La Grande Degustation de Montreal

21 November 2014

From November 6-8 this year, South Africa featured as the theme country at La Grande Degustation de Montreal wine show. This is an annual event, sponsored by the provincial liquor board, the SAQ. We had 22 tables in a space designated for South Africa and with 15 producers making the trip across for the show, the excitement in the room was palpable.

The show opened with a trade day which was very well attended. Then SAQ President Alain Brunet made a point of walking around the section to personally thank the producers for making the trip across – nice touch! Next, awards were given resulting from the Chenin Blanc competition between South Africa and the Loire. SA winners were Mulderbosch, De Morgenzon and MAN Family Wines, earning the first two a guaranteed order by the SAQ for next Spring.

We then carried on through two busy consumer days and a VIP evening. We created a passport that consumers had to get stamped 6 times in the South African section to enable them to enter a contest to win a trip for 2 to South Africa. This worked very well with over 1,000 completed entries at the end of the show (and one very happy winner!).

Lastly, we took the opportunity of having the spotlight on South Africa to ask well known Quebec media and sommeliers (on camera) to name their favorite South African wine. You can see the resulting video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSg78Ksuldk

Laurel Keenan