Ontario village plays host to important wine festival
"On the July 17th weekend there will be more Ontario wine talent - and Ontario wine - in Lakefield than anywhere else in the province. The reason is the second annual Lakefield Great Canadian Wine and Cheese Show.
How does an Ontario village like Lakefield get to be a major stop on the Ontario wine map? Lakefield started life as a mill town, then became a boat-building centre on the Trent Canal system, about 16 kilometres upstream from Peterborough. Not a likely location for wine enthusiasts."
Over the past couple of years, Larry Patterson, manager of the Lakefield LCBO store, has brought the village, and the entire Kawartha Lakes district, thundering into the wine scene - with particular emphasis on Ontario wines.
The list of Ontairo wines available at Patterson's store is probably the largest in the province. He's studied Ontario wines, taught his staff, and done dramatic things with sales volume of Ontario wines.
Last year Patterson decided to mount a wine and cheese festival to showcase Ontario wines and cheeses from some of the province's smaller cheese makers. It was a roaring success -- although the LCBO brass had some concern about one of their store managers behaving is such a commercial way.
In fact, when Patterson began talking about staging a second Lakefield Great Canadian Wine and Cheese show, his LCBO bosses in Toronto told him to cool it. They didn't want the LCBO involved and they didn't want Patterson involved.
The Village of Lakefield and the Lakefield Chamber of Commerce immediately moved to take over running the show, and if Larry Paterson could be prevailed upon to answer a few questions that might help, why maybe the LCBO in Toronto wouldn't mind.
There will be more than 22 Ontario wineries and about a dozen cheese makers represented at this year's Lakefield show, at the village's Smith Memorial Community Centre.
From 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. there will be some of Ontario's best wines and cheeses available for sampling. There will be wine seminars with experts to answer questions, and at 5 p.m., I'm scheduled to be part of such a panel with Tony Aspler and David Lawrason, Toronto's top wine writers.
To get to Lakefield, take Hwy. 7 towards Peterborough, and about 15 km before Peterborough, you'll see a sign pointing north to Lakefield. The drive from Ottawa will take about three hours.