Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival: The Magic Begins

“You have the best job!”

I hear this a lot.

Granted, it’s pretty awesome. I eat a lot of great meals, drink an abundance of spectacular wines, and travel to loads of places. But other times, I wish I could watch TV in my pyjamas on my own sofa, eating grocery store yellow cheese (I’m loathe to call it cheddar) on crackers for dinner.

The last few weeks, my spare time and weekends have been spent on the road for Wine Access at a number of wine festivals in Western Canada.

Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival

First up was the Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival (Wine Access is a sponsor), which ran from April 19 to 25. Normally it runs around the end of March and into April, but the Vancouver Winter Olympics and the Special Olympics pushed the festival back this year.

Playhouse, as it is typically known in the business, is the sole fundraiser for the Vancouver Playhouse Theatre Company and is pretty much the biggest and best wine show in Canada. It features seminars, dinners, lunches, and a massive tasting room with winery principles and principle-quality representatives, such as owners and winemakers, who are on hand to talk about their wines.

Boekenhoutskloof Dinner

My first event at Playhouse was “South Africa Treasure, North Shore Gem,” which was a dinner with Marc Kent of Boekenhoutskloof. The winery is pronounced Buh-khen-hutz-kluf, but even if you mangle it, a sommelier or retailer should be able to figure out what you are trying to say. Boekenhoutskloof wines have a snazzy label with the 7 chairs on it, but in some circles, they also might be known for their The Wolftrap or Porcupine Ridge wines.

It was fabulous dinner at the Moustache Café with some great wines, including crowd favourite “The Chocolate Block,” along with the almost deadly-good 2006 Semillon Noble Late Harvest.

German Wines and Rieslings

From there, off I went to the German Zest Fest at Campagnolo, a great way to get my fix of German wines and stellar Rieslings. I had a great time and my top wine was the Reinharthausen Spatlese - it will be getting some of my wine buying dollars this year. I recently had a 1994 of this wine purchased for around $40 that blew my mind - sorry, all gone now. German Wine Queen Sonja Christ, who possesses a staggering amount of German wine knowledge and is a global ambassador for German Wines, also attended the event.

Truth in Labelling

My second day of Playhouse began with “What’s in Your Wine?,” the symposium on Truth in Labelling that was sponsored by Wine Access. The discussion took an in depth look at wine origins, organic and sustainable wines, and labelling regulation. It would have been nice if there was more discussion on Cellared in Canada or CIC wines, which have deliberately misled consumers and continue to do so. But in all fairness, most people who consume those wines really don’t seem to care about the origin of the wine.

Fetzer Wines and Appetizers

From there, a brief respite and off to the Fetzer Appetizer Challenge at the Fairmont Waterfront Hotel. This cool little event is a festival-style tasting that pairs the Fetzer wines with a number of appetizers from Vancouver restaurants. It is a cool way to check out some tasty (and very reasonable) wines with some good foods. This event disappeared for a while outside of the Playhouse Festival, but has returned to other cities. If you have never gone, please check it out.

Leaving the Fetzer event, I was off to have a quick dinner with winemaker Ted Seghesio and his agents. I have long enjoyed Seghesio wines, and there is a short piece in the April/May 2010 issue of Wine Access about them.

California Cruisin'

Not one to have an early night on the road, I was then off to California Cruisin’ at the Canvas Lounge. This event is a blast every year, with plenty of premium Californian wines, good music, contortionists, and lots of mingling. The only downside is that it’s a hot event - the temperature is almost unbearable.

From there, it was off to bed, since the show started in earnest the next day.