This past Saturday and Sunday, Pacific Breeze Winery was showcasing their Spring releases along with some appetizers, music, and sunshine.  My fiance and I started our perfect spring day with a visit to check it out.  I have to admit that I have been hearing good things about this garagiste winery but hadn’t picked up a bottle or stopped by until now.  I am pretty sure now that I have been missing out.

Head Winemaker, Dan Jones, was kind enough to take some time to tell me about the New Westminster winery, the wines, and the barrels.  He outsources his grapes from the Lake Country just north of Napa, has them shipped up here in a temperature controlled truck within 24 hours of being picked, and then stems and crushes them.  It is all as if he were on the vineyard himself with that short timeframe.  He is a true garagiste; the first in BC and one of very few in Canada.  A garagiste is a French term for someone who makes a relatively small production of wine based out of a small building or, you guessed it, a garage.  In this case it was a building in a business park and was full of lovely French oak barrels parked on the racks amongst stainless steel vessels.

When I asked how much of a difference his influence and the changed environment makes on his wine compared to wines made from the same grapes in Napa, he proudly gestured at his many awards.  He has also earned some sparkling reviews from Jurgen Gothe, Deanna Van Mulligan,  Dr. Gary Hayes, and Robert Whitley.

French Oak Barrels at Pacific Breeze

I have a fascination with barrels.  They remind me of hibernating bears or butterflies, sleeping until they are mature enough to fill bottles.  These sleeping beauties were segregated into two areas.  The reds were the largest group stacked in the main area, and the chardonnnay ‘princesses’ had their own temperature controlled room (appropriately named: Chardonnay Room).

Dan deciphered the labels on the barrels for me: The first letter indicate the forest from which the oak originated, the second group of letters indicate the level of toastiness, and the third group (if it applies) indicates if the head of the barrel is toasted.  Why are the barrels toasted?  The answer is simple: toasted tastes better.  The toasting inhibits the oak from transfering and overpowering the wine; the heavier the toast the less oaky the wine, and the lighter the toast the more oaky it becomes.  Everyone has their own preference of how much oak a wine needs.  There are the two extremes of those who prefer unoaked and those, like my hobby wine dabbler father, who ask the question: can there be too much oak?  Most people would say yes.  Yes, there can.  (He created a wine he affectionately named ’splinters’.)  I find myself in the middle-of-the-road depending on the wine.

Pacific Breeze does many different tastings and educational evenings.  Sam Hauck does the teaching based on his experience as a wine maker and wine adjudicator.   Dan was telling me how they once tasted the same wine from different barrels made from different forests and were amazed by the distinctness that each forest added to the grapes.

I enjoyed tasting a few of the varietal wines on their own and then picking out the flavours in the blended wines.  I was blown away by the spring release of P2 as well as the unabashedly oaked 2005 Chardonnay (I am my father’s daughter).  Of course, I left with my arms full of those plus the summer porch friendly unoaked Sauvingnon Blanc.  I am very impressed with the quality of these wines and the artistry of Dan Jones and his team.  The simplicity of a garage creates a perfect canvas to create revolutionary, award winning wines and breaks the mold of the preconceptions that a great wine must come from large establishment.  Sometimes the greatest wines are born out of humility, innovation, and hard work.

Wow!  This week has been incredible and now that it is Sunday night I am going to try to sum it all up for you.  There were some great wine highlights, food, and interesting encounters.  This will be a longer post than usual as I am attempting to cram in most of my week.

I attended more consumer tastings in this week, than I have attended period.  I have only been to a few years of Playhouse Wine Fests and thinking back to my first, I have come a long way… especially because I had my gall bladder removed 3 days earlier and I didn’t have enough sense to spit.  A little wiser now, I still didn’t spit very much but I tasted with more selectivity and restraint.  I am slightly ashamed to admit that I wore a white and black coat on Thursday night (mostly due to lack of time to change beforehand) and managed to avoid any spillage.  If you follow me on Twitter, you will occasionally hear about my unsightly, bib-requiring eating habits.

I focused Thursday’s consumer tasting mostly on, you guessed it, whites.  And bubblies.  A few BC whites grabbed my attention such as Cedar Creek’s Ehrenfelser (highly aromatic with nice residual sweetness), Road 13 Jackpot Chardonnay (I finally got to try it, and you should too), and Twisted Tree Viognier Roussane.  My (short) attention was distracted by the ’shiny’ bubblies and I managed to try some knock-yourself-out-blow-your-mind-deep-pocket sparkling wines.  Topping my list is Champagne Deutz 1998 Vintage Cuvee William.  At $175.99 a bottle, I couldn’t pass up sampling this one and going back throughout the week to sneak a few more.  I adored the honey, nutty, and breadiness.  I ran over to try out Piper Heidseck 2000 Vintage Brut when a friend mentioned that it was like butter popcorn.  I love popcorn.  I loved Piper Heidseck.

Some interesting BC sparking wines were Elephant Island’s Pink Elephant which is very much like a Kir Royale,  Township 7’s Seven Stars Sparkling with pear and apple notes, and Blue Mountain’s Brut Gold Label.

Friday’s trade tasting proved more conducive to sampling and chatting with the winemakers, principals, and exhibitors.  I took the opportunity to try out some BC wines that I hadn’t quaffed before and was not disappointed with what I found!  One of my favourite wineries from Friday is Stoneboat Vineyards who was showcasing their pinot-rific wares.  Upon visiting with the owners and growers of this 3 year young winery, I learned that they are not as new to the scene as their label is.  Lanny Martiniuk has been growing for large wine producers since 1983 and his tennure shows in the quality of his wines.  The pinot noir is a full bodied, spicy, fruity, contender; but once you try the Pinotage you will find out why they call it, “a pinot on steroids”.  The pinotage packs a wallop.

After the trade tasting and then pouring in the hospitality suite, I had a bite to eat with some colleagues and dragged my aching body home to get a little rest before Saturday.  Drinking wine is serious business and not for the faint of heart, but insoles and jetted tubs, I determined are very necessary.

Saturday morning, I rushed out to the press conference and then took a very entertaining cab ride to Dockside at Granville Island for the Aussie Barbie.  By entertaining, I mean the driver sang to me, and told me stories that I shant repeat here or anywhere else for that matter.

I found the perfect wine to pair with Kangaroo.  No lie.  Bleasedale Frank Potts Cabernet-Malbec-Shiraz-Merlot Reserve was a perfect match. It made me return a few times for more and for some of their Sparkling Generations Reserve Shiraz.  Oh yeah, and I did I mention that I ate kangaroo?  Seriously.  Lean like elk or bison but not as gamy and reminded me a little of a tender jerky.  I don’t know where you can find the stuff, but if you can find a place that cooks it just right let me know!

I was fascinated by the differences in a Cabernet Sauvignon from the western coast of Australia and the more fruit forward Peter Lehman Cabernet Sauvignon from the south eastern region.  By the way, if you didn’t get a chance to meet the winemaker, he is the friendliest most jovial man who was the only exhibitor to walk around with his wines to refill peoples’ glasses while they ate.  Another regional favourite is the Verdhelho by Tyrell Wines.  A portugese grape that is new to the region and has some lovely lemon and green apple notes and is also used in white port.  White port?!  That was my response.  I hadn’t even heard of it and now I am off to find some and read up on it.  I also took some advice to check out the Two Hands booth which was ‘hands down’ some of the finest Australian wines this year at the festival.

My final exposure to the consumer tasting was on Saturday night.  This was date night so I left my cell phone and any agenda behind and let my fiance do most of the leading with a little gentle backseat driving by yours truly.  He is a very sympathetic wine taster.  By that I mean that he seeks out the tables that look ‘lonely’ and feels that he has accomplished his mission when he leaves after a crowd draws up.  He did learn that sometimes, just sometimes, there was a reason why the tables were quiet, but there were a few really nice surprises.  Surprises like a wine that tastes like coffee (KWV Cafe Culture Pinotage 2008) because of the toasted barrels and the wood maturation.  I liked the uniqueness of it, and he didn’t care for a wine pretending to be something that it isn’t.  Another winery that we both really liked for its uniqueness was Galil Mountain & Yarden, the only Israeli wines featured at the festival.  We both really enjoyed the Galil Mountain Yiron Cabernet-Merlot-Syrah 2005; the characteristics of the fruits and cloves made for a refreshing blend.  We left just before 10pm and barely found the strength to drag ourselves back home, but before we left we stocked up on Terra Breads, Freybe meats, cheeses, Ritter Chocolates, and free water.

I have talked to several people about their impressions of the wine festival.  While most people raved about how much they love to have an opportunity to discover for themselves new wines and new regions, some people were confused by the alphabetical set up this year, and some felt that the prices for the consumer tastings are getting too high.  I do hope that people wishing to learn about wines take opportunities throughout the year to do so. I suggest attending informative events and tastings and also attend the smaller events during the Wine festival to get the most exposure.  Keep an eye out on my events page for local events to attend while you brush up in preparation for next year’s Playhouse Wine Festival.

This morning, the Playhouse Wine Festival Executives held a press conference on next year’s event and yours truly nearly met Anthony Gismondi.  Okay, almost that may not be the most newsworthy news, but I was so close!  Actually, I wanted to share with you what you can expect next year so that we can all prepare.

The planning committee didn’t wish to hold the wine festival so close to the Olympics, and I think that we can all agree that we will need a drink once they’re over.  Traditionally the festival is at the end of March, so be sure to mark off your calendars for April 19th to 25th.

I am very excited about the global focus: Rosé .  Rosé is left on the skins for only a couple of days which gives it its pinkish colour.  The most common varietals are Pinot Noir and Gamay, but there are other varietals out there such as Cabernet Franc and Shiraz.  It will be really interesting to compare different varietals and styles of Rose around the world.  I love a good pairing, and the one thing that gets me wound up in a ball of excitement about this style of wine is it’s flexibility with food pairings.  No doubt there will be some events that showcase and challenge this wine’s repertoire.

The next big news is the TWO theme regions: Argentina and New Zealand.  The consolates shared their excitement over the similarities and differences between them and our region and between each other.  Wine is part of Argentina’s every day life and they produce oodles of it and only export a relatively small percentage of their wines.  The festival gives them an opportune chance to show off what they do so well.  New Zealand is often overshadowed by it’s neighbour, Australia, but it puts out some great Sauvignon Blancs that are fresh and lively.

After watching their cultural performances, I am very sure that we can expect a lot of passion, pride, and sexiness.  As we draw nearer, I will cover more about these regions and the global focus. I must be off to the final night of consumer tasting, after which I will fill you all in on the wines that blew my mind, confused me, and made me spit (no, not really…I am just learning to spit like a good wine drinking lady).  Oh yes, and maybe I WILL run into Gismondi….

It’s Wine Fest time in Vancouver!

This year, I have the unique opportunity to experience the Playhouse Wine Festival several ways: attending a press event, tasting at an industry event, pouring in a hospitality suite, and drinking at the large tasting event.  Although I am not able to attend any of the informational events, I feel incredibly fortunate to be able to experience the festival in so many ways already.

Last night was the festival kick off at Earls Hornby: Get Uncorked.  I attended with fellow blogger Tiny Bites and we shared thoughts on the wine and food, while she snapped some great pictures of the event.  The event featured Inniskillin wines paired with Chef Reuben Majors delicious creations while wine maker, Sandor Mayer, shared about his unique wines.  He has produced some fantastic wine varietals despite the fact that Malbec and Zinfandel grapes are traditionally grown in warmer and drier climates.  We learned that Zinfandel was never intended to be grown in a Canadian climate.

The highlight of the evening was the incredible pairings!  My favourite pairing was the Scallop & Grapefruit Ceviche paired with the Chenin Blanc.  The way the citrus flavours exploaded in my mouth when I tasted them together reminded me of something I had heard at another tasting: A good pairing is born out of two enjoyable flavours that become even greater together.  I overheard someone asking for a jar of the candied grapefruit!

The Shortrib Crostini paired with Malbec was a close second. The lovely earthiness of the truffles in the canape surprisingly brought out the dark cherry in the Malbec and I adored the butteriness of the crostini.

The Marsanne/Rousanne was a real treat because of the limited release of this exciting varietal!

This was a fantastic prelude of what is to come this week and I hope you are as excited as I am to try out some great local and international wines.  Especially Pinots as they are this year’s theme varietal.  If you haven’t bought tickets yet, there are still a few available to select events.  I will do my best to blog about events as the week goes on, and please let me know what you think of events that you attend.  I would love to meet some of you, so if you recognize me, do come and say ‘hi’.

Buzz Bishop of Virgin 953 gives some great tips on his blog about how to survive the wine tastings.  There are some suggestions that I hadn’t considered, and there is the obvious tip (to me, because I am slob) to wear dark colours.  But, please, please, please, don’t wear any scents to tastings– we want to smell the wines, not you.

Also, and most importantly: Please make sure that you have a safe trip home planned from any and all events that you attend.  There are booths where you can get complimentary bus passes at the tasting events, and there will be lots of taxis drivers waiting outside.  Drink responsibly. Cheers!

Disclosure: Over the couse of the week, there will be some crossing of my two worlds: blogging and work related.  I am not in a sales position so my wine objectivity is based on my palate not a pay cheque.