Playhouse International Wine Festival Impressions

The Playhouse International Wine Festival always holds so much promise. I love getting my catalogue in the mail and picking out a few events that I will look forward to for months. This year my sister and I bought tickets to ‘Salut Chile’ at the Stanley Park Teahouse, and ‘Rah, Rah Rose’ at the Miele show lounge. Like most years, it was a mix of hit and miss. Unsurprisingly, the Chile event featured some nice Sauvignon Blancs, and more unusually, it featured some lovely Chardonnays at a decent price point. Our favourites were Errázuriz Wild Ferment Chardonnay 2008, $21.99 and Viña Casa Tamaya Reserva Chardonnay 2009, $17.99. I found the reds to be a bit dull, but the venue was by far the worst part of this event. It was held in a small room of the Teahouse, so you were shoulder-to-shoulder with everyone in the room, people were accosting trays of food and the poor servers under them, and to avoid getting the wine glass knocked out of your hand, it was elbows-in drinking. If the Teahouse had ponied up for a little more space and food, this could have been a good event.

I love Rose so definitely wanted to attend ‘Rah, Rah Rose’, despite being a bit sceptical about it being held at an appliance show lounge. I have to commend Savvy Company who had the vision to host a tasting event there – it was perfect. It was roomy and there were over a dozen kitchen displays and unique spaces so as you moved around you felt like you were visiting the kitchens of individual wineries, complete with accompanying food. There was no shortage of wine and there were so many lovely Roses. My favourites were a dry cherry flavoured Pinot Noir, Yering Station Pinot Noir Rosé, $24.99 and Nicolas Feuillatte Champagne Brut Rosé NV, $69.99 (a little pricey, but delicious)

I have a love hate relationship with the wine festival, it never fails to delight me in some way, but I can always assume there will be some disappointment. I have found the best bets are the grazing lunches – they are cheaper than the dinners and the mass tasting convention, and you get to try a good number of wines without listening to someone drone on about the entire fermenting process or the soil the grapes were grown in while waiting for a refill.