We’re in the midst of Canada’s coolest wine festival – the three weekend long Niagara Icewine Festival. This is one of a good number of world wine celebrations well worth the trip. Every major wine region on the globe hosts wine festivals. Here are some to suite a variety of tastes and budgets.
Exhibiting my Canadian pride, I’d say Niagara’s Icewine Festival is unique. Held over three weekends in January (Jan 10-12, 17-19 and 24-26 in 2020) it offers wine lovers, cocktail fans and foodies fabulous winter experiences. There is the Icewine Gala celebrating its 25th year, icewine tasting menus at local wineries, fireside samplings and icewine ‘villages’ were lots of icewine is poured in the towns of Niagara-on-the-Lake and Jordan Village. I’m heading there this Friday for a birthday celebration weekend so more on this festival in a subsequent column. https://niagarawinefestival.com/icewine#iw-events
Canada’s biggest event, also the largest of such public wine festivals in the Americas according to organizers, is the Vancouver International Wine Festival now in its 42nd year. Over 25,000 attend to taste wines from around the world. Each year a different country is featured – for 2020 it’s France – though 164 wineries are participating from 16 countries (42 from France).
It’s quite the extravaganza – opening with the Bacchanalia Gala Dinner and Auction on February 22 this year, followed by seven days of winery dinners, seminars, wine parties, lunches and brunches, and tastings. In all there are 44 public events in 2020. The heart of the festival is the Tasting Room, where the public can choose from around 725 wines at four International Festival Tastings. Tickets are on sale now. https://vanwinefest.ca
Australia’s biggest and best festival, The Melbourne Food & Wine Festival, takes place in March 19 – 29 in 2020. Feature events this year include: a house party with the food talent of the moment, Alison Roman; Friday drinks with all the hot chips one can handle; a street fair with spaghetti; a quiz night testing participants taste buds; and a red-hot selection of Sichuan food. A crowd favourite, Bank of Melbourne World’s Longest Lunch has been part of every Melbourne Food & Wine Festival since the Festival began in 1993. More than more than 1,600 diners sit down in Treasury Gardens for a three-course lunch. https://www.melbournefoodandwine.com.au
Wine loving skiers will find their nirvana at the Wein am Berg, three days of skiing and drinking in Austria in April held in Sölden. During the day there’s skiing on 144 km of freshly groomed slopes with VIP ski guides along with high altitude wine tastings on the glacier. In the evening at Sölden’s first and longest-running 5-star hotel Das Central there are dinners created by top chefs and wine tastings. One tasting will be held in Europe’s highest restaurant, ice Q, which sits 3,048m above sea level. (It was featured in the James Bond film Spectre as the Hoffler Klinik.) https://www.weinamberg.at/en
Fans of the pinot noir grape will dig the 34th Annual International Pinot Noir Celebration held in McMinnville, Oregon in July. This three day event is now renown as a mecca for lovers of pinot and northwest cuisine. Each year over 60 guest chefs from the region’s most revered restaurants create inspired courses made from local farm ingredients. Winemakers come from around the world to pour their cherished wine from the ‘heartbreak grape’. The atmosphere is relaxed and the mood jovial. https://ipnc.org/event-overview
The world’s first festival dedicated exclusively to rosé wine, La Nuit en Rosé made its debut in New York City in 2014. The festival has expanded to include Los Angeles, Miami, and most recently, the Hamptons, but New York remains the largest with 5,000 attendees. Now in its seventh year, the May 15 and 16 festival features over 100 rosés and includes a wine cruise on a yacht on the Hudson River. https://nuitrose.com
The poshest wine festival open to the public is the annual Auction Napa Valley. The weekend kicks off on Thursday night with Vintner Welcome Parties. Friday is designated for the Napa Valley Barrel Auction where outside under tents and in stalls, dozens of top local restaurants served up a cornucopia of edibles. Meanwhile inside the cool barrel cellars, bidding heats up for the highly touted vintages served directly from the barrels by winemakers and vintners. Anyone who wants can taste the wines offered from the barrel and most do. In the evening there are winemakers dinners at Napa wineries.
Saturday during the day there are al fresco lunches with plenty of wine. The festivities climax with the Live Auction Celebration – a confetti-flying, paddle flashing extravaganza under a big white tent. At this final night of dinner, wines and a fast paced live auction, celebrities, business tycoons and other deep pocketed folks all try to outdo each other in their bids for over-the-top awesome wine-centric lots created by Napa wineries at their own expense. This year festival takes place June 4 – 7. www.auctionnapavalley.org