What: Taste Festival of Food and Wine
When: July 25 to 28
Where: Various locations, downtown Victoria
Tickets: $19 to $89
Information: victoriataste.com
Whether you enjoy discussing the molecular makeup of a particular B.C. wine or simply stuffing your face with good, local food, the upcoming Taste Festival has something for everyone.
“The food culture in Victoria has grown hugely,” said organizer Kathy McAree, who also operates Travel with Taste tours. “People who come out really want to be there and are very enthusiastic. We try to have something for everybody.”
McAree said interest in the local food and wine festival, set for July 25 to 28 this year, has been strong since its launch five years ago, but the educational component has really taken off.
The four-day event features seminars and tasting sessions with a focus on regional wines and food.
“There are some real keeners for the seminars, the ones that have an education component.”
The seminars include a primer on sustainable seafood at Finest at Sea in James Bay, a tea and terroir regional tasting with tea master Daniela Cubelic at Silk Road, a cool-climate wine tasting and a unique cooking class at the London Chef called Sharpen Your Senses — in which participants season dishes to pair with wine.
“We’ll take something like a ling cod, filet and pan fry it. Take a bite, a slurp of wine and then add lemon zest or another condiment and taste the wine again,” said Dan Hayes from the London Chef on Fort Street. He’ll lead the cooking portion of the seminar, while Michael Bartier, an award-winning winemaker from the Okanagan Valley’s Crush Pad facility, will guide the tasting and pairing.
While some of the seminars are already sold out, there will be ample opportunity to glean foodie knowledge from chefs, producers and experts at all of the events.
Opening night’s Taste the Difference event will draw the largest crowd to the Hotel Grand Pacific for an evening of eating and drinking, said McAree.
The hotel ballrooms will host more than 30 B.C. wineries, each pouring four wines, and food from 18 restaurants. Winemakers and chefs will be on hand to discuss their wares and philosophies. Participants can sample freely for a $79 entry fee.
“Some of the best local chefs and restaurants are represented and everything is local,” said McAree, adding only restaurants with a local mandate and ingredients were accepted into the event.
“The whole point is to taste the difference of what local means.”
The Hotel Grand Pacific gave a sneak peek this week of its Swine and the Vine event, set for July 27, during which executive chef Rick Choy and executive sous chef Jan Gourd will roast a 100-pound grain-fed Fraser Valley Sakura pig on an open spit in front of the hotel.
A variety of pork dishes and local beverages, including wine from Covert Farms, will round out the afternoon. “I’m excited to re-create the Appalachian pig roasts from my youth,” said the hotel’s director of operations, Emory Haines, who has roots in rural West Virginia and Pennsylvania. “We’ll do it the old way, using everything head to tail. No part wasted.”
He said the locavore movement has even permeated the hotel industry — he recently had a wedding party request ethically raised meat and wild salmon for their banquet.
Q&A on B.C. win tasting with Sharon McLean
Sharon McLean is a wine writer, wine instructor for the Arts Institute of Vancouver, a master of wine student and a veteran wine expert with the Taste Festival.
She offered some salient tips on tasting B.C. wines.
TC: Why is it noteworthy to have an event that features local wine?
SM: Most B.C. wineries are relatively small and the wines don’t make their way into the government stores. You have to search them out in the independent stores or restaurants, or visit the wineries. Taste is like a tour of the wineries — without the long drives.
TC: What are the best types of wine B.C. produces, and why?
SM: I love our aromatic whites. In particular, there are some outstanding Rieslings coming from cooler sites where there’s a taut balance of fruit, acidity and minerality.
TC: Are there any surprising new wines B.C. winemakers are attempting?
SM: B.C. is a relatively young wine region — we don’t have [the French region of] Burgundy’s 2,000 years of experience in matching variety to vineyard site. We’re still learning what grows well and where. That makes for a lot of experimentation. There are more than 60 different grape varieties planted. Some things work. Others not so much. But that’s the point of experimentation.
TC: Are there any particular tasting notes to B.C. wines — do they differ regionally?
SM: There are huge differences in the climates and soils of our various wine-growing regions. The heat and aridity of Osoyoos in the Okanagan is a far cry from the more moderate and wet climate here on Vancouver Island. So, no surprise that there are significant differences in the varieties and styles of wines that we find across B.C. vineyards.
Having said that, I judge at the All Canadian Wine Competition (we judge the wines blind) and B.C. wines do seem to have a consistently different profile to the wines from other Canadian wine regions.
Generally, I look for ripe fruit and fresh acidity, wrapped round a savoury core.
With the different soils and climates, you can definitely expect regional profiles. For example, Similkameen wines tend to be less fruit-forward, have brighter acidity and more minerality than their Okanagan counterparts.
TC: How do B.C. wines compare with other wine regions?
SM: At a blind tasting put on by the B.C. Wine Institute last year, professionals were asked to do side-by-side variety comparisons of a B.C. wine with another classic region. It was encouraging to see how many times the B.C. wines were selected as the better wine. As the vine age increases across the province and we build our understanding of what grows well where, we can expect better and better things from B.C.
TC: Any tasting tips?
SM: The tasting room can be overwhelming, so think about what you want to achieve. If you love Merlots, try all the Merlots in the room.
If you’re stuck on Pinot Gris, skip those and try other varieties instead. When you find a wine that you enjoy, note down the details, or take a photo. Also ask where the wine is available — since most of the wineries have limited volumes, they are unlikely to be in the government liquor store.
