Toledo Exchange Club Scores With Fine Wines And A Charity Boost

Each year the Exchange Club of Toledo Annual Wine Tasting continues to unite wine lovers with a great charitable cause. With a swanky setting and top flight wines, it makes for just the right blend of fundraising and fun.

Wine and Education

Last weekend was the 4th Annual Exchange Club of Toledo Wine Tasting. We wouldn’t dare miss it for a couple of reasons. First, it is a fun event at the historic Oliver House and secondly, the Cabinator (a member of our TWAV tasting team) is the organizer and his wife Glorious T is the top official with The National Exchange Club. The money raised helps support the Toledo Exchange Club’s youth scholarship program. And, did I mention the wine?

The soiree featured wines from Wine Trends with an international flair. While guests mingled, sipped wine and noshed on tasty appetizers, they could also buy tickets for the “wall of wine,” bid on silent auction items or just chat with interesting people.

The first featured wine was the Colomé Torrontes from Argentina. Torrontes is a crisp white and an underappreciated grape in the US. In Argentina it is the signature white wine. Colomé is a favorite winery of ours and produces a stellar reserve Malbec. The Torrontes was a great opener, with refreshing, light citrus flavors.

My wife, the Green Dragon, loves Sauvignon Blanc, so the next wine was right down her alley. The Mouton Cadet White Bordeaux is a blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon. It has flavors of lime and grapefruit and a tart finish minus the teeth-shattering acidity of some Sauvignon Blanc wines.

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With moderation always in mind (wink, wink) I bypassed the Moscato, which I heard was good, and moved directly into the reds. Next on the wine menu was Santa Ema Reserve Merlot, another winner from Argentina. This is a wine that scores with rich, beautiful berry flavors and amazing value. Some of the guests tried the Santa Ema and decided to drink only that the rest of the evening.

My Pick Of The Night

In the interest of journalism, I pressed on. In my glass next was the Vina Eguia Rioja Reserva. To me, this was the wine of the night – a dynamite Tempranillo from Spain’s most famous region. The wine is complex with elegant red fruit flavors liberally laced with vanilla notes. The Vina Eguia is aged for 24 months in French and American oak and is a ruby red color.

Somewhere between the Rioja and my last wine, I ended up bidding on and winning a wine dinner in the silent auction. To savor my auction win, I celebrated with a glass of The Count from California’s Buena Vista Winery. This is a unique Merlot, Syrah and Zinfandel blend with an explosive rush of flavor.

Cheers to the Exchange Club of Toledo for another outstanding event. Fine wine and supporting a worthy cause is a pairing we really appreciate.