Gearing Up For The Vancouver International Wine Festival

This is going to be a great week.
We're headed to Vancouver to attend the Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival, one of the biggest events of it's kind in North America. Thousands of winos will descend on the city to take in the offerings from scores of wineries. British Columbia is the feature region (for the first time) and Township 7 will have a table.
As Township's winemaker, I will be on hand for all of Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I will be pouring at the trade and public tasting sessions. Be sure to come by, chat and grab a sample.
Although Black Cloud isn't officially entered, it will have an incognito presence. Just ask me when we meet.

VinoCamp: Geeks and Winos!

Next Saturday (August 16) in Vancouver the first ever Vinocamp will get underway at UBC's botanical gardens.

The tech/web/internet crowd that also loves wine is putting this together. While you don't have to be a geek to enjoy the day, you'll certainly have company if you are.

Use the links to check out their site and to find registration information. As they say in their tagline,
This is definitely not the wine festival.

See you there!

Fraiche

Had an opportunity to drop into Fraiche for dinner last week while in Vancouver. I'm an old Vancouver boy so I was yearning for that view you get from the North Shore mountains. The same view you got when you took some of your first dates up the tram on Grouse Mountain or to Salmon House on the Hill.

I also needed some points in the spouse department as I had been predictably shoddy in recent attempts at Important Day Celebrations or IDCs. She'd accompanied me to the big smoke on this business trip so I surprised her with a dinner res at what must be almost 2,000 feet above sea level.

The room is bright, airy and dominated be the floor to ceiling windows facing south. There's a fair view from just about any seat. If you can't get a window seat for your baby, perch her at the bar where she can enjoy the view above the crowd and the crowd can enjoy the view of her. Change genders on that last sentence if you are so inclined.

At 7:15 on a Tuesday in late April the room was essentially full so make a reservation.

The weather behaved remarkably. The service was spot on. The food was flavourful, imaginative and worth the 20 minute jaunt from our downtown hotel. I wasn't in FM (foodie mode) and failed to take notes but suffice to say we each had a salad. Mine featured roasted beets and I think I'm now moving roasted beets up a few notches on the Top Veg Chart. Hers was centred around a small cylinder of goat cheese that was crunchy-crispy on the outside. Both were great. Our mains were duck for wife and lamb for me. Both were damn fine and were reduced to uttering grunts and squeals of appreciation to the chagrin of tables nearby. We paired them with a St. Francis Merlot I felt was a little flaccid which I attributed to my regionalized palate.

An old associate of ours from a decade ago turned out to be our server so we got a chance to share some laughs in remembrance.

The wine list was intelligent and stimulating. Not extensive but still plenty of varied choices. Hey! Township 7 Merlot. Don't forget to order it on your visit!

I was thoughtful and sensitive without any ennui.

I think we dropped a couple of C notes plus and felt we received a good exchange for our moolah.

Do you know how to get to Salmon House? Yes? Then keep driving up the hill. It's on Chippendale. No? Phone for directions or park in Ambleside (beachfront West Van) and take a cab.

I believe it's just dinners right now but that's changing so stay current! Closed Mondays.

604.925.7595

Amelia Oil

It never hurts to repeat a truism when it acts as a kind of constant guide.

I rarely tire of the message: Good wine is best with good food.

Combining exquisite culinary creations with a special bottle of wine is one of the basic pleasures of life. It's an experience that can be relived time after time and each occasion is as novel and rewarding as the last.

So it is with great pleasure that I share with you one of my latest discoveries.

Amelia Oil is a tiny producer of olive oil. Oil that is pressed with nothing less than the kind of love one usually reserves for family.

That's probably because it is family. A family from West Vancouver and a family from Umbria in Italy have joined to produce, package and export an olive oil that really has no equal on this side of the pond when it comes to freshness and integrity.

There's lots to read on their website so I won't repeat a lot of what is there. Safe to say there's a fair amount of false representation among the huge oil producers and one way to protect your buying standards is to seek out a direct link from producer to your table. That's what Amelia Oil is all about.

What's it taste like?

It all comes down to taste. It certainly is fresh. I didn't know how stale my store bought oils were until I got my Amelia Oil a couple weeks ago. I was floored by the strength of the palate. I'm now using a little less oil in my preparations but with great flavour results.
The bouquet is very floral with a hint of candy and nut, the palate is full of vegetal green and grassy flavours, toasted grains and nut in the finish. I've used it in various incarnations but my favourites are:
1.BBQ grilled Tilapia drizzled with Amelia oil and sprinkled with basil from my garden.
2.In a pesto for a crust on ahi tuna
3.With some rustic, grain-festooned bread and Poplar Grove cheeses.

The price is, as to be expected, a tad more than the bargain basement oil you can get in the supermarkets. There is something to be said for an oil you can consume and lubrcate your car's engine with but that's not Amelia oil. If you care about what you put in your body then check out their website and blog.
Amelia Oil

Amelia Oil blog

By the way, they're now taking orders for the 2008 oilage.

Taylorwood Wines, Yaletown, Vancouver

I finally made it down to Taylorwood Wines in Vancouver's precious Yaletown after hearing lots of good things and meeting plenty of people who all had a positive Taylorwood story.

The shop is well-laid out and had a great airy feel with the south-east window frontage letting plenty of light in. There's no need for a modern shop to have poor lighting so us old folks can't read the labels. Hundreds of bottles are arranged more or less by varietal. Have a staff member show you around on your first visit.

I was in on a Sunday which happened to coincide with one of their twice weekly advertised tasting events. The place had a pleasant buzz of business with customers coming and going and congregating around the hemispherical tasting bar in the back.

One of the things I appreciate in a wine shop is a sufficient, knowledgeable staff. Taylorwood scored well on this point. Selling wine is more than order taking; customers are always in pursuit of information when they are ready to select a wine they've never had before. The better the information and the delivery then the better the relationship between the two parties. In this respect they're a lot like Discover Wines in Kelowna.

Taylorwood is the kind of place I want to sell my wines. I want people with a genuine interest in good wine and a passion for great wine to handle my best products. That's why Township 7 has wine at Taylorwood and why I'll be encouraging my other clients to have their wines there.