Tag Archives: BC

A Week of Western Wines

The past week in Vancouver saw both California and Naramata winemakers on a brief stop to present and promote their latest stars. It’s tough to make your way around a jam-packed hotel ballroom and get to know all that’s there, alas, I managed to narrow in on a few wines definitely worth mentioning. Tough days, indeed, tasting all these wines…

First up, the 30th Annual Canadian Tour of the California Wine Fair, put on by the California Wines in Canada association. This is a great event to hit each time it swings through town, usually each spring and again in the fall. You get to taste some stunning wines, a lot of which are not yet available in BC and some of which are on the very pricey side, so it’s great to be able to indulge while meeting some of the wines’ masterful makers.

The best tactic in my opinion at such an event is to have a tactic. There is no hope you can taste everything. I am heading down to the Russian River area in northern Sonoma County in May so I tried to zone in on a few wineries I could follow up with a visit.

If I listed and described all the wines I tasted or the winemakers or agents I met and enjoyed some time with, we’d be here all day, plus there is no way any one person can retain a wine overload list in a blog post, so here’s just one from Cali to put to memory:

Alexander Valley Vineyards:
Before getting to the wines, lovely people. Just lovely. I had a great time tasting and learning about some of the wines and the winemaking with John Wetzel, one of the family partners of the Wetzel Family Estate. What a difference it makes when you can taste the wines with one of the key players of the business. I’m very much looking forward to making a visit to their tasting room down south, which is nicely situated in the heart of the their winery, and getting into those infamous caves!
Known For: Sin Zinfandel. Check out their clever marketing on the “Wicked Weekend: 3-Pack of Zins” – Temptation, Sin and Redemption: crowd-pleasing zins.
Must Try: Gewurz! This is a grape not typically grown in this region but these guys have a beautiful crisp and spicy Gewurztraminer, sourcing the grapes from the Mendocino’s Potter Valley. The fruit is there, the spice, florals and minerality – a well balanced wine. They nailed it.

Vancouver was the first stop on this month-long tour as it makes its way across the country, ending in St. John’s and Halifax in mid May. Check out the full schedule and details on the calwine site.

And onto BC and the Naramata Bench…

Being from Vancouver, I am more and more familiar with the wines (and the faces!) of the infamous Naramata Bench in the Okanagan Valley, BC’s interior wine region. There have been some awesome wines that have come out of this region: Tantalus Riesling being one of my top favourites; Poplar Grove’s Pinot Gris is a big crowd-pleaser as well. It was doable to try everything in the room, but I have a small list of favourites that I’d recommend you get your hands on.

Winner of the Day: Van Westen Vineyards 2008 Viognier

Pretty stunning. This wine has the fruit right there to match the acidity and the viscosity is what you would expect from a viognier. There were only 120 cases produced, so good luck finding it, but keep an eye on this producer for this varietal. They knock it out of the park.

And better yet, I heard you can sit around their kitchen table and taste it with them when you pay them a visit – now that is personal treatment!

Also Enjoyed:
Township 7 Rosé – one of the few who succeeded in producing a typical southern French style rosé. You could polish this one off in one sitting quite easily on a hot summer day.
Therapy Vineyards 2009 Freudian Sip Proprietary blend ($19) – again, suited for patio time. The same could be said for their 2008 Pink Freud ($20). Chill these two crisp wines, sit back and soak in the sun!

I guess those last few picks means it’s that time of year again… next post: rosé all the way!

My Brief Interlude at Cornucopia

Cornucopia Food and Wine Festival in WhistlerMy 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.

Last Chance For VinoCamp CheeseCamp Tickets

vinocamp cheesecamp
HV8X2914[Update: Wow! What a day – from all accounts, everyone had an amazing time, plenty of wine and cheese was had by all, we learned a ton, met new people and enjoyed a civilized ad-hoc afternoon. Thanks to all of our sponsors – check the Flickr Pool for photos of our day (thanks to one of Vancouver’s best photographers), our Tweets and tags and hash tags #vinocamp and #vccc09 for all the updates. Thank-you to everyone who helped (especially the MAG team) and to all of our speakers and participants. See you next year…]

There just might be RAIN this Saturday in Vancouver. We need it. But even if it doesn’t rain, I say after all of this heat wave, it’s the perfect timing for the perfect pairing and staying inside to taste (drink) fine wines, eat delectable cheeses, learn from the best in the business and, if you are so inclined on the “geekery” side of things, going tech with what you are taking in – blogging, flickring, tweeting all of your new wine and cheese knowledge and experiences, all day.
Check out the line-up of amazing Speakers and the Schedule and Sessions – including a few lightening talks in the breaks and a Live Twitter Tasting with Stag’s Hallow.

REGISTER HERE – tickets are going!

Hope to see you there – Keynote with Dr. Donna Senese begins at 12:30pm.

Follow @vinocampvan
Official Tags: vccc09 | vinocampvan09 | vinocamp | cheesecamp

The Happiest Frog: BC’s Green Directory

happy frog I just joined another social network, shocking, I know, but this one is different and even a little extra special.

Happyfrog.ca is a Vancouver-born network that is starting to nurture their sustainable community through conversations, knowledge-sharing and every day practical tips, with a focus on green and healthy living.

My first go at the community was, in a word, really fun. And that’s not just because that’s what their logo tells me to do. The next word I’d use to describe my inaugural experience: useful. Practical is another. HappyFrog.ca truly is a user-generated space online, with its’ members providing the knowledge that the rest of us benefit from. It’s not too long before you can’t help but give a review or cast a vote. And why not? You’re directly contributing to your community. Reviewing a yoga studio, a physiotherapist or a park not only helps other consumers, but also provides small businesses and green organizations with feedback, promotion, and no doubt helps them generate more ideas to better serve the community.

The topic directory has pretty much listings on everything from eco travel to naturopaths to restaurants to spas. It’s all there. And rated by all of us. So it’s real.

Be sure to visit “Ask the frog” – this is a fantastic feature. It’s the site’s community Q&A – “dark greenies” can share tips with “light greenies”. (And then we all get beamed up by Scottie.) It’s pretty cool – users can throw any question out to the masses and get thoughtful responses from random users, so you’re meeting and conversing with other people using the site as well. You can also post events, add your blog to the blogroll, and what’s even better, small businesses and organizations can post their logos, business ideas and descriptions and promote themselves to the site – at zero cost.

It’d be great to get more people on the site, contributing to a greener, sustainable community by being a member and help direct the rest of the community to a healthier Vancouver: Go Green, Frogs!