My Brief Interlude at Cornucopia

My pal Tracey and I headed up to the Friday afternoon industry tasting at Cornucopia in Whistler a few weeks back. (Thank Judas there is a mountain getaway wine event in the dreary November rainy season.) We decided to make a quick day trip of it, just to wet our lips at this year’s event… that was, until the snow came and the mountain announced its opening two weeks ahead of schedule; my plans quickly changed. Fresh snow equals staying in the mountains, which was the perfect excuse to also take full advantage of the food and wine festival. My intention was to attend as much as I could, meet more people and soak up the scene (and the wine). It’s the intention that counts, right?

The hill was far too heavenly. I chose bombing down a mountain on a board in new, perfect, buttery snow rather than the former intention. Ah well. Instead of spending a small fortune on all of the festival’s wine and food events, I spent a small fortune après, fireside at the Chateau’s Mallard lobby bar.

Rasoul Salehi, Executive Director of Le Vieux Pin and La Stella (Okanagan), was kind enough to offer me a bottle of his 2007 LaStella Fortissimo for us to enjoy and I am happy to toss in my notes, crafted from two agreeable palates: This is a bold but soft Italian-inspired blend, a deep, rich ruby (52% Merlot, 43% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Cabernet Franc) with a whole lot of black fruits on the nose and even more on the palate, balanced nicely with hints of chocolate and cedar. Soft and velvety throughout, it’s got some tight tannins and I was hoping for a tad more on the finish, but this is one that’ll do well with a few years, or why not right now with a juicy hunk o’ meat? I quite enjoyed it, white robe and mountain room aside slightly persuading the mood. ($35 ish)

I did manage to snap off a few pics of the festival and my new mountain “wine fridge”. Sorry Rasoul – a portion of your Fortissimo ended up on the roof of the Chateau. But not before I enjoyed most of it. Not a bad branding tactic perhaps?

This is the part where I link to all the fabulous posts on the event’s site so you can dig for more great info, but it doesn’t seem they have an official blog space, or photos on Flickr?… and doing a quick search I found Degan’s piece on Foodist.ca and Jennifer was covering things for Miss 604 in this post. Let me know if I’ve missed others worth linking to. Here’s a few more pics from “Culinary Fool” on Flickr.

IVSA So Many Wines… You Know The Rest

So *this* is where all the cool kids hang out. IVSA (Import Vintners & Spirits Association of BC) in Vancouver was a good time had by all at the Four Seasons downtown (this hotel really supports the wine world, hey?). If you are in the wine industry, you should consider joining the mobs of wine agents and buyers. If you’re not, you should find a way to get there next time around.

Roaming the room, taking it all in and chatting with familiar and new faces, you couldn’t help notice the serious on-a-mission tasters for wine columns, blogs, party recommendations, surrounded by the not-so-serious having a grand ol’ time with old friends industry veterans. Everyone was in great spirits and it felt a bit like Christmas in early November.

I met some lovely people, tasted some doozy wines, but there was no hope you could even dream of tasting half of the room in the 3 short hours, so I tried to stick to some bubbly on the note-taking, seeing as it is almost the season, and list a few sparklings, the real deal Champers plus a few bonus tracks for the holi’s:

• Bastianich Flor Prosecco – $19.99 – easy to drink and your fills the mouth with florals and light, lovely bubbles
• Codorniu Pinot Noir Sparkling Brut, Cava, $19.99 – full of zest but smooth as butter, and with a pinky-orangey hue for all you pink fans out there
• Nicolas Feuillatte Particuliere Brut, Champagne, $59.99 – Gismondi 90 pts.
• Champagne Moutardier Carte d’Or, $58.99 – unique 85% Pinot Meunier must try – 90 pts Burghound



Bonus Tracks:

• Penfolds Grandfather Port, $84.99 – nutty and rich, melts in your mouth and hangs around for a long time but not long enough!
• Chateau d’Orignac Pineau des Charentes, $39.99 – Wow. Two-thirds Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, one-third Cognac and ten years to produce – think thick, rich honey in a beautiful wine. Excellent value.
• Blue Raspberry Vodka, $23.75 – And why not add a little fun bubble-gum-esque blue vodka into the Christmas stocking? Goes with every typical mix I’d imagine or on its own on the rocks.

Thanks to Catherine at Rare Finds and Risha at Select Wines for making certain I made it out.

My Week In France

… in Vancouver.

What to do when you can’t jet off to France every other month? Seek France out in a hotel or community centre near you.

Last week I stopped into two local tasting events. The first, an industry tasting of Bordeaux reds and whites at the Roundhouse called Bordeaux Under One Roof. The second, the Rhône Valley at the Four Seasons Hotel at an event called Warm Winter Rhône – a benefit for the Children’s Hospital.

Great thing about my “afternoon in Bordeaux”: all wines presented were under $30. Beat that. Pretty decent value. It was a quiet room of just nine local agencies which made it easy to meet and greet and move around.

Before the tasting got started, it was optional to slip into the theatre adjacent to the tasting room and listen to an hour on Bordeaux from Montrealer and Bordeaux expert Nick Hamilton. It was a basic 101 on the region, terroir, grapes and wines, but served as very informative if you knew zero to very little.

Bordeaux wines are the true art of blending.
– Nick Hamilton

A Few Bordeaux Picks:

• Red: Chateau Mayne-Vieil 2005, $27.99 – rich, full body, lovely tannins, balanced and drinkable now / Merlot, Cab Franc
• White: Dourthe No 1 Sauvignon Blanc, $16.99 – Holy New Zealand! Very typical flare of a Sauvy B from NZ – citrus, grapefruit, fresh, zesty, yum – from France.
• Best deal of the day: Chateau Loupiac Gaudiet 2003, $17.99 (375ml) – sweet gem you could sip on all afternoon!

Across town and two days later, my “evening in the Rhône Valley” was splendid. This night was a benefit for the Children’s Hospital, so wonderful to see a packed room with eager note-takers and the “occasional” no-spitters… always entertaining. It was an easy room to try most wines, and that I did, along with my very-happy-to-taste-at-anytime-fellow-wine-enthusiast Tracey. Definitely found it easier to taste with one other person along for the ride, rather than a solo trek or a +1 +1 +1 etc. You can block out some crowds and get down to the task at hand with a second nose and set of taste buds.

Treats From The Rhône:

• Le Compagnie Rhodanienne 206 Les Combelles, $13.49 – easy drinking, light tannins and body with a nice balance – perfect entry into Rhône wine.
• Chapoutier 2005 Muscat Beaumes de Venise – other than the small twang of *slight* high alcohol at 15.5%, really, really lovely.
• Perrin Les Christins 2007 Vacqueyras, $26.99 – their marketing says it better than I: “rock-solid”.