Vancouver Urban Winery launches wine on tap

 

 

Photo: Steve Thorp and Mike Macquisten with the FreshTAP kegs 

 

Until now, Vancouver’s strong wine culture has had everything but an actual winery.

Steve Thorp and Mike Macquisten have closed the loop by opening Vancouver Urban Winery in Railtown, the trendy new commercial district just east of Main Street, bordering the Port of Vancouver.

Here, heritage industrial buildings are getting a new life as headquarters for social media companies, coffee distributors and fashion retailers like Aritzia. Vancouver Urban Winery is in a splendid high-ceilinged structure that was built in the 1920s for metal fabrication. It has been turned into a winery with the addition of stainless steel tanks, racks of barrels and, crucially, a long bar with 20 taps for dispensing wine.

That is what Vancouver Urban Winery is adding to the city’s wine culture: through a subsidiary called FreshTAP, it has begun providing wine by the keg to restaurants  that have installed wine taps. This promises to revolutionize the way restaurants offer wines by the glass.

This is already a hot trend in the United States. An article last summer in Seattle Magazine listing restaurants with wines on tap commented that “the concept isn’t new [but] modern technology makes serving wines on tap a game changer.”

The reason: the system for wine by the keg means wines sold by the glass should always be fresh, which is not always the case when half empty bottles sit around overnight. Secondly, the shipping economy inherent with keg wines makes it possible for restaurateurs to pass along some savings to consumers.

Steve and Mike are friends who partnered several years ago to set up their own marketing company and then went looking for business ideas. Steve previously operated a sports equipment sales company. Mike previously worked with the Earls Restaurant group before moving into beverage alcohol sales with Molsons and then with Corby Distillers wine agency.

There are two other investors in Vancouver Urban Winery: restaurateur Wayne Holm, a member of the B.C. Restaurant Hall of Fame, and Rueben Major, a chef who is director of culinary development for Earls.

“It was actually Reuben Major who brought the original concept to us,” Steve says. “He was in New York and stumbled on it there.” Subsequently, he found wine on tap was developing in other cities there as well.

“We spent about four months in deep research mode,” Steve says. “We travelled the U.S. and met with the four largest keg packaging companies there.  After four months we put together the entire concept for what is now FreshTAP, the keg side of our business.”

The key to making it happen in the British Columbia regulatory environment was to establish Vancouver Urban Winery as a commercially-licensed winery. They had less trouble selling the idea to Victoria’s regulators than they had selling it to the city of Vancouver.

Here, there had never been a winery and therefore, no zoning for one. The city turned down the first two buildings in which Steve and Mike wanted to install the winery. Then they found the former metal working building at 55 Dunleavy Avenue. There were no zoning impediments and the space works as a winery, with a tasting room. The partners plan to open Vancouver Urban Winery to the public by the end of May. They also plan to make some wine there this fall and to launch a proprietary wine brand.

However, this is primarily a vehicle for FreshTAP. Wineries that want to offer wine on tap deliver it in bulk to Vancouver Urban Winery. Here, the wine is stored under nitrogen until it is transferred into 19.5 litre stainless steel kegs. These kegs are pressurized with nitrogen until filled with wine. At the restaurants, the kegs fit into a system where more nitrogen protects the wines from air as it is drawn off by the glass. It is similar to the way beer on tap stays fresh.

The Edible Canada Bistro on Granville Island was the first restaurant to install the FreshTAP system, offering Nichol Vineyards’s Pinot Gris and Nine Mile Red on tap. The restaurant trumpets the advantages on the system on its website. One of them: “Reducing the bottling costs allows the winery to pass on savings directly to restaurants and through to the consumer.”

Other wineries that have come on board so far include Blasted Church, Desert Hills, Okanagan Crush Pad and King Estate from Oregon. Mike and Steve are negotiating with others interested in getting wines on tap in restaurants. (Not all wineries are buying in: one Okanagan winery owner told me that they will not allow their wines to be repackaged by third parties.)

Other restaurants are also coming on board. For example, The Mill Marine Bistro in Coal Harbour is installing eight wine taps. “We want to work with trend setting restaurants,” Mike says. “It is a matter from day one of making sure that we are working with the right partners that are behind wine on tap, and know the benefits of it.”

Because Vancouver Urban Winery has a large public area, it also makes the facility available for wineries showing their products to the trade. Last week, Okanagan Crush Pad debuted some of its recent vintages including a new three-litre bag in the box package for three of its Haywire brand wines.

That package is another means for shaving the cost of wine to the consumer. A box of wine, equal to four bottles, sells for $54 (the rosé is $2 less), which works out to $13.50 a bottle. The briefcase-sized boxes slip easily into the refrigerator or on the counter. You can draw off a glass of wine whenever you feel like and the wine stays fresh for a reasonable period.

Stag's Hollow begins to roll out the 2011s

 

Photo: Stag's Hollow Syrah Rose 2011

The 2011 vintage was one of the most challenging in the Okanagan in a decade. However, I am finding quite good wines from producers who got a grip on the vintage early in the growing season.

One of those producers is Stag’s Hollow Winery of Okanagan Falls. Larry Gerelus, owner of the winery with his wife, Linda Pruegger, was on the west coast this week to show the winery’s new releases to restaurateurs and wine writers. These included a Syrah Rosé and a Sauvignon Blanc, both from 2011 and both excellent.

He also brought some reds from the 2009 vintage, a fine vintage for reds and a dramatic contrast to the 2011 vintage. The heat units in the Okanagan were among the highest on record in 2009 while 2011 had some the lowest heat units of the past decade. In a way, both years were challenging; 2009 produced big wines with lots of alcohol. A good winery has no choice but to rise to the challenge.

Larry learned how to deal with the weather early in his career as a winegrower. Trained as an actuary, he was working in an oil industry human resources job in Calgary when a wave of downsizing swept through the industry. Larry invested his settlement package in a vineyard near Okanagan Falls in 1992, opening a winery in 1996.

Larry describes the 1996 vintage as “a brutal vintage.” The summer was unusually cool and wet, tough conditions for maturing grapes. But Larry had a stroke of luck. In 1994 and 1995, he had grafted Merlot and Pinot Noir onto the trunks of the Chasselas and most of the Vidal that had been growing in the vineyard. The vines adjusted to this in 1996 by naturally carrying a light crop. “We got relatively ripe fruit,” Larry recalls.

Fast forward to 2011, with its late and cool spring. “Due to the 1996 experience, as soon as I saw the bloom date in 2o11, I knew we were in trouble,” he says. Ideally, the bunches should bloom about mid-June, leaving a good margin of time for the grapes to develop and ripen. In 1996, bloom in the Stag’s Hollow vineyard was about July 4. In 2011, bloom was June 28 and 29.

Remembering that 1996 succeeded because the crop load was low, Larry and his team immediately reduced the number of bunches on each vine in 2011. One might gamble that that vines will catch up if the weather improves but if the vintage starts as late as 2011, there is not much chance that over-cropped vines will catch up in October. By then, the days are too short to mature fruit well.

The 2011 weather, fortunately, turned warm and dry through most of September and into the middle of October. Early reports suggest that moderately cropped vineyards produced the grapes necessary for good wines. The whites are crisp but fruity and the reds – so I am told – have vibrant flavours.

The Stag’s Hollow 2011 Syrah Rosé ($18.99 for a production of 220 cases)  is one of the very few rosé wines made with this grape (Gamay, Pinot Noir and Cabernet Franc are more common). This is 91% Syrah – most of which was whole cluster pressed and left on the skins for three hours to pick up colour and flavour. The remainder of the blend is 5% Viognier and 4% Muscat. The result is a wine with a delicate rose petal hue, a delightful aromatic lift in the aroma and mouth-filling flavours of strawberry and cranberry. The wine is balanced to finish dry but not austere. 90.

Stag’s Hollow Sauvignon Blanc 2011 ($19.99). Not yet released, this attractive wine begins with both tropical fruit and grassy aromas. On the palate, there are flavours of lime and grapefruit. The lingering finish is vibrant and refreshing. 90.

Stag’s Hollow Sauvignon Blanc 2010 ($19.99 for a production of 800 cases). There is probably another month or two supply of this wine in the pipeline. This is crisper, more flinty version of the varietal, no doubt reflecting the vintage and the extra year in bottle. Savoury and herbaceous, this is a great seafood wine. 88.

Stag’s Hollow 2009 Heritage Block ($24.99). To be released in the spring, this is a blend of 63% Merlot, 32% Cabernet Franc and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon. This wine is approachable now but you would do better to cellar it another year, giving the bold oak a chance to completely marry with the rich fruit. The wine has aromas and flavours of cherry, plum and black currant with some of the classic savoury sage notes of the Okanagan. 88-90.

Stag’s Hollow 2009 Renaissance Merlot ($29.90 for 125 cases). Released last year, this wine is nearly sold out. It is a concentrated and structured wine, well worth cellaring. It begins with aromas of blackberry and plum and shows flavours of plums, cherries, mocha and vanilla. 90.

Stag’s Hollow 2009 Syrah ($27.99). Also released last year, this begins with aromas of blackberry, spice and pepper. On the palate, there are the classic meaty flavours of the variety with red fruit, earth and minerals on the finish. Think of Rhone, not Australia, 90.

Hester Creek's The Judge and friends

Photo: Winemaker Robert Summers

During the recent International Wine Festival in Vancouver, Hester Creek Estate Winery rolled out the second vintage of its icon red, a wine called The Judge, along with several new releases.

The superb quality confirms the turnaround at this winery. It was in bankruptcy in 2004 when Prince George trucking company owner Curt Garland bought it.

He put the winery solidly back on its feet by:

* Recruiting veteran Ontario winemaker Robert Summers to reshape the portfolio.

* Building a totally new winery, filled with state of the art equipment for making quality wines.

* Recruiting Australian Mark Sheridan, formerly the viticulturist with Vincor, as Hester Creek’s general manager. He in turn has added a depth of talent in the winery’s sales team as well as a social media manager.

* Hiring a marketing agency to refresh the look of the brand. The unappealing, even funereal, labels of old have been replaced by crisply clean white labels that stand out in wine stores and look elegant on restaurant tables.

* Building six luxury villas on the mountainside above the winery, helping gives the Okanagan more of the quality lodging that goes with a world-class wine region.

* And opening last year an acclaimed restaurant at the winery, called Terrafina.

All of these moves constitute the foundation for excellent wines at prices that, for the most part, are affordable.

Perhaps the exception is the $45 price on The Judge 2008. However, this is a limited production “best of the best” red aimed at the knowledgeable collectors and their cellars. You will get the message just by lifting the bottle. A package this heavy certainly raises expectations that this blend of Bordeaux reds is not any old judge but the chief justice himself!

In the glass, the wine does not disappoint. It is a big, ripe wine, with aromas and flavours of vanilla, plum and figs. On the palate, it presents with a rich and generous texture, with flavours of coffee, chocolate, liquorice and spice on the finish. It is a powerful and satisfying red. 94.

A recent release is Hester Creek Reserve Merlot 2008 ($26.99). Here is one of those firm Okanagan Merlots with a backbone of minerals and tannin and oak that will repay anyone who cellars this wine a few more years. The ripe black currant aromas and flavours need a bit more time for the core of sweet fruit to develop. 89-91.

The new red at the festival was Hester Creek Select Barrels Merlot 2010 ($18.99).  This is a marvellously ripe and concentrated wine for the price with bold flavours of black currant, coffee and chocolate. The wine seems more approachable than the reserve Merlot even though it is two years younger. 90.

Hester Creek Pinot Gris 2011 ($19) is the winery’s first 2011 release. While it might be suffering a touch of bottle shock, it delivers excellent flavours of citrus and peach. It has the crisp finish that likely will be the hallmark of 2011 excellent whites. 88-90.

Chile is a leader in responsible wine growing

Photo: Eduardo Chadwick

Some years ago, after my first visit to wineries in Chile, a friend said she would not buy Chilean wines because the wineries used too many herbicides and pesticides.

I have no idea where she got a notion that defies common sense. Chilean wine growers are blessed with ideal growing conditions. It would be a colossal waste of money to spray against pests and diseases that do not exist.

That was clearly obvious to me after spending 10 days visiting vineyards in 1989 and again in 2003. Even so, I was taken by surprise by Chilean wine industry’s presentations during the most recent Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival.  Whether we speak of organic/biodynamic viticulture or integrated pest management, or carbon neutral winery operations, Chile’s wineries are leaders in responsible winemaking. If my friend wants to drink healthy wine, she should, in fact, stock up on Chilean vintages.

Chile’s winemaking advantage begins with the geographical isolation of the vineyards. Vine pests and diseases are kept at bay by the world’s driest desert in the north, by the towering Andes on the east, by Antarctica on the south and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. There surely is not an easier place in the world for the application of organic viticulture.

“Chile is a real viticultural paradise,” says Eduardo Chadwick, the president of Viña Errázuriz. “We are taking advantage of that.”

Grape growing was brought to Chile in the 16^th Century by the missionaries and expanded in the 19^th Century when landowners imported classic vine varieties, primarily from France. The first large-scale vineyards were developed with vines that had not yet been infected with phyloxera. That was the American root louse that was brought to Europe around 1860 on the roots of American vines. The European varieties lack the ability to withstand the damage caused by the louse. By the time the Europeans figured out how to work around the pest in the late 1800s (grafting French vines onto American roots), the European wine industry was in dire straits.

But Chile had not imported any vines infected with the root louse – unlike Argentine on the other side of the Andes. To this day, Chile remains phyloxera-free. Healthy vines that grow on their own roots live much longer and, arguably, make better wine.

Chile’s isolation formerly was also negative for its wine quality. As recently as the 1980s, Chileans were drinking nearly all their own wine and the wineries were not competing on the world market.  The whole country had developed a cellar palate and the wine industry had become complacent.

Chilean consumers also had begun to turn to beer and soft drinks, forcing the industry to find new markets. Around 1990, Chilean wineries began to take on the world, initially with value-priced wines. The value wines are still being produced (and the quality steadily gets better); but the wineries also have begun to icon wines matching the best in the world.

I remember scoffing during a Vancouver tasting in the 1990s that consumers would never pay $25 for a Chilean Cabernet. Well, there were at least seven Chilean reds at the Wine Festival priced at $70 and up. The top: Rothschild’s Alma Viva at $133 a bottle. And there were plenty of $25-$45 wines.

“The future of Chile is quality,” Chadwick predicted.

He is right, but the future also will be defined by the responsible winemaking. I believe that the world’s consumers will reward Chile not just for making good wines but for its green and ethical vineyard practices.

For example, the industry there has a new accreditation, Certified Sustainable Wine of Chile, that has been won so far by about 20 wineries or 10% of those that applied.

Photo: Felipe Tosso

One of these is Viña Ventisquero, a winery established in 1998 by a businessman already successful in a range of other agricultural products. Felipe Tosso, the senior winemaker, rattled off the impressive range of green practices here – buying carbon offsets for transport; adopting lighter (“Ecoglass”) bottles; adopting integrated pest management practices, including natural weed control; using renewable energy at one of its estates; adopting strict water conservation practices.

Organic viticulture is now widespread and there is a big move among wineries toward the ultimate: using biodynamic practices. “The ultimate respect to your terroir is biodynamic agriculture,” Chadwick asserts. “If you use chemicals, you suppress terroir.”

Photo: Alvaro Espinoza

The biodynamic methods range from elaborate composting practices. Emiliana Vineyards has its own herd of beef on its property so that the manure used for compost is produced on the same land that it fertilizes. In other words, a closed loop on the terroir. “We try to be partners with nature,” winemaker Alvaro Espinoza says.

Emiliana began growing biodynamically in 2000. Today, the winery has 1,000 hectares, all under biodynamic practices. “I am convinced they make better wines,” Espinoza says.

Photo: Miguel Torres Another praiseworthy initiative is the “fair trade” wine growing practised by Miguel Torres M. at his family’s winery in Chile. All of the Torres vineyards are certified organic. All the growers are paid fairly and all the workers are treated with dignity.

If you want to reward these wineries for their good works, here are some wines to buy.

Errazuriz Sauvignon Blanc 2011 ($14 in the LDB). This is a zesty refreshing white. At the festival, the winery also showed a sensational single vineyard Sauvignon Blanc 2011(about $17) from its new coastal vineyard. It is a speculative wine that can now found in private wine stores.

Emiliana Coyam 2009 ($29.99 in the LDB). This is a big ripe wine, primarily a blend of Syrah, Carmenère, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot with a dash of Petit Verdot and Mourvedre. The wine has alluring aromas and flavours of figs, plums, coffee and chocolate. 91.

Ventisquero VerTice Syrah Carmenère 2007  ($33; check private wine stores). This is a wine made jointly by Tosso and Australian John Duval, formerly the maker of Penfolds’s Grange. This red has all the earthy plum flavours of Syrah with the lovely spice and red cherry of Carmenère. 90.

Torres Santa Digna Fair Trade Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 ($18; check private wine stores). This is a delicious, juicy red with fruit-forward flavours of black currants and plum. 90.

Quails' Gate goes totally screw cap

 

Photo: Grant Stanley

You can add Quails’ Gate Estate Winery to the list of producers that have switched entirely from cork closures to screw cap.

The winery’s latest releases, which include two of its premium reserve wines and two dessert wines in 375 ml bottles, all arrived with screw cap. Winemaker Grant Stanley suggests that the dessert wines would have been under screw cap even sooner but for the winery’s inability, until now, to get the required bottles from their supplier in Italy.

I am guessing that Grant had a lot to do with selling the switch to his boss, winery president Tony Stewart. Grant, who was born in Vancouver and joined Quails’ Gate in 2003, began his winemaking career in New Zealand.

The New Zealand wine industry began switching to screw cap more than a decade ago when it seemed like a daring move to go against the cork tradition. The transition turned out to be easier than expected. I once asked a New Zealand winemaker if he was getting any resistance to screw cap closures. “Only from white males over 50,” he replied.

The initial motive for the switch was to reduce or eliminate the number of “corked wines” – wines that had taken on musty aromas and dull flavours from tainted cork. The incidence of corked wines had become unacceptably high by the early 1990s.

For a time, some wineries switched to synthetic stoppers. They are still being used even though they are not entirely satisfactory and even though consumers don’t liked them.

Screw cap closures have been used in the beverage alcohol industry for a long time for spirits and for cheap wine. That image was the reason for industry reluctance: would sophisticated consumers buy bottles with a closure similar to the wines consumed by doorway drinkers?

The answer is yes. Of course, today’s screw caps for fine wine are a better design that those that sealed bottles in the 1970s.

The new motive behind screw cap closures is that wines age more slowly and retain their fresh aromas and flavours better.

That is not to suggest screw cap is a perfect closure – you can get a flawed wine from one of these bottlings if the winemaking is not quite up to standard. I would not worry about that with wine from Quails’ Gate.

Not that cork is bad. The cork producers have improved quality control vastly and the incidence of cork taint is way down. And red wines that age under cork develop complexities that many find appealing.

If the wines are good, they will show well under either closure.

Here are my notes on the new Quails’ Gate releases.

Quails’ Gate Chardonnay 2010 ($19.99 for 4,387 cases). Grant Stanley occasionally takes some heat for making the winery’s “regular” Chardonnay so good that some wonder why they need pay $10 more for the reserve. The point is there is more of this wine and the style is different: only half of this Chardonnay is barrel-fermented. The result is a fresh-tasting wine with a core of sweet citrus-flavoured fruit and very subtle toasty notes of oak in the background. The balance is elegant and the finish lingers.  90.

Quails’ Gate Merlot 2009 ($24.99 for 2,842 cases). According to the winemaker, the accumulated heat units in the Okanagan in 2009 were the highest on record. The result is this super-ripe wine (15.4% alcohol) from grapes grown on the winery’s West Kelowna vineyard. This is a powerhouse, beginning aromas of berries, spice and vanilla and with flavours of blueberry, black currant and blackberry. As the wine breathes, its fleshy texture emerges and that texture seems to be why Zinfandel-like alcohol is not apparent. 90-92.

Quails’ Gate Stewart Family Reserve Chardonnay 2010 ($29.99 for 1,142 six-pack cases). The winemaker makes this wine primarily from mature Clone 95 Chardonnay vines and ferments it in his best barrels. The wine begins with a touch of bacon fat and tangerine on the nose, leading to rich, buttery flavours of tangerine and grapefruit. Even though many of the barrels went through malolactic fermentation, the great acidity of the 2010 vintage has given this wine a fresh, tangy finish. This is a very complex wine and it certainly is worth the extra $10. 92.

Quails’ Gate Stewart Family Reserve Pinot Noir 2009 ($45 for 9,618 six packs). The heat of the 2009 vintage produced a wine with more power and less of the elegance of earlier cooler vintages. Dark in colour and sensuous in texture, the wine begins with intense fruit aromas (cherries, strawberries) and a hint of oak toast. On the palate, there are flavours of black cherry and mocha. 91.

Quails’ Gate Optima Late Harvest Botrytis Affected 2010 ($29.99 for 375 ml; 715 cases).  The kind of botrytis that is called noble rot is rare in the Okanagan because the climate usually is too dry. Quails’ Gate, however, has been making this wine almost every year for two decades. The nearby lake provides the early morning moisture that nourishes the botrytis spores and the Optima grape has thick skins, ideal for gradual dehydration on the vines. The grapes, in fact, are crushed by foot because it is not efficient to crush them mechanically. This is an attractive wine, with aromas and flavours of marmalade, honey and tobacco. 91.

Quails’ Gate Fortified Vintage Foch 2009 ($22.99 for 375 ml; 2,000 cases). The wine is fortified to 19% in the style of vintage port. It might be advisable to lay this down for a few years so that the structure, the plum, cherry and vanilla flavours and the alcohol have a chance to knit together better. There is a dollop of sweet fruit on the middle of the palate and a finish of liquorice and chocolate. 87.

Burrowing Owl shows library reds

Photo: Burrowing Owl Estate Winery

Burrowing Owl Estate Winery is among the several Okanagan wineries using the services of Alain Sutre, one of the leading winemaking and viticultural consultants in Bordeaux.

His instructions are simple, according to Burrowing Owl president Chris Wyse. “Your job is to focus on the Meritage – and it will trickle down on all the other wines,” Chris has told Alain.  The consultant’s activities extend to vineyard advice but one of his key roles is leading the blending of the Meritage, the flagship red at Burrowing Owl.

Alain’s handiwork was on display during a Wine Festival dinner this week where Burrowing Owl’s Bordeaux red wines were paired with the excellent Italian-inspired cuisine at Lupo Restaurant and Vinoteca in Vancouver.

I took away several conclusions:

1. The bold flavours of Burrowing Owl wines stand up very well with the rich flavours of Italian cuisine. That comment extends even to 2009 Chardonnay – crisp citrus flavours with a note of toasty oak – which paired brilliantly with an exceptional dish (even in appearance, never mind taste), an octopus carpaccio and Dungeness crab salad. The reds accompanied subsequent courses – tortellini, veal tenderloin and finally a rich chocolate dessert from Piedmont.

Burrowing Owl’s 2008 Cabernet Franc struggled a bit against the chocolate. A more successful match would have been the dessert and Burrowing Owl’s new Syrah-based port, a wine called Coruja, which was served with biscotti. The Coruja – the price is unknown because it is not on the winery’s website yet – has the full-bodied depth and richness of a good vintage port with a long finish of spice and black liquorice. 

2. It is time to begin drinking the 2006 Burrowing Owl reds you may be cellaring. For the dinner, the winery dipped into its library for wines from 2006, one of the strongest vintages of the decade, and from 2008, another solid vintage. The wines were Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Meritage; only the 2008 Cabernet Franc was poured.

It seems to my palate that the 2006 reds have achieved a peak and will probably hold it for a year or two. That is supported by vintage notes on the winery’s website – and they should know.

The 2008s are drinking very well already, with peaking a year or two away. They have the structure to hold that peak for several years.

3. The Meritage, which at $45 sells for a $15 premium compared with the varietals, is a very good wine indeed. If it came from one of those classified growths in Alain’s Bordeaux, it would be selling for three to four times that and the wine critics would still think it a deal.

The fact is that quality Okanagan wines, and this is one, are very good value compared with the big names from elsewhere in the world – even cheap.

Burrowing Owl’s Meritage involves all five Bordeaux varietals. The blend in the 2006 is 53.8% Merlot, 27.5% Cabernet Franc, 12.5% Cabernet Sauvignon, 3,7% Malbec and 2.5% Petit Verdot. The blend in the 2008 was 50% Merlot, 24% each Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon and 1% each Malbec and Petit Verdot.

My advice on this wine is the same as above: drink the 2006 and dip into the 2008 next year.

Playhouse Wine Festival tastings that should be on your bucket list

Photo: Masa Shiroki of Artisan SakeMaker on Granville Island

The Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival, which begins on February 26, is always the year’s most intense week of wine tasting and wine dinners.

The three nights international tastings – March 1, 2 and 3 – at the convention centre can be challenging. There will be about 750 wines available for tasting. Most people that I know will be lucky to manage 50 wines over each three-hour session.

It helps to have a battle plan in mind when entering the tasting room. Here are some suggestions that may help focus.

Chile: This is the theme region this year, with 35 producers attending. This is a critical festival for Chile, whose sales in this market seemed to have levelled off around $44 million a year for several years.

One reason is probably that Argentina has been eating into Chile’s market share. But that should not be happening because the wines of Chile also are reasonably priced and good quality.

Each country has its strengths. While Argentina excels with Torrontes and Malbec, Chile produces better Cabernet Sauvignon, Carmenère, Syrah, Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir.

Your Chilean tasting priority should include visits to the tables of Anakena (for Viognier); Concho y Toro (if only for the $80 Don Melchor, an iconic red); Cousiño-Macul (of the Chile’s oldest Cabernet producers); Cremaschi Furlotti (full-flavoured wines); Viña Errazuriz (for the $90 Don Maximiano, another icon); Viña Montes (a super premium winery); and Lapostelle, (the Grand Marnier-owned winery showing, among other products, a $100 red).

Argentina: There are 14 producers here from Argentina. The wines from that country have been absolutely on fire in this market, with sales tripling in the past five years. Last year, with sales of $45.4 million in British Columbia, Argentina pulled ahead of Chile in this market.

Since you haven’t time to taste at all of their tables, let me suggest a few bucket list priorities.

Bodegas Catena Zapata is pouring, among other wines, a $54 Malbec 2008. Compare it with O. Fournier’s Alfa Crux Malbec 2008, at $50.  Bodegas Pascual Toso is pouring a $58 red blend, Finca Pedregal, while Familia Zuccardi has a $50 red blend, Zuccardi Zeta.

The point of seeking out the four most expensive Argentine reds is this: these producers already blow the socks off with their $15 wines; imagine how good the ultra-premium wines will be.

Australia: 


There is a lot resting on the shoulders of the 17 Australian wineries here. It looks like everybody has been eating Australia’s lunch. Sales of Australian wine totaled $97 million last year, down from $131 million five years ago.

Australia’s problem is the consumer perception that Australian wines all taste the same, due to the dominance of one or two huge brands. Here’s a chance to compare and discover that the perception is simply not true.

Check out Chapel Hill for its Bush Vine Grenache; Jacob’s Creek for its St. Hugo Cabernet Sauvignon; Penfold’s for its Bin 128 Shiraz (alas, no Grange); Wirra Wirra Vineyards for three solid reds and an intriguing white blend; and Yalumba for Viognier.

Ask the people behind the Yalumba table for the story of how this Australian winery virtually rescued Viognier when the variety was on the brink of extinction.

British Columbia: There are 20 British Columbia wineries including one that is new to the festival: Baillie-Grohman Estate Winery, one of three wineries now operating in Creston. The winery’s strong suites are Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris, wines that are well made by Dan Barker, a winemaker who comes up from New Zealand to do the vintage.

Other wineries to check out include Burrowing Owl for its delicious Athene, a Cabernet/Syrah blend; Hester Creek for its new up-market red, The Judge; Le Vieux Pin and LaStella for their powerful reds; Mission Hill for Perpetua, a very elegant Chardonnay; Painted Rock (a winery of the year runner up at the Canadian Wine Awards) for a taste of the winery’s flagship Red Icon blend; Poplar Grove for its flagship The Legacy red; and Quails’ Gate for the Stewart Family Chardonnay and Stewart Family Pinot Noir.

France: The dozen French wineries this year are heavily weighted to Rhône producers; and there is nothing wrong with that. One in particular that I plan to check out is Domaine de la Solitude which is offering, among other wines, a Châteauneuf du Pape at $250 a bottle and another at $128. But there is very little Champagne this year, sadly.

Italy: The 15 Italian wineries this year include such old favourites in this market as Antinori, Frescobaldi and Masi. The latter winery is one of the great producers of Amarone. If you are comparing again, Amarone wines also are being shown by Pasqua and Tomassi.

United States: By my count, there are 29 American wineries in the festival, enough for a second theme region; Chile will not be happy. The entries include all the familiar California wineries – Beringer, Caymus, Kendall-Jackson, Louis Martini, Paul Hobbs, Robert Mondavi, Signorello, Sterling and Stag’s Leap.  There are also two Oregon wineries and two from Washington, including Chateau Ste. Michelle.

Others: There are also Spanish, Portuguese and New Zealand wineries, along with one each from South Africa and Mexico.

Tawse Winery: This Ontario winery is making its first appearance at the festival. It is the only Ontario winery here – but it is arguably the best Canadian winery. Tawse won the Canadian winery of the year award in each of the last two Canadian Wine Awards competitions.

The winery was opened in 2005 by Moray Tawse, a Toronto financial executive. Located on the Jordan Bench, the winery is designed for the ultimate in gravity-flow processing. The investment in the winery is substantial. I once asked Tawse how much he was spending on the winery. He replied: “I won’t tell you but I can say that it will never make money.” I think he was joking.

This will be a rare chance to taste and buy the stunning Riesling, Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs from this winery.

Sake: There will be four producers of sake, or rice wine – two from Japan, one from Oregon and Granville Island’s Artisan SakeMaker.

This is not the first time that there has been a contingent of sake producers at the festival. Sake producers first applied five or six years ago. I was then the chair of the selection committee. Over the festival’s more than 30 years, it was the unwritten policy to exclude producers of non-grape beverages, such as fruit wines, as well as distilled spirits. Since as many as 300 wineries apply each year for the 185 tables in the tasting room, it was generally agreed that there were no tables to spare for the non-grape crowd.

The sake producers, however, were seen as a refreshing change from same old/same old. Once the seven-member selection committee made sure that the festival’s board of directors were on side as well, an area on the tasting room floor was set aside for sake. And it proved to be very popular.

It should draw crowds again this year. Japanese-born Masa Shiroki, who opened Artisan SakeMaker in 2007 on Granville Island, will be releasing what is a breakthrough product – sparkling sake made by the traditional bottle-fermented Champagne method. He is only releasing 240 bottles, priced at $50 a bottle. He will be pouring it at his stand and it will also be on sale at the festival wine store. Don’t miss it.