Northern Ont. sommelier meets hero in wine competition

Northern Ont. woman returns from wine competition Sudbury sommelier Heather Downey details her experience being on the judge's panel for the International Wine Challenge in England.

Sudbury sommelier Heather Downey, of Terroir Tastings, has returned home with stories to tell after representing Canada on a panel of judges for the International Wine Challenge in England.

Downey told Anne-Marie Mediwake in an interview on CTV's Your Morning on Wednesday she tasted about 150 wines in two days as the second panel of tasters.

"I was happy to know that they'd already taken most of the non-medal wines out," she said.

"We, therefore, were determining which medal wines were slotted into and, of course, could still veto wines out. But basically, we had a nice upper echelon of wines to taste."

The wines being judged ranged in price from $10 to $10,000 per bottle, but the labels were covered up, she added.

THE AUSTON MATTHEWS OF WINE

One of the highlights of her trip, she said, was meeting her wine hero Oz Clark – a leading international wine expert who has published several books.

Downey described Clark as someone who is not an "upper crust wine guy," but understands every aspect of it and brings "a normalcy to it."

"Even though there was a panel of amazing wine people in the panel… I actually had to go up and get a snapshot with him because it would be like a young hockey player on the ice with Auston Matthews right? I was really excited," she said.

'AS GOOD AS CHAMPAGNE'

A couple of trends she noted were several blended red wines from Grenache, Syrah and Mourvedre – also known as GSM wines –and "quite a bit" of Languedoc-Roussillon from France.

"Some were really spectacular and some were not," Downey said. "So, of course, it depends on the producer, it depends on weather, climate, you know, winemaking, all of those things. But overall we had amazing wines."

Acting as her chaperone, her father Giles accompanied her on the trip and the pair visited the Ridgeview winery, a family-run business that makes sparkling wine in the heart of Sussex, while they were there. After tasting several vintage and non-vintage 'bubblies,' Downey said they are as good as champagne.

The judging for the competition has taken place over the last two and half weeks with the medals and trophies being handed out next month.