OUR EVENTS IN 2014
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DECEMBER 2014For our Christmas party in December we were back at the Blackbird Public House & Oyster Bar. Thanks to Shelley yet again for organizing this party for us, and to Lisa for organizing the pouring crew. We drank a whole bunch of wine, enjoyed the great food that the Blackbird provided for us, and played the movie Sideways to get us all in the wine mood – not that we normally need very much help. :)
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NOVEMBER 2014In November, we took note of those of you who said in your survey responses that you wanted more dinners. A wonderful dinner at Kits Daily Kitchen with the also-wonderful Church & State Wines was the result. In attendance was John Pullen, Marketing Manager and the son of founder Kim Pullen.
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OCTOBER 2014In October, we decided to have our Harvest Celebration at the Blackbird Public House & Oyster Bar, in their private upstairs offices. As before, we enjoyed lots of good food, good wine, and of course, each other’s company! Robert Van Westen generously donated three bottles of wine for our raffle, and the unlucky Executive members continued their trend of not winning. One of these times... :)
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SEPTEMBER 2014September is the month of one of our most popular annual BCWAS events – the Okanagan bus tour! This year, our 9th, we visited the wineries of the Kelowna area. Saturday was spent north of Kelowna, where we enjoyed stunning views and a great lunch at Gray Monk. Saturday’s dinner was at CedarCreek, including more views over the lake which we enjoyed after a climb to a high point in the vineyard. Winemaker Darryl Brooker was on hand to lead us through a tasting. Sunday, we toured southern Kelowna, with lunch at Tantalus provided by the always-wonderful Joy Road Catering.
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AUGUST 2014August is the month of the annual VAWS barbecue. As has been their custom the last few years, VAWS very kindly invited the BCWAS members to join them. Much food and wine were consumed under warm sunny skies in the lovely garden backyard of Larry & Maggie. Sadly, this was the last VAWS barbecue, as the Society has now ceased to operate. Larry & Maggie still want to continue the tradition, however, so we will most likely be gathering there again in the future. Bring on the sunshine!
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JULY 2014In July, we were invited by winemaker Mark Simpson of Siren’s Call and the BC Wine Studio to a gathering in his Vancouver backyard. It was a lovely summer day, and we thoroughly enjoyed Mark’s hospitality, including lots of wines and some yummy appies to go with them.
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JUNE 2014In June, we had a visit from the Similkameen’s Clos du Soleil. Both winemaker Ann Sperling and co-owner Spencer Massie were on hand to lead us through the tasting of ten of their wines, including some white, rose, Bordeaux-style reds, and a delicious late harvest Sauvignon Blanc. This was our second event with Clos du Soleil – we also had our Saturday night dinner with them on the 2012 bus tour on the lovely patio at the Watermark in Osoyoos.
June 16th was our AGM, held at a new venue this year – the Vancouver Film School in Gastown. We did things a little differently this time - the Society purchased a huge order of Chinese food to go along with the BC wines that everyone brought. It was lots of fun and not too much work. :) |
MAY 2014May is our Annual Dinner month, and this year we were lucky enough to get the ever-busy Sandra Oldfield out to visit us at the beautiful Lift Bar Grill View in Coal Harbour. We enjoyed a beautiful sunny evening, and reveled in the food and wine pairings, including two Library wines and one pre-release sneak peek.
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APRIL 2014In April, BCWAS was pleased to host the only Lillooet winery – Fort Berens. Heleen Pannekoek came all the way to Vancouver to pour us 12 of her wines. The most unusual were four Chardonnays that all had different Stelvin closures. The differences were very intriguing!
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MARCH 2014March’s event saw our group getting to know Judy Kingston of Serendipity Winery. Judy had a great story to tell, and we all enjoyed meeting her and tasting her wines. Included in the lineup were two years of Viognier, two years of Rose, two years of Syrah, and three years of the Serenata red blend. Judy and her daughter Katie also donated a lovely Serendipity movie night and popcorn basket for our raffle.
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FEBRUARY 2014February, we followed up last year’s Syrah comparative tasting with a Cabernet Franc comparison. Esteemed wine writer John Schreiner led us through this double-blind challenge, where we got to taste 12 wines, 8 from BC and 1 each from Ontario, California, Argentina and France. We were very pleased to see that the Tinhorn Creek Oldfield’s Series wine was the leader by a big margin. The biggest surprise to many was that the Argentinian - at $19 the least expensive wine in the group - took second place.
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JANUARY 2014We started in January with a visit from Chris Tolley of Moon Curser Vineyards in Osoyoos. We were able to try the Afraid of the Dark Rhone white blend, Viognier, Border Vines Meritage, Tempranillo, and two 3-year verticals: the 2009-2011 Syrah and the 2009-2011 Dead of Night Syrah-Tannat. A great way to start our year!
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