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8 Oakville Beaver Weekend Sunday May 23, 1999 C anadian w ines co n tin u e to w in accolades Congratulations are in order to Konzelmann Estate Winery at Niagara-on-the-Lake. Entering his 1997 Vidal Ice Wine in the distinguished CONCOURS MONDIAL de BRUXELLES, one of the top international Wine competitions held in Europe, Herbert Konzelmann competed against the best dessert wines, such as TBA's from Germany and Sautems from France and Ice Wines from Canada. There was a total of over 2,000 interna­ tional entries from 27 countries. After it was all over, Konzelmann Winery brought home not only a gold medal, but the competition's most prestigious GRANDE MEDAILEE d 'OR, the great Gold Medal. This is a special medal presented to the best over-all wine. It is no wonder that he had also entered this wine in the AIR ONTARIO competition held in Toronto. As one of the judges, I had of course no idea what wines ALEX EBERSRAECHER Wine Cellar we tasted, but after the results were made public last weekend, I checked my notes and found that I rated the same 97 Vidal Ice Wine at least ten points over the next competitor's wine. Needless to say that Herbert Konzelmann walked away with yet another gold medal. However, the story at the Air Ontario Competition was one of the wines from Stoney Ridge Cellars from Ontario. Out of 19 categories, ranging from sparkling wines right through to dessert wines, Stoney Ridge Cellars amassed a / 1 1 ~ r Hr■ ft11 I t n . 1 T t 2 1 J O I N U S T H IS W E E K E N D F O R T H E P R E V IE W O P E N IN G L A U N C H O F B U IL D IN G I I A fabulous setting on the wooded ridge overlooking downtown O akville and Sixteen M ile Creek • Elegantly and luxuriously appointed suites with 9' ceilings • Steps from the GO Train $ a m t B 2 BEDROOM BUTTES * Minutes from shopping, the harbour and the QEW * Superb recreation facilities, including indoor pool, private park and walking trails * Price includes underground parking and 5 free appliances : .*169 9 0 0 (905)338-2800Monday - Thursday; 12 p.m. - 6 p.m. Sat., Sun. & Hoi.; Noon - 5 p.m. Closed Fridays ^ ^ M R U W m PANORAMIC PtNWOUSES -900 P rice and specifications arc subject to change without notice. E. & O.E. All renderings are artist's concept.'4 8 0 SUPERB CONDOMINIUM LIVING ON THE RIDGE IN OAKVILLE grand total of nine medals. Among those nine medals were four in gold, for the 97 Vidal, the 97 Chardonnay, the 97 Reserve Pinot Noir and one for the 97 Late Harvest Riesling- Traminee Having had the pleasure of tasting all the wines from Stoney Ridge, I don't think that Jim Warren knows how to produce a mediocre wine. Two other wineries that warrant some attention are Colio Estates from the Lake Erie North Shore region of Ontario and Southbrook Fanns from the Richmond Hill area. Both of those wineries achieved very high marks by the tasters and received their fair share of medals. Colio Estates also was honoured by winning the Air Ontario Wine of the Year Award for their Colio Late Harvest Vidal. The competition was sponsored by Air Ontario and orga­ nized by the Toronto Star's wine writer, Tony Aspler. A final sip In my last column I reviewed the great Chilean Sauvignon Blanc dessert wine from Errazuriz. The results were pre­ dictable and the wine is now sold out at many stores. There is none left at the LCBO warehouse and if you are lucky enough to find some at your local store, it will be the last until about August when the new shipment from Chile will arrive. It certainly is worthwhile to look for the last few bot­ tles... I bought mine. Read fine print in employment agreements Here is an interesting situation that probably happens with greater frequency that any of us will ever know. See if you can figure this one out. This happened to one of my clients. After my client went to several inter­ views for a new job, he was called on the telephone and offered the posi­ tion he sought. During this tele­ phone call, he and the employer agreed on three things: his salary, job title, and date he was to attend the workplace to start his job, some three weeks later. My client arrived on the appointed day at 8:30 a.m. At noon, his boss entered his new office and gave him a stack of papers telling him to read, sign and return them to human resources that day. His boss left him alone in his office to do so. My client did what he was told to do. Some documents pertained to income tax, personal information, emergency contacts, etc. One document was the company handbook. Another document was entitled "Employment Agreement." In that document was a paragraph entitled 'Termination without cause." It was very clear upon my reading of it, that my client's employment could be terminated without cause during the first three years of employment, upon two week notice. My client admitted to reading it, but to not paying much attention to the termination clause. He stated he signed the doc­ uments, because he needed the job and had already started working so he wasn't about to take issue with the substance of the employment agreement. A very common occurrence. After close to two years of employment, my client was fired, allegedly with cause, but the company offered him a "gratu­ itous payment" of two weeks of salary in accordance with the termination without cause provision in the employment con­ tract. He came to me asking whether he had received the appro­ priate amount of pay in lieu of notice. The issue was whether the contract governed this situation or whether the contract was somehow unenforceable, thereby, allowing my client to resort to common law to establish the appropriate amount of notice. Clearly, it was in his interests to not be bound by the contract, as the reasonable amount of notice in his situation would have been in excess of two weeks. I fired up the research computer and yelped with glee, when I found the following case: Francis v. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (1994) 7 C.C.E.L. (2d) I (Ont. C.A.). The facts were almost identical to my client's case. In the Francis case, there had been an initial exchange of correspondence upon which the contract was founded. The (See 'Court1 page 9)