A new dining phenomenon has started up in Vancouver;  it isn’t a new idea in Europe though, and it is something that we have all probably done in some variation of our own.  Annika Reinhardt, of Social Bites, organizes dinner excursions where guests experience two meals made by two hobby chefs in two different locations.  Each attendee has a ballot to fill out for each hobby chef to evaluate the presentation, food, and hospitality for a prize.  This time it was a Zip Car prize package including a rental of a Mini Cooper.  Following the meals, they meet up at a hot spot where they collectively enjoy and learn about an imbible dessert treat.   The intention of these events is not only to sample great new dishes, but also to meet new people and get to know a new neighbourhood/district.

The second Social Bites dinner field-trip was in Yaletown and if this gives you an idea of how popular it has become: all tickets were sold within days of announcing the event!  I loved the first event, so bought my tickets quickly because I wasn’t about to miss this one.  Besides, Karen Hamilton of Tiny Bites was cooking up an asian sampler and her cooking is not to be missed, and the hot spot round-up promised dessert wines and chocolates (need I say more?).

Brent and I hopped over to Yaletown with time to spare so we picked up a screw cap wine to enjoy with our meals at Viti.  Tough call.  One bottle, two different meals.  What to do?  I decided to pair my wine with the Asian Sampler because I wan’t sure what kind of tex-mex to expect later, so I chose Spy Valley Sauvignon Blanc for its lemon grassiness and fresh palate cleansing super powers.

Rice Paper Shrimp Rolls, Corned Beef Sinigang, Braised Pork Spare Ribs with Apricot Sauce.

Hobby chef, Karen busied around the kitchen with her sous-chef Bruce making finishing touches to her dishes as we chatted it up with the other two guests.  When the final product was brought out, we were astounded by the beautiful presentation of the sampler inspired by her recent trip to Asia.  You know it’s good when the chatter at the table dies and it is replaced with “mmmm”s and sighs.  As a bonus, I was pleased that my wine choice was a stellar compliment to the food! It was hard to pick a favourite from the trio: the shrimp rice paper rolls stood out with each flavour standing on its own and complimenting each other, the corned beef sinigang was tender and packed with flavour, and the apricot sauce for the spare ribs had just the right amount of sweetness.

Chili Con Carne with Corn Bread

We almost lost track of time, and hurried to the next hobby chef’s place.  (Note to self: wear better shoes when running around downtown)  I love that Annika arranges the locations close enough together so that we can walk to each place without worrying about parking or over imbibing.  I just made poor a poor choice of footwear (but it matched my dress).  The next meal was a Tex-Mex Chili Con Carne made by Marc from Amuse Consulting with his BFF Jackie.  His chili was to die for.  Literally.  Not only was the meat tender and tasty, but the heat from the chipotles was, well, hot.  I am not one to shy away from spicy foods so I devoured every tasty bite of this down home southern concoction and being a sucker for corn bread, I had two pieces.  Pinot Gris doesn’t really go with chili, but it helped cool off my mouth.

From left to right. Blackberry Port - Salt Spring, BC Seeling Schwarzriesling (Pinot Meunier) - Naumburg, Saale Unstrut, Germany Vespaiolo Sparkling Wine - Bregenz, Italy Rotkäppchen Riesling Sparkling Wine - Freyburg, Saale Unstrut, Germany

The hot spot was at Yaletown Gallery where we all met up, filled out and submitted our hobby chef evaluations, and sampled some lovely dessert-type wines presented by Kate, The Wine Mistress.  She brought us wines from Vino Allegro Wine Imports Inc., and Annika shared some German wines which we sampled along with some chocolates from the oldest chocolate factory in Germany.  We enjoyed persuing the gallery with our treats and admiring the beautiful skilled work of local artists.  My wine notes are a little hazy, and I am working on finding a better way to remember my thoughts on what I tatse because by the time I share my thoughts, my mind is often on what I currently have in my glass.  Bear with me.  The Rotkäppchen Riesling Sparkling Wine (Freyburg, Saale Unstrut, Germany) was an off dry riesling that was delightfully refreshing with sour/tart apples and lemons (find out why it is referred to as Lieutenant Lemonade here), and the Seeling Schwarzriesling (Pinot Meunier) (Naumburg, Saale Unstrut, Germany) was a rose that reminded me of chocolate and strawberries.  The Vespaiolo Sparkling Wine (Bregenz, Italy) was my favourite of the evening boasting its toastyness, tiny bubbles, and peach flavours.  Obviously, I did not leave empty handed.  The ballots were tallied, and the hobby chef winners were announced and the last wine was poured.  It was a Blackberry Port (Salt Spring, BC) made with organic Saltspring fruit.  It was a lovely finish to the evening and went down smoothly in all its sweetness.

Social Bites has its next event on May 23 in Fairview / South Granville where yours truly will be cooking up a storm to benefit the Canadian Cancer Society Relay for Life.  Check out the Social Bites Website for more information on how you can participate in either cooking or eating for this great cause.

A huge thank you to Annika, Yaletown Gallery, the Wine Mistress, Vino Allegro, and all of the hobby chefs.  It was a fantastic evening, and you can expect to see me at many more Social Bites events.  You have made a fan out me.

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.