Thursday, March 6 2008
Preaching to the Fermented
Is the logo half-full, or half-empty?
This weekend is the annual Fermenter's Guild of British Columbia conference/meeting/shindig. It's being held at the fabulous River Rock Resort and Casino in Richmond BC, home of airports, car dealerships and my cousin (hi, Dick!)
The guild represents the owners of ferment on premise stores in the province. For those who are reading this in foreign lands and wondering 'Who doesn't ferment on premise? What, they do it in the street?', FOP's are home fermenting centres, just like your local home brewing shop. But instead of purchasing beer or winemaking ingredients and taking them home, you hand them right back to the staff, and together you mix 'em up (the ingredients, not the staff) and pitch the yeast. As the days pass, they rack, fine and stabilise your wine or beer–essentially doing all the messy bits–and you come back to bottle, cork, label and capsule your wine and haul it off for ageing. This sounds pretty sweet, and for people who may not have the space, time or inclination to get up to their elbows in something as barmy as basement fermenting, it's a great way to be part of the consumer winemaking glitterati.
So what does the FGBC do? According to their mission statement:
The Fermenters Guild of British Columbia is dedicated to the success and growth of the "ferment on premises" industry in B.C. and the positive promotion of responsible beer and wine consumption.
Through its member stores, the FGBC fosters professionalism, ethical business practices and continuous improvement of the wine and beer making experience on behalf of our customers.
The FGBC strives to work closely and cooperatively with provincial and federal government ministries and departments, while diligently representing the needs and rights of consumers to make beer and wine within a professional small business environment.
Groovy! I love dealing with the professional organisations in my industry. While most Winexpert retailers have the ability to get together and chat at the conferences and symposia we hold every year, it's good to gather everybody (competitors and all) under one tent to make sure we're all rowing in the same direction.
And what direction is that? Well, the agenda is pretty packed, but my little part this year will be to conduct a wine tasting educational seminar. Before anyone tries to get a ticket or sneak in, it's actually very educational. Sorry! I'll be discussing 'Sensory Evaluation in Wine Analysis', and using phrases like, 'trigeminal sensation', 'kinesthetic feedback', and 'retro-nasal velocity'. By the time anyone gets to actually taste any wine they'll be so fed up with learning that it will taste like ashes in their mouths, ha ha ha!
No, just kidding, we'll be trying two nice wines, a red and a white, and soopah-seekrit mystery wine. But not anything I or any other consumer produced. A quirk of federal tax law (actually the excise act) prevents me from ever, under any circumstances, supplying anybody, for any purpose, beverage alcohol upon which the excise tax has not been paid. Since I'm not eligible for an excise license, this means no kit wine! So we'll be using commercial wine and making do with that.
Now, where did I leave those Aroma Wheels . . . ?
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