My pal Tracey and I headed up to the Friday afternoon industry tasting at Cornucopia in Whistler a few weeks back. (Thank Judas there is a mountain getaway wine event in the dreary November rainy season.) We decided to make a quick day trip of it, just to wet our lips at this year’s event… that was, until the snow came and the mountain announced its opening two weeks ahead of schedule; my plans quickly changed. Fresh snow equals staying in the mountains, which was the perfect excuse to also take full advantage of the food and wine festival. My intention was to attend as much as I could, meet more people and soak up the scene (and the wine). It’s the intention that counts, right? I chose bombing down a mountain on a board in new, perfect, buttery snow rather than the former intention. Instead of spending a small fortune on all of the festival’s wine and food events, I spent a small fortune après, fireside at the Chateau’s Mallard lobby bar.
Rasoul Salehi, Executive Director of Le Vieux Pin and La Stella (Okanagan), was kind enough to offer me a bottle of his 2007 LaStella Fortissimo for us to enjoy. Crafted from two agreeable palates, this is a bold but soft Italian-inspired blend, a deep, rich ruby (52% Merlot, 43% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Cabernet Franc) with a whole lot of black fruits on the nose and even more on the palate, balanced nicely with hints of chocolate and cedar. Soft and velvety throughout, it’s got some tight tannins, but this is one that’ll do well with a few years, or why not right now with a juicy hunk o’ meat? I quite enjoyed it, white robe and mountain room aside slightly persuading the mood… ($35)
I did manage to snap off a few pics of the festival and my new mountain “wine fridge”. Sorry Rasoul – a portion of your Fortissimo ended up on the roof of the Chateau. But not before I enjoyed most of it. Not a bad branding tactic perhaps?
This is the part where I link to all the fabulous posts on the event’s site so you can dig for more great info, but it doesn’t seem they have an official blog space, or photos on Flickr?… in doing a quick search I found Degan’s piece on Foodist.ca and Jennifer was covering things for Miss 604 in this post. Let me know if I’ve missed others. Here’s a few more pics from “Culinary Fool” on Flickr.
0 Comments.