Taste Local, Love Local A Celebration of Ontario's Bounty

LCBO presents Taste Local Love Local, the 2015 Ontario wine promotion taking place at 655 LCBO stores across the province until October 10.

TORONTO, Sept. 13, 2015 /CNW/ -Together with VQA Wines of Ontario and Wine Country Ontario, LCBO presents Taste Local Love Local, the 2015 Ontario wine promotion taking place at 655 LCBO stores across the province until October 10. In addition to sharing pride in our world-class, award-winning wineries, we're celebrating all things local – including craft beer and spirits, local produce and home-grown culinary talent.

On September 24^th in Toronto at The Burroughes, a unique, walk-around tasting will be held for media and consumers to sip, savour and sample 24 different Ontario VQA wines. Hosted by celebrity chef Lynn Crawford, wine and food lovers can take a journey through Ontario's wine destinations, while meeting local winemakers, chefs and food artisans. Media are invited from 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. and consumers are welcome from 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. Tickets can be purchased at http://lcbotastelocal.eventbrite.ca.

Three videos featuring celebrity chef Lynn Crawford and winemakers on a Taste Local Love Local tour of Ontario wine destinations will also be featured on www.lcbo.com/winecountryvideos.

Every Saturday during Taste Local Love Local customers can entice their senses and enhance their wine pairing wisdom with live demonstrations by local chefs in LCBO event kitchens across Ontario. Inspired by recipes from Chef Crawford's Harvest Menu, the dishes incorporate local preserves and are perfect for Thanksgiving. In addition, there will be enhanced in-store VQA-exclusive tasting bars set up from Thursday-Sunday at select LCBOs.

115 restaurants across the province are offering a special Taste Local Love Local program that offers Ontario VQA wine by the glass to pair with special local menus.

Throughout the month-long promotion, Ontarians are encouraged to share photos and stories of how they taste local, live local and love local through Facebook, Twitter and Instagram (@LCBO @winecountryont and #LCBOtastelocal).

QUICK FACTS

• Sales of Ontario wine at LCBO were $423 million in fiscal 2014-15, almost seven per cent higher than the year before. Of that, $130 million was VQA sales, up five per cent over 2013-14 as VQA growth continues to outpace imports.
• In fiscal 2014-15, sales of VQA reds grew by almost seven per cent, while VQA whites grew by almost four per cent. VQA Sparkling wines showed the strongest growth at an impressive 16 per cent.
• LCBO stores regularly carry more than 300 Ontario VQA wines. VINTAGES offers 27 regularly stocked VQA wines and an additional 630 are available through VINTAGES online, and the bi-weekly release catalogue.
• LCBO has 20 Our Wine Country boutiques, which bring to life the inspiring beauty of our four wine regions and offers an enhanced selection of exclusive, hard-to-find, niche and ultra-premium Ontario Wines. To further support the local industry and enhance the shopping experience, about 400 LCBO retail employees are specially trained World of Ontario Wine leaders.

For more information on the Taste Local Love Local Ontario wine promotion or to find an event or participating restaurant near you, visit www.lcbo.com/local or call the toll-free, bilingual helloLCBO Contact Centre at 1-800-ONT-LCBO (668-5226). The TTY number for people who are deaf or hard of hearing is 416-864-6898 or 1-800-361-3291.

SOURCE LCBO

Image with caption: "Taste Local, Love Local (CNW Group/LCBO)". Image available at: http://photos.newswire.ca/images/download/20150913_C7625_PHOTO_EN_495180.jpg

MEDIA CONTACTS Keeley Rogers, Media Relations Coordinator, LCBO Office: [phone], Cell: [phone], Email: [email protected]; Christine Bujold, Media Relations Coordinator, LCBO Office: [phone], Cell: [phone], Email: [email protected]