Vancouver Wine Festival - Awesome Night Out! - Part One

Assorted information from the Wine Festival 

This year is the 40th anniversary of the Vancouver International Wine Fest.

And it is the first year that I have ever gone.

Now that I know a bit about wines and wine countries, I thought I would really get something out of the Wine Festival - and I wasn't wrong.

There were several tips that I read about in different web sites and I did my best to follow them - in one way or another.....

Night view of the harbour from our hotel room. 

1. Stay near the festival or arrange a ride home
We booked a rather pricey room at the Pan Pacific but the accommodations were very nice (the view from the room is above) and we were literally beside the festival venue, the Vancouver Trade and Convention Centre.

2. Eat before you go
Although there was some food available, there was only three hours to taste wine, talk to people, and purchase wine at the on site liquor store. We went out to the Rogue Wetbar and had a variety of appies for dinner - without wine. We wanted to save up for the festival and found the food to be OK but not spectacular. Not sure if that was the lack of wine or the plainness of food. We were nice and full, however, which helped.

3. Stay hydrated
We had, easily, a litre or two of water at the restaurant. At the actual wine festival, we tried to have some water every three or four tastings.

4. Swirl, sniff, sip, and spit
The first three were easy. The last one was a lot harder. I tended to have a small sip of each wine and dump the rest in the spit bowls. That actually worked pretty well.

When we got to the wine festival, we lined up to hand in our tickets and get stamped. While we were waiting, to my surprise, I saw and chatted with three of my fraternity brothers (along with two wives and a daughter) from UBC! I hadn't seen them in over 30 years! I had travelled with one of the guys (Phil) around the USA for four months during a gap year. Happily, we kept running into them at the wine festival and drinking together, talking and catching up. It truly added another dimension to my night.

Onto some wines!

Our first stop was over to Friexenet (pronounced Fresh-net) where we tasted a few glasses of Cava (Spanish sparkling wine made in the traditional style of Champagne) then took a glass and wandered around the festival, observing and planning out our strategy. The Cava was excellent and we ended up buying a couple of bottles later on in the evening.

The theme of the festival was Spain and Portugal so it seemed like Spain was a pretty good place to start.

I had planned on taking notes or at least recording information on each wine I drank but that strategy soon fell apart. I think I needed staff for that and my wife was only there for the wine. I settled for taking photos of the wines that I liked.

The first Rioja that I really liked was from CVNE. This was a 2010 Gran Reserva ($28) which meant that it is aged for 2 years in the barrel and 3 years in the bottle. It is made from Tempranillo from one of the best wine areas in Spain, Rioja. 

I really liked that you could taste a number of wines from the same winery. The booth at Marques de Riscal had a number of wines and these three Rioja wines were all amazing. The 2016 Tempranillo ($16) was OK but needed some more time in the bottle. The 2013 Reserva ($28-available in liquor stores) had really good structure and a very nice taste while the 2007 Gran Reserva ($50) was very smooth and delicious - my favourite Rioja of the evening! 

I recently blogged about the Mencia grape from Spain.  I only found one Ribeira Sacra wine (made from Mencia) from the BC Liquor store, but in my research, I realized that Bierzo was another area that grows the grape. Happily, there was a winery in attendance from Bierzo that specialized in Mencia grape wine. The 2015 Descendientes de J. Palacios  Petalos ($37 - available in BC Liquor stores) was another wonderful Mencia with excellent structure, a touch of minerality and still some strong red and black fruits.

Although the first hour was mostly concentrated on Spanish wines, it was a bit of a blur. However, here are a few of the other really nice wines that we liked:

The favourite wine from Priorat was the Alvaro Palacios 2016 Camins del Priorat ($34). This wine is a blend (as is usual from Priorat) of Cab Sauv, Grenache, Syrah and a Spanish grape called Samso. Wonderful aroma with red and black fruits.

From the Ribera Del Guadiana was another beautiful Tempranillo - the Bodegas Alvear 2015 Palacio Quernado La Zarcita ($30). This wine was another smooth yet structured dark cherry wine.

A real standout was Arinzano which had wines that were all very enjoyable - and we picked up a few of these. This winery has the Pago designation which is a relatively new classification. Instead of a whole region getting a classification (like Priorat or Rioja), individual vineyards can apply to get an equivalent classification. Arinzano is one of only 17 vineyards to have this. There is a certainly a positive as all of their wines were very nice from the 2016 Hacienda Tempranillo to the 2010 La Casona ($44) made from Merlot and Tempranillo to the 2014 Gran Viino Blanco made with Chardonnay to the 2010 Gran Vino Tinto ($91) made from wonderful Tempranillo.

I did try some very nice white wines including a 2016 Marques de Riscal ($19)  from Rueda made with Verdejo grapes that tasted wonderful - fresh, fruity and light. My favourite white, though, was an Albarino from Rias Baixas made by Vionta ($24). The reason? My wife said it tasted like a glass of summer.

How can you beat that?

At this point, we headed to the onsite liquor store and bought some of these fantastic wines.

Next blog is part 2, the rest of the world!

Tiny bubbles! WSET Class #7 - Part 1

Ah, bubbles.

They tickle your nose, and stimulate your palate. Too much imbibing and there's silly behaviour or at least a headache in store.

But that was our first half of WSET class tonight - bubbles, bubbles, and more bubbles!

We first looked at how bubbly wine is made - and basically there are three ways.

First is the traditional way - and this is how they make champagne. Grape juice is fermented and then the wine is blended (in Champagne, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier) and placed in bottles where more yeast and sugar is added to begin a second fermentation. That is when the winemaker goes through the tedious job of turning or riddling the bottles (the 'remuage') a quarter turn every day. The sediment collects at the neck, the wine develops yeasty, bready characteristics, and then the neck is chilled and the yeast and sediment is ejected from the bottle and the bottles are topped up and that's it.

Second is the transfer method. The second fermentation happens like the traditional way but the wine is just dumped into a big tank and the yeast and sediment is filtered out. No need for riddling, but not quite as good as the traditional method.

Finally is the tank method where, basically, everything happens in giant tanks. This is how wines like Prosecco are made.

Which reminds me.... when we were in Rome, we spent a day doing a wonderful cooking course where our group prepared an appetizer, salad, pasta, main course and dessert. It was wonderful! I remember when we were eating, we had some Prosecco after the pasta. Our chef instructor said something like, "The reason we have Prosecco is to open up your stomach so that it can receive even more food." And it worked!

Our first two wines were a couple of sparkling wines.

The first was a Henkell Trocken - a very famous sparkling wine. It was clear lemon pale in colour and had a medium intensity on the nose with aromas of stone fruit such as pear as well as a floral aroma. On the palate, it had aggressive mousse. This means that the bubbles were quite strong - you really want them creamy rather than aggressive. Again, there were flavours of stone fruit and apple. It was off dry, had light body and medium plus acidity, and a medium minus finish. It was merely Acceptable, had 11.5% alcohol, and was $15.

The second was the real deal - Champagne. And not just some everyday fizzy plonk....  It was pale lemon and clear and had medium intensity on the nose with aromas of lime, grapefruit, biscuit , bread, lees and croissants(!). On the palate, it had similar tastes and also the desirable creamy mousse, was dry, had high acidity and medium minus body. It also had a medium plus finish. This was a Premiere Cru from Pierre Glimonnel et Fils, was a blanc de blanc (which means it was made of only Chardonnay), had high acidity and cost $80. I would rate this one Very Good.

I can appreciate the bready taste of champagne but I'm not sure that I really like it. That led to our next two wines, one a sparkling tank wine and one a more natural wine.

This one was my favourite "opening the stomach" wine, Prosecco. It was pale, lemon and clear.

It had medium minus intensity on the nose with of citrus and stone food. There was also some floral aromas. Tasting on the palate, there was a creamy mousse, stone fruit, lime and medium plus acidity, off dry, light body and a fairly short finish. Overall it was Good wine made by Gabriel by Adriano Adami in the tank method and cost $30. 

Our final wine for this blog was a Pares Balta Brut Cava. it was pale, lemon and clear on the nose and was made with the xarallo  grape. There was medium plus intensity with aromas of bread, pastry, apricot, and, yes, rubber! On the palate was a creamy mousse with similar tastes to the nose as well as peach and smoke. It had medium plus acidity, medium body and was dry. A medium plus finish topped it off!

It was interesting to taste the bready, biscuity taste of the nice Champagne or Cava. Unfortunately, I am quite happy with a wine without that bread taste. However, I now know what to look for if I ever doe this again!