Posted By Wine With Karl
Yes I know it is still a few months away, but I thought I'd let you know as there are early bird tickets available now. For those that are new to the wine scene in Vancouver, BC, every year around Feb-March there is this wine fest, held at the Vancouver Trade and Convention Centre downtown, plus numerous smaller tastings/dinners at restaurants around the lower mainland. This is THE wine event of the year for the wine trade, and for anyone that enjoys wine. Each year there is a theme country/region, and a theme varietal. This year the theme is "British Columbia" and the theme varietal is "Pinots", which means any pinot based grape (e.g. pinot noir, pinot gris). This will be a great time to try out smaller BC-based wineries which don't typically go to the wine festival. It is usual that the country/region that is the theme for that year sends a large delegation for the main tasting room. Here is a partial list of the BC wineries that will be participating (including one of my favorites. If you don't remember which one, check a few blogs back :-)Deep Creek Wine Estate & Hainle Vineyards Estate Winery
Averill Creek Vineyard / Salt Spring Winery
Arrowleaf Cellars
Artisan Sake Maker
Black Hills Estate Winery
Blasted Church
Blue Mountain Vineyard and Cellars
Burrowing Owl Estate Winery
CedarCreek Estate Winery
Cherry Point Vineyards
Church & State Wines
Desert Hills Estate Winery /Dunham & Froese Estate Winery
Domaine de Chaberton
Elephant Island Orchard Winery
Fairview Cellars / Garry Oaks
Ganton & Larsen Prospect Winery
Gehringer Brothers Estate Winery
Gray Monk Estate Winery
Herder Winery & Vineyards
Hester Creek Estate Winery
Hillside Estate Winery
Thornhaven Estates Winery
Inniskillin Okanagan Vineyards
Jackson-Triggs Okanagan
Joie Farm
Kettle Valley Winery
La Frenz Winery
Lake Breeze Vineyards
Laughing Stock Vineyards
Mission Hill Family Estate
Mt. Boucherie Estate Winery
Nk’Mip Cellars
Noble Ridge Vineyard & Winery
Osoyoos Larose
Peller Estates
Pentâge Winery
Poplar Grove Winery
Quails' Gate
Red Rooster Winery
Road 13 Vineyards
Sandhill
See Ya Later Ranch
St Hubertus
Estate Winery
Stoneboat Vineyards
Sumac Ridge Estate Winery
Summerhill Pyramid Winery
Tantalus Vineyards
Therapy Vineyards
Tinhorn Creek Vineyards
Township 7 Vineyards and Winery
Twisted Tree Vineyards & Winery
Wild Goose Vineyards & Winery
The other benefit of attending the main tasting room, is that there is a special wine store at the back of the tasting room, where you can buy many of the wines you were tasting. MANY of the wines are specialty wines brought in ONLY for this event so these are the wines to buy!
Besides BC, there will be wines from USA, Australia, France, Italy, Chile and many other countries. If you are curious about French wine, but don't want to spend lots of money buying bottles in the liquor store without knowing anything about it, you can sample it at the wine festival. Another bonus is that a winery principal MUST attend the tasting room so you may have a chance to chat with the wine maker from another part of the world. That is really exciting.
The event this year is March 23-29/09.
ENJOY!
