New Year’s Eve may have come and gone, but it’s not too late to make one more New Year’s resolution. Once you make this one, you won’t want to break it.
Book an event at this year’s Vancouver International Wine Festival. Canada’s premier wine show will mark its 38th edition of pairing wine and food from Feb. 20 to 28.
The festival features Italy as the theme country. There will be 60 Italian wineries from nine regions including Veneto, Tuscany and Piedmont. In all there will be 156 wineries from 14 countries pouring 1,450 plus wines at 55 events to a projected 25,000 wine lovers.
The main event is always the Acura International Tasting Room at the Vancouver Convention Centre West where all wineries gather to pour more than 700 select wines.
Discover exciting new wines, or return to your favourites, sipping from premium wine glasses. The room will also feature regional tasting stations from Australia, British Columbia and New Zealand as well as wine and food related exhibitors.
Sure, the wine and the food are amazing. But what makes VanWineFest unique is the presence of global “vine stars” — winemakers, proprietors, senior executives — who come to Vancouver every year to pour and discuss their wines with festival-goers.
Each winery will be represented in the room by a principal, someone closely involved in the wine-production process.
It will be your golden opportunity to ask the person who makes the wine or grows the grapes a question you’ve been itching to find the answer to.
Included in the price of each ticket is the opportunity to shop at the on-site BC Liquor Store where wines from all participating wineries will be available for purchase. Purchased wines can be shipped at no cost to your nearest BC Liquor Store for pick-up after the festival. The BC Liquor Distribution Branch will also help everybody with its Get Home Safe program, provinding a complimentary transit ticket to patrons as they leave the tastings.
If this isn’t enough to whet your appetite, there is much more. Perhaps my favourite event is the Sunday Vintner’s Brunch. This extravaganza of wine and food takes you on a tour of 15 top restaurants and caterers, each one pairing a dish to a specific wine from around the world. The celebrate chefs and wine personalities will share the secrets of their wine and food pairing. Once your appetite is sated, hit the dance floor to burn off some calories.
Classy!
During the nine-day festival there are 20 wine dinners, three lunches, four wine minglers, and eight wine seminars. Most events are at downtown restaurants or the two convention centres.
Many of them have an Italian theme but there are other regions featured, including Croatia, California, Washington, and B.C.
For all the information including prices and locations, check the festival website online at vanwinefest.ca.
You have less than a week before you can order tickets to all the delicious events.
Public tickets go on sale at 9:30 a.m. this Tuesday, Jan. 12. Call 604-873-3311. Educating your palate and keeping resolutions have never been so easy!
Eric Hanson is a retired Richmond teacher and local wine expert.
