Attending the Victoria Wine Festival gives you access to palate-pleasing wines, like-minded wine-lovers, and room to bask in the soothing atmosphere of the Parkside Hotel and Spa.
But Festival’s goals aren’t limited to two exciting days: they want to make all their guests into amateur wine connoisseurs who can walk into the liquor store with heads held high, fearlessly selecting the wines for their next dinner party or date night with all the confident aplomb of a seasoned sommelier.
Beyond simply helping you discover your new favourite vintage, the 2017 Victoria Wine Festival can turn you into the wine know-it-all you’ve always wanted to be!
Wandering Sommeliers Share Their Knowledge
The people manning the tables at the Wine Festival are experts in the field, but they can sometimes get bogged down with eager tasters, and may not have time to address all your questions. That’s what our wandering sommeliers are for.
Look for these pros milling with the crowd during tastings (They have red aprons). They’re ready and waiting to answer all your wine-based inquiries, and there are never any “stupid” questions. Curious how a certain climate or region affects taste? Our sommeliers will tell you about terroir. Want to know the best vintage for your picky sister-in-law who only likes “earthy” wines with “chewy tannins”? Our mingling masters can point you in the right direction.
Pick their brains and make notes on your brochure, and you could come away from the Festival just bubbling with grape trivia. Break it out during your next trip to the wine store, and you’ll feel your confidence soar.
Begin to Recognize Qualities by Region
The climate where grapes are grown has a significant effect on the flavour and other properties of a wine. At the Victoria Wine Festival, you’ll have the opportunity to taste wines from a wide range of locales (17 countries!), and this will broaden your appreciation for these unique results.
After sampling wines from different regions and speaking with our on-site experts about what you’re tasting and smelling, you’ll be able to strike off on your own, knowing that you often prefer the low-sugar content of cool-climate wines to the black-fruit flavours (the pros call them “notes”) of a warm-climate vintage.
Armed with these important distinctions, you can sweep into your neighbourhood liquor store and steer straight to the wines from Chablis, France, or Marlborough, New Zealand because you know those regions grow grapes that evoke your favourite flavours. In this way, you avoid limiting yourself to a few specific vintages and can branch out and explore, with a good grasp of what you’re going to enjoy.
Perfect Your Pairing Prowess
Everyone knows serving wine is never as simple as popping a cork and letting it flow. No, if you’re entertaining a group of friends for a classy evening, you want to make sure you’re pouring wines that suit the hors d’oeuvres you’ve artistically arranged on the good china.
The Victoria Wine Festival won’t leave you hanging with an unembellished list of tasty wines. Our experts at the tables and the sommeliers roving throughout can help you with the whole package. Each wine being sampled has certain tastes that fit it to perfection, and taking advantage of these pairings can take your entertaining – and even your simple family dinners – to a whole new level.
Just like your new knowledge of how notes differ from region to region can help you expand your wine collection, when you understand why salty foods make champagne pop and pinots shine next to fish, you can extrapolate and start concocting your own delicious pairings.
As you can see, the Victoria Wine Festival is so much more than just a 2-day tasting extravaganza, though it’s certainly that, too! You’ll come away from each tasting and seminar with the skills you need to shop wine with savvy!
Tickets are going fast, so be sure to pick up your Super Pass (http://bit.ly/2p1B2Ej) straight away.
Purchase your tickets online, or in-person at one of these locations:
- Everything Wine, 131-2401 Millstream Road, Victoria
- The Parkside Hotel and Spa, 810 Humboldt Street, Victoria
- Vessel Liquor, 1609 Fort Street, Victoria
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