It was Vancouver International Wine Festival time again last week and I managed to carve out an evening to experience one of the famed International Tasting events at the Vancouver Convention Centre.
The tasting took place in one of the centre’s grand ballrooms and involved more than 150 wineries pouring samples of select bottles to attendees.
The festival is one of the largest wine events on the continent and is certainly a boon for our city’s reputation as a great place to eat and drink. I was accompanied to the tasting by my friend Gil, who works in the restaurant industry and is very familiar with the protocols of these major events.
On the topic of protocols, I just have to rant for a moment about a couple of things that never cease to amaze me at wine tastings. The first is the absurd amount of perfume/cologne that people wear to these things. Half of the wine tasting experience is delving into the nose of the wine that you have been poured; so much is to be learned from the scent of the wine.
A thick fog of Axe Body Spray at the front of the tasting table is offensive and actually detracts from the experience of others in a significant way.
The other thing that rubs me the wrong way is the propensity of people to stand chatting right in front of the spit buckets that are on each table. Now look, not everyone spits at a tasting.
I get it, it can be awkward for the novice and social mores are so thoroughly ingrained that it feels almost barbaric to spit so openly in front of others. Also, some of the wines poured at a tasting are very special and it may be difficult to reconcile spitting out a $10 splash. That said, many of us who are there to try a wide range of products simply must spit out the samples or risk being dragged from the event slurring and semi-conscious. Blocking the spit buckets is simply poor form.
OK, with that off my chest, on to the highlights. Every year the wine festival features a theme country around which the tastings and other events around the city (winemakers’ luncheons, educational seminars, etc.) are organized.
This year’s festival, the 38th annual event, featured Italy, with producers showcasing wines from all major growing regions ranging from Veneto in the North to Puglia down near the southern heel of the country’s distinctive boot. Other countries featured at the tasting included Australia, Argentina, Germany, Greece, United States, New Zealand, France, Spain, Portugal, Chile, Croatia and, naturally, Canada, with stellar wines poured from one of my favourite domestic outfits, Poplar Grove out of Penticton.
This latter’s 2011 Legacy, a Bordeaux-style blend with Merlot leading the charge, is a lush, concentrated and complex red with signature Merlot notes of dark cherries giving way to heady flavours of star anise and coffee, all wrapped in a firm tannic structure and burst of juicy acidity that will allow this wine to remain a local hero for several years to come.
A dense and chewy red with an opulent red stone fruit and toasty oak palate from Croatia was a true revelation. Gil and I nodded in emphatic appreciation of Coronica’s 2011 Gran Teran, a gorgeous showcase of the Istrian varietal, Teran, a grape in the Refosco family that is seen more commonly in Italy and has tremendous potential to produce intense, enduring wines. Coronica only produces the Gran Teran in years when the fruit is deemed suitable for this special designation.
Many wines from the festival can be hard to acquire on a regular basis, making the on-site sales centre a great resource for collectors looking to add unique entries to their cellars.
However, for the rest of us, the most valuable finds from the festival are often those wines that can be secured regularly by a local shop. One such wine, truly an outstanding bottle and a great value at just $38, is Il Fauno di Arcanum, a ripe and round Tuscan red available at Everything Wine on Marine Drive in North Vancouver.
The humbler “second label” of the considerably pricier Arcanum, Il Fauno packs tremendous sophistication into its blend of Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and a hint of firm Petit Verdot. This is a great bottle to bring to a special dinner and is sure to have people taking photos of the label for future acquisition.
Chris Dagenais served as a manager for several restaurants downtown and on the North Shore. A self-described wine fanatic, he earned his sommelier diploma in 2001. He can be reached via email at [email protected].
His regular restaurant review column runs in the Taste section of the Wednesday issue of the paper and online here.
