About Us
In the spirit of fellowship and fun competition, The Renaissance Project created the annual Wine Tasting Challenge in November 2004. In 2005 Brock University’s Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute became the organizing/presenting body. With an ever growing purse in excess of $100,000 in prizes, cash, trips, stemware and scholarships this competition is the largest and is absolutely unique in North America. The event is truly world class in its scope, with prizes covering the entire globe and contestants flying in from all over North America.
Directed and operated by volunteers only, this competition is open to all professional sommeliers, servers, wine industry professionals, students and all wine enthusiasts who wish to challenge themselves. Most importantly, the Wine Tasting Challenge is all about “giving back” celebrating excellence in front line wine service and supporting the future excellence in Toronto/Ontario hospitality.
Entry
You may enter as a professional or as an amateur. Depending on your formal wine education and wine related career you will be juried into either category. It should be noted that it is the professional category that garners the Grand Award and the most notoriety. If you feel you’ve “got the chops” go for the professional category.
There are no entry fees and everyone is welcome. The event is operated by volunteers and all awards and competition expenses (venue, food, wines, etc.) are provided courtesy of our very valued sponsors. This event is all about the healthy spirit of competition. With that noble intent, The Renaissance Project/CCOVI does not keep nor publish any individual scores. There is every reason to enter. Only the winners and runner-ups for each of the categories are announced.
Protocol
With the wines/spirits presented ‘double blind’ (purchased and at the competition, pre-poured out of sight by “bonded” representatives from CCOVI at Brock University) the “challenge” is to correctly identify the grape varietal, country, region of origin and vintage from a diverse range of world wines. The professionals try to identify seven wines while the amateurs attempt to identify three wines. There are two supplementary rounds where (1) three VQA wines are presented double blind and (2) three spirits are presented double blind.
The Awards
- Professional: Grand Award Winner, 2nd and 3rd Place
- Amateur: 1st, 2nd and 3rd Place
- CCOVI-VQA Award: 1st Place
- Spirits Round Award: 1st Place
The Competition and Awards Gourmet Luncheon
The competition takes place the last Monday in November and the Awards Presentation Gourmet Luncheon (date to be determined).
Notification
The Renaissance Group and CCOVI have designed the competition to be a personal challenge to the participants. Once you have completed the challenge you are invited to an adjoining “fellowship of food” to celebrate and enjoy the “post game” and possibly compare notes. Again, there is no cost for this great day.
After the event:
- The competition wines are listed on the website within 48 hours of the completion of the Challenge. Winners are announced in the first available Toronto Life Magazine (February)
- Competitors will be emailed their Overall Test Result using your 7-digit random I.D. number. Only you will know your overall result.
This event has become one of the most noted wine tasting competitions in North America.
- Registration site will open by the end of September.
- November (last Monday): Competition Day
- November (within 48 hours of the competition completion): Challenge wines are posted here on the website at www.winetastingchallenge.com
- January: Winners are officially notified and posted on our website
- January: Auditor’s report is published on our website and distributed
- February: Winners are announced formally for the first time in Toronto Life Magazine
- March/April: Awards Gourmet Luncheon is held where wine media are present, individual awards and prizes are presented, and information/media releases on the Wine Tasting Challenge, our supporters and our winners is distributed
