Each year, the highlight of the Vancouver International Wine Festival is its three nights of festival tastings.
This year, over 100 wineries will present their wines for tasting from Feb. 27 to March 1. In addition, food stations and other spirits booths will be available, and the admission price includes them. The event is a great way for beginners to learn more about wines and for people interested in wines to try wines from different countries.
Because the festival tasting offers so many wines, it can be very daunting. In this column, I present my ultimate guide to the festival tasting room. It is a detailed plan that will allow you to sample the best wines the tasting room has to offer.
We start at booth #19 and the sparkling wines of Gloria Ferrer.
Their booth will give you a great introduction into the various types of sparkling wines. Be sure to try their Royal Cuvee 2014.
Next to them is booth #18, where you can taste Frank Family’s 2022 Carneros Chardonnay.
Then head over to booth #26 to taste Langetwins 2023 Chenin Blanc Merrill Vineyards and booth #27 to taste McPrice Myers 2023 Beautiful Earth Paso Robles White, which is a blend of 56-per-cent Grenache Blanc and 44-per-cent Clairette Blanche grapes.
The wines of these wineries are not normally available in BC Liquor stores so don’t miss the opportunity to taste them.
Now that you have drunk some sparkling and white wines, time to move on to some red wines.
All the wines available at booth #31 (Ridge Vineyards) and booth #32 (Robert Mondavi) are exceptional but I would not miss the Ridge 2021 Estate Chardonnay, Ridge 2021 Lytton Springs (Zinfandel dominant blend), Robert Mondavi 2021 Fume Blanc and the Robert Mondavi 2021 The Estates Cabernet Sauvignon.
Next I would visit booth #38, which is Talbott Vineyards out of Monterey County. This is another winery whose wines are being showcased exclusively at the wine festival.
Try their Sleepy Hollow 2021 Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Finally head over to booth #47 to try Lingua Franca’s 2022 AVNI Pinot Noir.
After sampling all these wines, it is time to take a break and refresh your palate. I would suggest taking a bathroom break or visiting some of the food booths.
To cleanse and refresh your palate, I would suggest heading over to the Put Some Sparkle in Your Life Wine Bar or the West Coast Chard Bar in the middle of the room.
These wine bars present several wines not based on a specific winery but based on a theme. You can try a number of different sparkling wines or Chardonnays from various wineries here.
Another option is to head over to booths #121 to 125 to sample some sake. Sake is made from fermented rice, so these beverages will have a cleaner, lighter taste than wine.
Once you are refreshed, time to sample more wines!
I would visit booths #60 to 81, which is where all the B.C. wineries are located.
Booths that I would recommend visiting are Blue Grouse Winery (booth #63), La Frenz Winery (booth #71), Moraine Estate Winery (booth #73), Poplar Grove Winery (booth #76) and Unsworth Vineyards (booth #81).
I am really interested in the potential of wines made by Blue Grouse Winery and Unsworth Vineyards in the Cowichan Valley, especially those wines using the Pinot grape varietal.
I would then visit the Italian wineries of Feudi San Gregorio (booth #105) and Marziano Abbona (booth #106) and try the Feudi San Gregorio 2016 Aglianico Irpinia Serpico and the Marziano Abbona 2016 Barolo Pressenda.
Finally, finish off with some U.S. red wines from booth #5 (Beaulieu Vineyards), booth #9 (Booker Wines) and booth #11 (Charles Krug). The wines served at these booths are all great, but the must-try wines are Beaulieu Vineyards 2019 Napa Valley, Booker 2021 Perl and Charles Krug 2022 Merlot.
If you are looking for something sweet to finish off the night, go to booth #97 to try Grand Tokaj sweet wines from Hungary and booth #116 to try some ports from Symington Family Estates.
For my detailed plan along with all the wines I recommend that you should try, please see my video here.or take a look at my map guide here.
I hope to see you at the International Tastings and until next time, happy drinking!
Tony Kwan is a Richmond News columnist. Lawyer by day, and a food and wine lover by night. Kwan is an epicurean who writes about wine, food and enjoying all that life has to offer.
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