Better hurry if you want to attend the fabulous Vancouver International Wine Festival 2015 - events selling out fast!

Tasting in style at last year's Vancouver International Wine Festival

One of the biggest and best wine events in North America opens next month - and tickets are disappearing quickly already!

The Vancouver International Wine Festival runs from February 20 to March 1 with dozens of great events from the International Festival Tastings with hundreds of wines and wineries to small, intimate seminars to delicious wine dinners - but you literally have to move fast to get tickets before it's too late.

You can check out all VIWF events here to see what's happening and what is still available.

Unfortunately, the flagship Saturday night International Festival Tasting is already sold out but Thursday and Friday night's 3-hours of wine grazing greatness are still available at $89 per ticket, from 7 to 10 p.m.  Or go Saturday afternoon for 2 hours from 3 to 5 p.m. for just $68.  

The good news is that you cannot fail to get far more than your money's worth with the amazing wines there to taste - some of which run well upwards of $100 a bottle!

This year's regional theme is Australia - and who doesn't like a hardy - or Hardy - Shiraz or Syrah or a delicious Grenache Syrah Mouvedre or a big Chardonnay from a country whose wines are always a top seller in BC.  And the global wine theme is Syrah this year.

But better still, you can taste Aussie wines that we don't ordinarily find in BC - one of the charms of the VIWF is bringing new faces and bottles to BC.

And it's not all Australian - wines from France, Italy, Spain, the United States, Canada, Germany, New Zealand and many more countries are also prominently featured.

Another advantage:  the VIWF insists each winery send a principal player in their operation to attend - and many winemakers are your pourer at their tasting booths, giving you the chance to ask about brix, malolactic fermentation, choice of oak for barrel aging, terroir's impact on their wines and how they survive the wine circuit with livers and wits still intact!

If you like food with wine - you also need to hurry - because 10 of 16 sumptuous wine dinner are now sold out.  But those remaining - and going fast - are all excellent choices.

Whatever you do, whatever your taste, if you like wine you simply do not want to miss this great event - and I haven't for the last 24 consecutive years!

Check out this blog for tips on what to try at the VIWF closer to the big International Festival Tastings - because with you need advice when there are up to 750 wine available to taste - even if you attend all three nights, it's not advisable to try 250 wines per evening!  [If you see me there, ask about my personal best! ;-) ]

In addition to the Festival website pages linked above, you can find out more by checking the Twitter hashtag #VIWF or following @VanWineFest on Twitter.

See you there!

Champagne or sparkling wine the drink of choice on New Years Eve!

"Three be the things I shall never attain: Envy, content, and sufficient Champagne.

 - Dorothy Parker

Happy New Year!  It's New Years Eve tonight and you don't yet have your champagne or sparkling wine bought yet?  Worse still, you don't know what to buy?


Have no fear, bubbles information is here!

There are some delicious and even very affordable sparkling wines available in your local BC Liquor store - even one Wine Spectator Top 100 bottle rated 91 points from California for just $22.99!

That Mumm Napa Brut Prestige is ranked #54 in the 2014 Wine Spectator Top 100 list - and it is my top recommendation for an affordable but excellent New Years toast.

Best of all, there are 2,433 bottles available in government Liquor Stores across BC and it is actually on sale - $22.99 is $3 off the regular price through January 3, 2015.  This bubbly and others are also available in some private stores.

Here's a brief description of this non-vintage wine: 

"Mumm Napa Brut Prestige is made with Pinot Noir and Chardonnay and a little Pinot Meunier. It’s a pale peach in colour and creamy with flavours of peach, melon and citrus. 

The wine opens with gorgeous layered white blossom aromas, followed by creamy vanilla, citrus, stone fruit and melon. Yeast aging contributes subtle aged flavours of biscuit, bread dough, white blossoms and mocha, and layers of creamy texture. It is medium-bodied, with elegant acidity, crisp structure, excellent mousse and a rich finish." 

But there are lots of other choices for more money or less.

Starting with cheaper choices that don't bite going down, I recommend from France the Veuve du Vernay - in both Blanc de Blancs Brut and Brut Rose styles for only $13.99 each at government Liquor Stores - also on sale by $1.   

This is always a solid choice for budget bubbly - in fact, we just poured some of the Brut Rose for neighbours this weekend - it's got a nice strawberry nose and is just a delightful easy drinking treat.  So is the Blanc de Blancs Brut.  And with over 10,000 bottles of the two wines available you can't fail to find it!

But what if you are intent on splurging?  You want real Champagne - which only comes from the Champagne region of France, of course.

Here's an easy choice on sale for $5 off the admittedly high price - Lanson Black Label Brut for $59.99.   Rated 89 points by the Wine Spectator, this is always a great Champagne with pear, black cherry, smoke and spice notes. There are 320 bottles in government stores around BC.

And of course, each bottle of Champagne comes with about 1 million bubbles - enough to go around!

Want to spend the maximum?  Try the Louis Roederer 2002 Crystal Brut - a mere $11,500 a bottle!  Maybe after the lottery!


How about a BC sparkling wine alternative?  Sure - try the Sumac Ridge Stellars Jay on sale for $21.99 or the See Ya Later Ranch Syl Brut on sale for $20.99.  

And you really can't go wrong with sparkling wines - any bottle over $12 is likely to do just fine - there are good Spanish cavas, Australian and other sparklers that are tasty treats.

Just be careful opening your sparking wine correctly - don't do it like race car drivers who just won the Formula One - the correct method is to hold the cork firmly and twist the bottle slowly - you get that satisfying "POP" without wasting the precious liquid on the floor!

And to impress your friends and family with your newly-found wine knowledge - there are always, always 7 twists to undo on the wire cage keeping the cork in place because of the high pressure of the bubbly wine in the bottle.  Just count them out loud when you undo the cage.

Lastly - don't aim the cork at anyone - it can travel up to 50 miles an hour and indeed can take out an eye or break the fine china in a second!

Cheers - and a very Happy New Year to all readers!  

A wine and dine Christmas 2014 dinner - French style; and a big Rhone dinner too with 100 point Hermitage La Chapelle wine!

Christmas Dinner - all French fine wines!

We had a fabulous Christmas dinner - French style by Chef Shirley Ross and Bill Tieleman.

We started with French Chaorce cheese from the Champagne regions and pate with crackers with a lovely 2011 Drouhin-Vaudon Vaillon Chablis rated 90 points by Robert Parker; followed by gougeres with smoked Applewood cheddar made Shirley - all with Nicholas FIeullette Brut Reserve Champagne rated 91 points by the Wine Spectator; Bill's seared foie gras with a fig/eau di vie compote and a 2003 Chateau Myrat Sauterne rated 95 pts by the Wine Spectator.

Fresh gougeres

Then our main course: Shirley's lapin a la moutarde - two rabbits cooked in Dijon mustard sauce with white wine and heavy cream, accompanied by a 2009 Saint Prefert August Favier Reserve Chateauneuf-du-Pape rated 94 points by the Wine Spectator.  The lapin was served with roasted garlic mashed Yukon Gold potatoes and - what else - French green beans, along with bourbon-maple syrup roasted mashed yams.

Lapin a la moutarde

After a reasonable break to digest, we went on to a selection of Thomas Haas desserts along with the 2003 Chateau Myrat Sauterne.  For the non-French ending, and then after another period of digestion, a flight of bourbons with a super smooth Evan Williams Single Barrel, put in oak in 2004; a Col. E.H. Taylor Small Batch and a Stagg Jr Straight Cut with 60% alcohol! 

Bourbons after dinner - mmmm!

For those who worry about the amount of alcohol - fear not - small portions and vacuum sealed bottles mean overindulgence was avoided - mostly - though the amount of fat from the cream, butter, foie gras, chocolate and more was significant!  But it's Christmas dinner. 

I was also fortunate enough to have a Rhone wine dinner earlier in December - what an amazing selection of wines!

It was capped with the first 100 point wine I've ever tasted - a 1990 Paul Jaboulet Hermitage "La Chapelle" - simply marvellous.  Robert Parker raved about it and rated it at 100 - a perfect score!  

Parker: "Spectacular aromatics offer up aromas of incense, smoke, blackberry fruit, cassis, barbecue spice, coffee, and a touch of chocolate. As it sits in the glass, additional nuances of pepper and grilled steak emerge. There is extraordinary freshness for such a mammoth wine in addition to abundant tannin, an amazing 60-second finish, and a level of glycerin and thick, fleshy texture that have to be tasted to be believed." 

Amazing wine!

We started with the sole white - a Barville Chateauneuf-du-Pape from Brotte - 100% Rousanne Blanc - rated 91 by Robert Parker - if you have never tried white CNP, do yourself a favour - I hadn't until a five years ago and it's now one of my favourites!  This one was outstanding - apples, pears, almonds and more in a glass.

Our Rhone wines of the evening

We also tasted a 2006 Vieux Telegraphe "La Crau" rated 93 points by Parker; a 2005 Cote Rotie "Les Essartailles" from Le Vins de Vienne rated 86 by Parker but higher by me; a 2004 CNP from Les Closiers rated 90 by the Wine Spectator; a beautiful 2000 Chateau Beaucastel CNP rated 94 by Parker; another 2000 CNP from Domaine Grand Veneur rated 90 by Parker; and the 1990 Hermitage!  You can see them below.

The dinner was also excellent - rack of lamb as the main preceded by arancini, cheeses and crackers, and accompanied by great salads and sides.  

And then a surprise - our gracious host Jim opened a 1999 Turley Petite Syrah from Napa Valley - non-Rhone indeed - that Parker scored 97 points.  That ended the evening with a bang!   

The 100 point Hermitage!

Big Turley 1999 Petite Syrah 

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