SALUD! WINES OF CHILE
You know it’s a party when the Chileans hit town. Wine lovers can discover the quality and diversity of Chilean wines on September 25 at Vancouver’s annual Chilean Wine Festival. Mix and mingle with representatives from more than 20 Chilean wineries sampling over 125 of their best wines.
Click here to view the wineries, visiting principals and wines being featured at the event
Rocky Mountaineer Station. There is plenty of parking available plus complimentary Vancouver Trolley service from Main Street Skytrain station. Tickets are only $65, and available here.
ALLEZ! VIN DE GARDE
vin de garde, motto: design. build. stock.
vin de garde, translation: first wines of great vintages that will gain remarkable complexity and value with proper cellar aging.
NEW vin de garde, showroom and design center: 112 west 2nd ave., vancouver, 1.604.568.8460
Vin de Garde’s 3,000 sq ft wine cellar has recently opened downtown, letting you see different storage materials, models and full-scale wine storage systems. There is also a private room for formal tastings, wine education and consultations. Still in the works is a 15,000 cubic ft storage facility, capable of storing over 60,000 bottles of wine for private collectors or restaurants.
Billy Carpenter, the owner of Vin de Garde (a company that has built wine cellars for such restaurants as Lumiere, Brix and Provence Marinaside, as well as across North America), seems to have been born into the trade (with a name like that…). He has a BSc in Forestry as well as a Sommelier Certification from the International Sommelier Guild, so this career is a perfect marriage of his passions.
Vin de Garde is the only wine cellar manufacturer in Canada to employ a certified sommelier as well as an interior designer to advise on the design and construction of their custom wine rooms. The company is also a member of BC Wood, a not-for-profit trade association dedicated to growing BC’s secondary wood-products manufacturing industry.
CANADA WINS BIG AT AMERICAN CHEESE OLYMPICS
Our Cheesy friend, Andres Restrepo, from All You Need is Cheese (read our entry on them from July) filled us in on the recent 2008 American Cheese Society Competition .
19 fine Canadian cheeses and 2 dairy products (butter, yogourt) were selected by a panel of 30 independent expert judges to receive international awards and special recognition for their excellence at the event.
Hosted by The American Cheese Society - a non profit trade organization that encourages the understanding, appreciation, and promotion of farmstead and natural specialty cheeses produced in the Americas and Canada – this annual competition was establish to reward and give positive recognition to those cheeses that are of the highest quality in their aesthetic evaluation (i.e. flavor, aroma, and texture), as well as their technical evaluation.
Canadian winners stood out from 1,149 cheeses and dairy product entries submitted by 181 producers from 30 states and 3 Canadian provinces.
21 Canadian cheeses and dairy products won awards in 16 categories. Medal count for Canada goes as follows: 8 Gold, 8 Silver and 4 bronze.
Winning Canadian dairy products include:
GOLD MEDALS (8)
Cheese: Snow Goat – Brie Triple Crème
Category: Triple Crème Soft Ripened – All Milks (cream added blue cheeses excluded)
Producer: Saputo / Fromagerie Alexis de Portneuf
Cheese: Fleurs des Monts
Category: Open Category Sheep’s Milk and Mixed Milk Cheeses (aged 60 days or more)
Producer: La Moutonnière Inc
Cheese: Sentinelle
Category: Open Category Made from Goat’s Milk
Producer: Fromagerie Le Détour
Cheese: Fin Renard
Category: Open Category Made from Cow’s Milk
Producer: Fromagerie Bergeron Inc.
Cheese: Feta dans l’huile aux herbes
Category: Flavor Added: Spices, Herbs, Seasoning, Fruits – All Milks
Producer: La Moutonnière Inc
Cheese: Feta
Category: Feta Made from Sheep’s Milk
Producer: La Moutonnière Inc
Cheese: Saputo Feta (plain)
Category: Feta Made from Cow’s Milk
Producer: Saputo Cheese GP
Butter: Goat Butter
Category: Butter Made from Goat Milk
Producer: Liberte
SILVER MEDALS (8)
Cheese: Avonlea Clothbound Cheddar
Category: Cheddars Wrapped in Cloth, Linen (aged over 12 months)
Producer: Cows Inc.
Cheese: Neige de Brebis
Category: Cheeses Made from Sheep’s Milk and/or Mixed Milks
Producer: La Moutonnière Inc
Cheese: Lotbinière
Category: Emmentaler Style Made from Cow’s Milk with Eyed Formation (Swiss, Baby Swiss, etc. Excluded: Gruyere, Swiss style and Mountain style cheese)
Producer: Fromagerie Bergeron Inc.
Cheese: La Sauvagine
Category: Open Category Made from Cow’s Milk
Producer: Saputo / Fromagerie Alexis de Portneuf
Cheese: Patte Blanche
Category: Open Category Made from Goat’s Milk
Producer: Fromagerie Bergeron Inc.
Cheese: Le Clandestin
Category: Open Category Made from Sheep’s Milk
Producer: Fromagerie Le Détour
Cheese: Saputo Provolone
Category: Pasta Filata Types – Provolone, Caciocavallo – All Milks
Producer: Saputo Cheese GP
Cheese: Woolwich Dairy Triple Crème Goat Brie
Category: Triple Crème Soft Ripened – All Milks (cream added blue cheeses excluded)
Producer: Woolwich Dairy Inc.
BRONZE MEDALS (5)
Cheese: La Dame du Lac
Category: Fat Free and Low Fat Cheeses (Limited to cheeses with 3 grams or less total fat per serving size)
Producer: Fromagerie Le Détour
Cheese: Yogurt-Style Goat Fresh Cheese, Honey
Category: Fresh Goat Cheese – Flavor Added (Cheeses flavored with floral, fruits, liquors, citrus, berries, cacao.)
Producer: Liberte
Cheese: Le Coeur du Nectar (Pomegranate & Raspberries)
Category: Open Category Made from Goat’s Milk
Producer: Saputo / Fromagerie Alexis de Portneuf
Cheese: St-Honoré
Category: Triple Crème Soft Ripened – All Milks (cream added blue cheeses excluded)
Producer: Saputo / Fromagerie Alexis de Portneuf
Yogourt: Plain 2% Yogourt
Category: Yogurts (made from all milk sources)
Producer: Liberte
WIN A WINE JOCKEY ADVENTURE
Love wine? Love to Talk? Love to Talk about Wine?
Yes to all of the above?
Well here is your chance! Canadian personality, Terry David Mulligan, creator and host of Tasting Room Radio has launched a contest to give winners a chance to do all of the above – with him. From now until September 20, tell Terry in 100 words or less why you should visit him during the Okanagan Fall Wine Festival, Oct 10-12, with three of your friends, and co-host the show with him.
In addition to co-hosting the show and having a wine tasting with Terry, the winner and three friends will receive return airfare from Vancouver courtesy of Pacific Coastal Air, 2 nights accommodation at The Penticton Lakeshore Resort, dinner at Amante Bistro with wine pairings by Poplar Grove Winery, tickets to The American Express Grand Finale Consumer Tastings courtesy of The Okanagan Wine Festivals and ground transportation to and from events.
For contest details listen to the Tasting Room Radio in Vancouver on Saturdays from 5 to 7 pm on 1410 The Buzz of Vancouver, or live on the website at www.tastingroomradio.com from 10 am-12 noon on Saturdays. To enter go to www.radio1410.com, click on the contest page and submit according to instructions. The winner will be announced live on Tasting Room Radio on September 20.
CHEESE & WINE 101
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If you read Amuse Bouche often, you’ll know that we love cheese. Cheese is definitely our friend. So obviously, Les Amis du Fromage is one of our favourite shops in the city. Vancouver’s busiest cheese shop specializes in unpasteurized or “lait cru” French cheeses (the stinkier the better!) and also carries cheeses from Switzerland, Italy, Quebec, Spain, Portugal, England and Ireland. Owners and mother and daughter team Alice & Allison Spurrell stock between 400-500 cheeses at any given time, including an extensive selection of BC cheeses. With back to school just around the corner comes this timely announcement of their new class, Exploring Cheese & Wine 101. In a single session, they will provide a roadmap for matching various cheese types with the wines that best suit them. They will introduce cheese basics, including milk types, textures, flavours, how to care for and serve fine cheeses. Participants then learn about how to approach the wines to pair with cheese. Sample some of the marriages made in heaven and discover pairings that suit your own personal taste. Sign me up! |
Wednesday September 10 – 7-9pm. $65.
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