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?

The hill was far too heavenly. I chose bombing down a mountain on a board in new, perfect, buttery snow rather than the former intention. Ah well. 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 and I am happy to toss in my notes, 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 and I was hoping for a tad more on the finish, 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 ish)

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?… and 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 worth linking to. Here’s a few more pics from “Culinary Fool” on Flickr.

Vancouver played host to Napa Valley at the Fairmont Waterfront Hotel this month as part of “Wine Arts”, an event hosted by Arts Umbrella. Lucky me got to join and transport myself from bad lighting and industrial carpeting to some of the Greats from Calistoga, St. Helena and Rutherford.

In speaking with some of the winemakers, winery owners and reps and local agents, the wines fell under categories of a. available in Vancouver, b. never going to be available in Vancouver and c. “We’ve been trying for years to get into Vancouver!”. So good luck finding them. Locally, try the private wine shops first. If nothing else, head down to Napa and try them all in person.

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My Highlight Reel:

• Trefethen 2003 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon – deep purple, dark fruits, beautifully balanced, long smokey finish – Available (Canada) through Lanigan & Edwards
• 2006 Diamond Creek “Gravelly Meadow” Cabernet Sauvignon – most expensive wine of the night and one of the best – funny how that happens.
• 2007 Laird Family Estate Cold Creek Ranch Chardonnay – just the way you’d expect a full, toasty Cali Chardonnay. This one was a treat.
• 2006 Quintessa (85% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Merlot, 2% Cabernet Franc, 2% Petit Verdot, & 1% Carmenere) – A lot going on with this rich and beautiful wine with black fruits and plenty of spice. This one needs some meat or put it away for another day down the road. Yum!
• Heitz Cellars Ink Grade Port – Holy Purple! This is one smoooooth porto. And check out the ancient Portuguese varietals: Touriga Nacional, Tinta Roriz, Sausao, Tinta Cao, Tinta Bairada, Tinta Madeira, Tinta Amarela, Bastardo – These read something like Russian for the Rookie, but wow. Heitz Cellars says it perfectly: “The perfect reason to linger over dinner.”.

[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.

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Official Tags: vccc09 | vinocampvan09 | vinocamp | cheesecamp