Italy, the largest wine producing country of the world, and Canada’s number one wine importing source, organizes every year at the beginning of November in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, and Montreal a wine festival attended by many prominent wineries.

This year, 78 wineries participated, pouring more than 300 wines.

The food is always of very high quality and catered by a local Italian restaurant.

Some Italian wineries still prefer to produce “old style” highly extracted, barrel aged, tannic red wines that require long cellaring to mellow, while others (possibly the majority now) switched to more fruit-driven, lighter wines, often using “new” and French grape varieties (mainly cabernet sauvignon, merlot, syrah, chardonnay, sauvignon blanc) to achieve their objective.

Below, is a list of the wines I recommend

White

Chardonnay, 2012, Planeta, Sicily
91/100

Ribolla Gialla, 2012, Castello di Friuli,
90/100

Dessert wines

Torcolato, 2009, Veneto,
93/100
375 ml

Recioto della Valpolicella, 2008, Monte Faustine, Veneto
93/100
500 ml

Red wines

Rocca di Frasinello, 2009,
Castellare di Castellina, Tuscany
92/100

Lucente, 2010, Tenuta Luce della Vite, Tuscany
94/100

Barolo Cannubi, 2008, Marchesi di Barolo, Piedmont
92/100

Barolo Sarmassa, 2008, Marchesi di Barolo, Piedmont
93/100

Passo delle Mule, Nero d’Avola, 2011, Duca di Salaparuta, Sicily
90/100

Merlot, 2009, Planeta, Sicily
91/100

Syrah, 2012, Planeta, Sicily
91/100

Santa Cecilia, 2010, Planeta, Sicily
92/100

Ornelaia 25th Anniversario 2010, Tenuta di Ornelaia, Tiscany
93/100

Il Frapatto, 2012, Valle de Acate, Sicily
92/100

Chianti Classico, 2009, Canonau a Ceretto, Tuscany
92/100

There were numerous prosecco wines, as well as pinot grigio.

I concentrated on red wines