With over 150 wineries pouring wine at the upcoming International Wine Festival Tasting, it is impossible to taste even a fraction of the wines being poured. So I am going give everyone a little assistance.
Each year, I produce a comprehensive guide I share with some select friends. This year, I am sharing with the readers of the Richmond News. There are so many wines that are great, but ultimately, I choose wines that are unique and not readily available for tasting in B.C.
There is a couple of ways to use my guide:
- You can go to the nine tables that I have starred and highlighted in pink to get a comprehensive tasting at the festival. These tables will give you the best sampling of wines with the least amount of travel between tables. Almost all the wines served at these tables are really spectacular and will give you a well-rounded tasting of red and white wines as well as wines from different countries and with different grape varieties. The nine tables I have selected to give you the best tasting experience is Hugel (Alsace, France), Drouhin (Burgundy, France), Bodega Catena (Argentina), Tyrell’s (Australia), Osoyoos Larose (BC), Carpineto (Tuscany, Italy), Masi (Veneto, Italy), Michel Chiarlo (Piedmont,Italy) and Fonseco (Portugal)
- You can taste all the wines at the various tables that I have highlighted in pink. I have selected 15 wines that represent some of the top wines available for tasting
- You can taste both wines that I have highlighted in pink and yellow. The wines highlighted in yellow are interesting wines or very good quality wines that I would be delighted to try. In addition to the 15 wines in pink I have highlighted, I have chosen another 36 wines that I have highlighted in yellow. If you can get through all 51 wines, you are going to have a pretty comprehensive tasting.
To understand my guide, I have provided a map of the location of each table and the wines at each table that I would recommend tasting. For some wines, I have put some notes and scores from Wine Spectator magazine to the right of the wine. The left of the wine, I have indicated whether the wine is a red (R), white (W) or a desert (D) wine.
The recommended wine tables can be found here: http://tiny.cc/br8jkz
Happy drinking!
Tony Kwan is the Richmond News' new columnist. Lawyer by day, food and wine lover by night, Kwan is an epicurean who writes about wine, food and enjoying all that life has to offer.
