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 for 2007 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) two spirits are presented double blind.

The Awards

• Professional: Grand Award Winner, 2nd Place, 3rd Place
• Amateur: 1st Place, 2nd Place, 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 takes place the following spring.

Notification

The competition wines are listed on the website within 24 hours of the completion of the Challenge. Winners are announced in the first available Toronto Life Magazine (January)

The Renaissance Group/CCOVI has designed the competition to be a personal challenge to the participants. Once one completes the challenge all 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. This event is destined to become the most noted wine tasting competition in North America.

• November (last Monday): Competition Day
• November (24 hours within end of competition): Challenge wines are posted here on the website at www.winetastingchallenge.com
• December/January: Winners are announced for the first time in Toronto Life
• January: Winners are officially notified and posted on our website
• January: Auditor’s report is published on our website and distributed
• 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