Friday, March 6 2009
Guilded Fermenters
Is the logo half-empty, or half-full?
It's hard to believe that's it's been a year already, but last Sunday was the Fermenters Guild of British Columbia annual conference. The FGBC represents the consumer wine and beer making retailers in the province, and the annual get-together revolves around their annual general meeting where they elect new officers, propose new measures, discuss important news, attend various educational seminars (that's were I come in) and have a trade show (Winexpert, other kit manufacturers and associated trades) and a pretty interesting dinner.
My seminar was a cut-down version of my Winexpert annual conference presentation from last year, 'Operational Efficiency in the Wine On Premise', similar to the other cut-down version I did in Austin, but filed down even further to fit into 85 minutes--I had to talk really fast to get it all in. Turned out pretty well, I think (had a couple of calls today asking for clarification and advice, so people were listening) although I did leave out a lot of the good bits--this was everyone, rather than just Winexpert's captive dealers. Sorry folks, you want the full-meal deal you have to sign on for the long voyage!
Dinner was at the Tramonto restaurant in the River Rock Casino again. The food there is always very well prepared, and this year was no exception. We started with a bunch of appetisers and a nice Calona Soverign Opal. It's a wine unique to BC, with the Soverign Opal grape a cross-breeding of Marechal Foch and Muscat (or Moose-cat, depending on how you prounounce it) from the BC Research Station in the Okanagan. Foch is a red grape, but with high acidity, and combined with the grapey-grape muscat note, it's quite interesting. A little too much acid and alcohol, but quirky and kind of fun.
There followed a salad of local greens with pistachio crusted goat cheese, accompanied by Sumac Ridge Private REserve Rosé, which was a standout wine of the night: strawberries, white currant and melons came through in the nose, and the gentle sweetness was a nicely balanced and braced with crisp acidity.
After was a clam chowder, a bit odd with a very thin milk base--it's the style, it seems, but I think it's better richer. The 2007 Sandhill Small Lots Viognier was, alas, too high in alcohol to match well. If it had been the 2006, it would have worked great.
The double main was arctic char on a citrus buerre blanc with braised leeks, brilliantly executed and tender as only fatty char can be, accompanied by Braised beef short rib on wild mushroom risotto, gorgeously tender and rich. The accompanying wines, unfortunately, were just too oaky and overblown for my tastes. I'm sure lots of folks enjoyed them, but I found them abusive with the food and stuck to water.
Dessert was 2006 Sandhill Merlot with a dark chocolate mousse cheese cake and a teeny cheese course of pecan crisps and aged white cheddar. The mousse was pretty good, although it wasn't cheesecake--tasted more like ganache, maybe with a little panna cotta snuck in?--and the Merlot had some interesting characteristics against it, but worked better with the pecan crisps. I don't mix cheese and wine for the most part, so I ate them separately. Nice crisps, though.
Other than a 20 minute trip from White Rock to Richmond taking me 2-1/2 hours through a snowstorm, it was relaxing and fun to attend. It's always great to see old friends, both from the retailer's side and from the manufacturers and allied trades. Old home week is always fun. See you all next year.
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