It’s amazing what you can justify when you commit to a year of wine education! I’ve been wanting to attend the Vancouver International Wine Festival for years, but I always found the cost prohibitive – not this year though! Canada as the featured country was just the icing on the cake!
Prior to attending the festival, I actually looked up each winery in BC that was going to attend, perused their list of available wines, and wrote down any and all wines that I would be interested in tasting. As you can imagine, it was quite the list!
When I entered the vast tasting room at the new Vancouver Convention Centre with its amazing panoramic views of Coal Harbour, I was excited and overwhelmed at the same time. There were over 180 wineries from 16 countries presenting over 700 different wines and hundreds of people there to share in the experience.
I was grateful that I had done some research ahead of time. Having my “wish list” allowed me to approach each winery and quickly decide which wines, if any, I wanted to try and then move-on, making room for others in line behind me.
The number of people and the magnitude of the tasting were not conducive to writing tasting notes – I either liked a wine or I didn’t. With only two and a half hours, the pressure was on!
There were so many wines to try that anything I didn’t absolutely love, I poured into the spit buckets conveniently located at each table. I actually found myself wanting to spit so I could taste more wines but I couldn’t bring myself to spit into the large, communal buckets. Don’t stand too close to these buckets either. As the tasting wears on people become less inhibited and not as good with their aim. I had one guy stick his head in front of me and projectile spit into the bucket nearly splattering me with wine; it was a close call! It wasn’t until much later in the tasting that I discovered personal spit cups at Tinhorn Creek – good on them!
I made my way through the wineries of BC, then I wandered through the wineries of Ontario and Nova Scotia. Yes, I did just say Nova Scotia. “It appears Nova Scotia is the next frontier in Canadian wine”[1] despite still having some areas with laws reminiscent of the prohibition era. “The province is host to more than 100 so-called dry areas, where there are no drinking establishments, as well as almost 60 areas where the manufacture and retail sale of alcoholic beverages is prohibited.”[2]
When I finally left Canada behind, I found myself wandering through “the rest of the world” wishing I had done a tad bit more research because I really had no idea where to begin. I dabbled a little bit in French and Italian wine and I even tried some wines from Turkey before I reached the USA, finishing in Washington and Oregon.
I was really hoping to find several “good value” wines but I was not truly successful in this regard. Here is a list of the wines that did turn my head.
Sandhill Soon Series Red 2014
The 2008 Sandhill Merlot is one of my favourite wines of all time. I bought a case and I wish I had purchased more. The 2009 Merlot was a really good vintage as well and, with some age, the 2010 was pretty good too, but since then it hasn’t been quite the same. I have become interested in the Sandhill Small Lots series but they were not tasting any of these at the festival, which was disappointing. They did however have the Soon Series Red.
Howard Soon is Sandhill’s long suffering winemaker. In order to make Soon Series Red, he conspired with Richard Cleave, vinyardist at Phantom Creek Vineyard* which was named one of the “Top 10 Single Vineyards Around the World” by Wine Access Magazine. All the grapes were picked at the same time, crushed and then fermented together. This is called co-fermenting, which differs from the more common practice of fermenting grape varietals separately and marrying them together afterwards. The 2014 Soon Series Red contains a blend of 71% Cabernet Sauvignon, 16% Petit Verdot, 8% Malbec and 5% Merlot. There were only two barrels produced; that’s a total of approximately 600 bottles of wine.
As I mentioned before, the festival was not conducive to writing tasting notes, so I don’t have much to offer you here in terms of description, but it was definitely love at first taste! I visited Sandhill not once, but twice, for a tasting.
*Phantom Creek Vineyard has since been purchased by Richter Bai and will be one of the Vineyards owned by Phantom Creek Winery set to open in 2018.
Laughing Stock Portfolio 2014
Laughing Stock Perfect Hedge Syrah 2014
Sandhill was not the only winery I visited twice. I enjoyed two helpings of these wines and I have also purchased a couple of bottles. The Portfolio is easier to find than the Syrah. I found the Syrah at two wine stores but it has since sold out, so if you find it, don’t hesitate.
Osoyoos Larose Petales d’Osoyoos 2013
I was happy to see Osoyoos Larose was conducting a vertical tasting of their Bordeaux blends: Petales d’Osoyoos 2013, Le Grand Vin 2013, Le Grand Vin 2012 and Le Grand Vin 2011. I tasted the wines without really knowing which was which and I was shocked to discover that my favourite was the cheapest for once! I really enjoyed the Petales d’Osoyoos 2013 which retails for $25.99 (the other three are over $50).
Columbia Crest Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2012
Really, I like anything produced by Columbia Crest and Horse Heaven Hills or H3 (another brand under their umbrella) and this wine was no exception. The Reserve Cabernet from this Washington winery is about twice the price of their regular wines but well worth it for a special occasion.
Elk Cove Vineyards Mount Richmond Pinot Noir 2014
This was the first time I tried Oregon Pinot Noir and I was very fortunate that my first Oregon Pinots were from Elk Cove. I’ve been trying to like Pinot Noir for a long time now, and if all Pinots were like these it might be one of my favourite varietals. I look forward to opening this bottle.
By the end of the festival tasting I had tried over 40 wines and purchased five bottles. I am happy that I finally attended the wine festival and I would definitely go again next year but this time I would do a little more research so that I’m not left wandering aimlessly around certain regions debating which wines I should try.
The 2018 Vancouver International Wine Festival is set to take place February 24th – March 4th and the featured countries will be Spain and Portugal.
[1] Pellechia, T. (April 1, 2017). Settle In The Seventeenth Century, Nova Scotia’s Wine Industry Has Only Just Begun. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomanspellechia/2017/04/01/settled-in-the-seventeenth-century-nova-scotia-wine-industry-has-only-just-begun/#4404e0974965
[2] Ibid