturday, June 12 at 7:30pm.
“With stay-at-home measures still very much encouraged, we have the opportunity to enter into this virtual event space and improve the online wine tasting experience,” said VineRoutes founder and director Carmelo Giardina. “With so many ongoing ‘support local’ initiatives, we feel this is a great way to lend our voices in support of our local industry and encourage people to shop local wines and perhaps learn more about what’s right here in our own backyard.”
The format of the VineRoutes and somm™ virtual tasting is to be approximately one hour in length and is set to cover much more than just tasting notes. Participants will be guided through the event by somm’s sommelier in residence Jordan Mazzanti, as well as Keegan Ferguson, the General Manager and Wine Director of the Paradise Entertainment Complex in Toronto, Ontario. The wines being tasted and discussed are three wines from Tawse Winery – all single vineyard expressions that each convey that buzzword everyone loves to say but might not fully understand: terroir.
Winemaker Paul Pender is the event’s special guest and will help put the wines into perspective as well as share his own stories about the wine, the vineyards, and their inspiration. Participants are encouraged to purchase the three wines being tasted in advance so that they can actively participate in the experience. Please click here to purchase online.
As a group, we’re excited to feature the ever-evolving Tawse brand and focus on Niagara’s geography, which enables its winemakers in the region to produce unique wines that are distinct to the area’s soil and cooler climate.
“Ontario has so much to offer when it comes to wine and we can’t wait to showcase some of the best of the province with the folks at VineRoutes, Tawse, and our partners over at Paradise and Osteria Rialto,” says Jennifer Stasiewich, Founder of sommTM.
“We are delighted to work with our friends at somm™ to bring you a piece of Niagara’s wine story, right to your living room through this virtual tasting experience,” added Giardina. “We’re especially excited that this first event is featuring a winery that’s a leader in so many aspects of sustainable winemaking. It also helps that their wines are truly fantastic and that Paul (Pender) will be there to answer questions and share his incredible stories directly to our participants. In these trying times, we hope this experience proves educational, entertaining and fun!”
For more details and event registration, please go to vineroutes.com/events.
About VineRoutes
Stories about wine, the people who make it and the places it comes from. VineRoutes is an Ontario, Canada based wine trade platform that intends to provide insight not just on Canada’s wine regions, but on a variety of regions around the world. With a story behind every bottle, every label, every vintage and every winemaker, VineRoutes aims to share some of these stories with you. Visit www.vineroutes.com for more information.
About Somm™
We believe that the future of wine is tech and we’re focused on making wine more approachable and accessible to everyone. With technology and machine learning at its core, sommTM is building a recommendation engine for the human palate, and in the process, putting a sommelier in everyone’s pocket. Whether it’s in seamlessly helping its users pick the perfect bottle, make the best pairing, or discover a whole new world of wine through marketplace, sommTM’s simple and intuitive tech is unlocking the wine world for the masses. Download sommTM today to join the journey and become part of the Cru. Visit www.bethesomm.com for more information.
Paul Pender – Special Guest – Head Winemaker, Tawse Winery
Paul Pender has been head winemaker at Tawse Winery since 2006. Under his leadership, Tawse was named Canadian Winery of the year in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2016. He also earned the title of Winemaker of the Year at the Ontario Wine Awards in 2011. Former carpenter and graduate of Niagara College’s Winery and Viticulture program, Paul adopts a “non-interventionist as far as possible” philosophy. He is a firm believer that the start of every great wine begins in the vineyard and he is passionate about crafting wines that express a sense of place.
Keegan Ferguson – Special Guest Host – General Manager, Paradise Entertainment Complex
Keegan Ferguson is the General Manager and Wine Director of the Paradise Entertainment Complex in Toronto, Ontario. Paradise consists of Osteria Rialto; an upscale-casual Italian tavern, Bar Biltmore; an art-deco upscale rooftop cocktail bar, and Paradise Theatre; a 350-person capacity multi-disciplinary venue. Paradise’s vision and venue was developed and is owned by Moray Tawse, founder of First National as well as, Tawse Family Winery in Niagara, Ontario. Keegan, along with his valued team at Paradise, strives to provide guests in each concept with a hospitality-first experience, allowing guests to explore their total senses through food, beverage, history and the arts. Keegan has received his diploma certification through WSET, and is a certified sommelier through the Court of Master Sommeliers.
Jordan Mazzanti – Host – Sommelier in residence, somm™
Working with somm since inception, Jordan believes in making wine more discoverable and approachable. In addition to his role with somm, Jordan is also a Sommelier at Langdon Hall, Relais and Chateaux. He is a Certified Sommelier through the Canadian Association of Professional Sommeliers and he has spent his entire adult life working in restaurants and hospitality on four different continents.
