Friday, December 11 2009

Winesense LE 2009

Andy, the hardest working man in the room

Whew, it's great to be back in blog business! I've got new editing software, a new interface and the ability to change font sizes without spraining a back muscle! It's all good, more on that later, but now I'm waaaay behind on the Limited Edition Chronicles.

Every year I do dozens of consumer tasting events and lectures for our Limited Edition Program, and I move around a lot, from Western Canada, Ontario, Eastern Canada, Vancouver Island, and all over the USA. It makes for a very big schedule. My friend David from LD Carlson jokes that it's like touring with a rock star and he's one of my roadies. Hah, I wish I could get someone to take all of the brown M&M's out of the bowl in the green room, but mostly I get stale Parti-Snak in coach. Nice try though, David.We switch regions a lot because there's only so much of me to go around, despite having helper elves like Dave Laroque in Ontario, Peter Mills in Atlantic Canada and all of our salesfolk around the country.

The one series of events I haven't missed in ten years are those that we do for Winesense in Manitoba. I have a very sentimental spot in my heart for these folks, because one of the first initiatives I did when I joined Winexpert was to start doing consumer tastings around the Limited Edition program. We used Winesense (then called 'The Brew Doctors', as though your coffeemaker had the flu . . .) as guinea pigs. The very first Limited Edition consumer tasting was held in the Viscount Gort hotel in downtwon Winnipeg. As I recall there were 46 people there, and they braved the worst torrential downpour in Manitoba history to come. Folks were literally streaming with water when the came in the room. But we came, we saw and we tasted, folks had a good time and we agreed that we were on to something.

That was almost exactly ten years ago, and this year was not only the 20th anniversary of the LE program, it was my 10th year of doing these events. Time flies when you're having fun, but I'd swear it was only a few months ago that we were biting our nails and wondering if anyone would ever show up, and now we're turning away folks and seeing crowds of over 250 people over four nights! Yep, we may be on to something.

The usual weather . . .

What we actually got!

As is our usual custom we drove into Brandon for our first show, and we couldn’t have asked for better weather While at home we were experiencing the worst November in recent memory—it wound up being something like 29 days of straight rain for the month!—it was bright, sunny and dry everywhere we went in Manitoba, with highs into 17-18°C (65°F).

Not only was weather good, we drew a huge crowd, over 220 people, not bad for a weeknight in a town that size! What surprised me most was the number of first-time attendees. As usual there were plenty of folks who followed the Limited Edition every year, but the number of shiny new faces was really gratifying. The whole idea of the consumer tasting event is to get new people tasting the wines and learning more about the regions, flavours and food pairings, and it looks like Brandon was a direct hit.

I had the great good luck of being able to invite my friends John and Shelly along to the tasting. John teaches at the University in Brandon and is the father of the wackiest kids you’ll ever see—and if you live in Brandon, you probably see them all the time. Last I heard they were hurriedly changing between football uniforms and swishy costume to sing Gilbert and Sullivan. I’ve been sneakily encouraging John to start making his own wine for years, and this time I think I’ve got him hooked—hah hah, like I always say, the first taste is free, and after that you get friend prices, and then you’re mine!

Everybody form Winnipeg says hi! Wave back, they're really nice.

Ahem. The next day we were off to Winnipeg for three straight sold-out shows. We had a great big room to work in, with a gigantic screen and a built-in AV system that was a real corker, and the banquet folks at the Victoria Inn, having worked with us for the last three years were very helpful and focused. When you’ve got a juggernaut like a 300 person event to do, people arriving two and three dozen at a time, expecting to be able to enjoy (or in the case of my stuff, endure) a lecture and a tasting, there’s little room for fudging the logistics: folks have to be able to see, hear and move around comfortably and safely. Thank goodness for coordination and fast work!

Pat and Deb, helping out (Pat helping himself, too!)

But the real stars of the show were without a doubt the volunteers, friends and staff of Winesense. The crew was, as usual magnificent, checking people in, handing out tickets and information packages, pouring wine, assisting with food pairings, answering questions and greeting friends old and new.

Adrian gets his pour on

It's always all smiles at the Winesense tasting!

Victor, why aren't you at your station?

Bruce pouring himself into his work

I got to see people who have been coming to the events over the decade we’ve been doing them: Gary, who fabricated the first carboy straw (you have to  see it, but it’s a useful tool for the terminally impatient winemaker) Gino who never fails to crack me up as an old-school winemaker in Winnipeg, and Ron Lampert, who not only helps out with the tasting program, but has made a stupendous amount of wine on his own. On the last night he brought me a couple of special Limited Edition wines from years past, a Sicilian Nero d’Avola/Shiraz and a Petite Syrah Zinfandel, a couple of big reds that are now mellowing with age and giving up floral notes and that wee hint of violet that comes from a very boldly fruity wine ageing perfectly. Great job Ron, and they both went excellently well with spaghetti Bolognese: the family table says ‘Thanks!’

Wine always brings a smile to thier lips!

Finally we hit that Friday night, and I well and truly hit my stride. The standing joke of Manitoba events is that towards the end of my presentation Craig will start making a big sort of ‘windmill’ gesture in the back of the room. He’s telling me ‘wind it up’, because the food is out, the wine is being poured and we need to move along. And, every time I do the same thing: ignore him and finish when I’m done. This night, however, he made a completely different gesture, which I thought made him look like he was strangling a Whooping Crane while playing a nose-flute. Turns out I was zipping along so smoothly he was worried I was going to finish before the servers had a chance to get the food pairings out on the tables! Never to fear, and I hit my mark pretty much right on time and we broke up for the last tasting of the year right on the tick.

Ron and Gary (my carboy straw guy) back for another year. Good seeing you!

A great time and a great wine was had by all, and every night just got better and better. I'll post a little bit more on my Winnipeg wrap-up later, because right now twelve weeks of backlogged work-work is calling my name, and it's not taking no for an answer!

Posted by Tim Vandergrift AT 12:44PM

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