Vancouver International Wine Festival - Thursday and Saturday night tasting SOLD OUT! Friday and Saturday afternoon still available.

Cibo Trattoria manager Mark Taylor, Rocca delle Macie General Manager Marco Toti and Bill Tieleman, Wine Barbarian at winery dinner Wednesday night.

If you love wine and want to attend any of the big International Festival Tasting events - MOVE QUICKLY - because not only is the ever-popular Saturday February 18 night event sold out but so is the Thursday night tasting!

Fortunately the Friday night tasting and the Saturday afternoon matinee tasting still have tickets available but you have to act now if you want to go.

Head online directly to the Vancouver International Wine Festival ticket sales site - linked here - and purchase your tickets now.

There are also a few tickets left for Thursday afternoon's "Ontario Cool" tasting with wines from that province and Saturday's noon Celebrating Canada's 150th lunch - both sound great!

This is an incredible tasting - North America's largest consumer wine festival!

Rocce delle Macie wines at Cibo dinner

And with Canada featured as the regional country focus for our 150th anniversary celebrations - its a unique opportunity to try many fine wines from not just British Columbia and Ontario but also Nova Scotia - where there are some really interesting wineries producing award-winning sparkling and still wines.  

And of course, there are lots of wineries from France, Italy, Spain, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Chile and the United States - as you would expect.

Then there's the unexpected countries - Turkey for the first time I believe; Croatia on a return visit after surprising and impressing previously; Uruguay - another first if memory is correct - home of some great Tannats; Greece and Japan.

So don't miss out - this is your once a year chance!  See you there - and check this blog, my @BillTieleman Twitter feed and Facebook page for updates and recommendations for top wines you shouldn't miss!