Wine Guy: Sipping Italy in time for wine festival

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Get ready, get set, get sipping. The Vancouver International Wine Festival, the main tasting extravaganza of the year, returns to the Vancouver Convention Centre from Feb. 24 to March 3.

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Building on past success, the 45th incarnation promises more than a week’s worth of seminars, winemaker dinners and tastings throughout the city.

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If attending for the first time, a great starting place is the main International Festival Tasting (with about 800 wines available to taste).

Or, create your own mini-wine fest at home with these three featured bottles:

Umani Ronchi 2021 Casal di Serra Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi, Italy ($21.99, No. 25403)

This year’s theme country is Italy, and 71 Italian wineries will be showcasing their bottles at this year’s festival. This includes Umani Ronchi, a winery that recently won Winery of the Year from Gambero Rosso and focuses on wines produced in both the Marche and Abruzzo regions of Italy.

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Their Casal di Serra Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi hails from the more northern Le Marche region and, as the name suggests, this bright and engaging white is made from Verdicchio grapes (organically grown in the more hilly, Classico Superiore part of the appellation).

A robust entry leads with aromas of citrus, wet stone and hay — while the wine remains textured and lively throughout.

Bottom line: A-, zesty and textured.

Vietti 2020 Perbacco Nebbiolo, Italy (around $60, available at private wine stores)

Wines representing the entirety of Italy, from Sicily and it’s geographic boot all the way to the country’s northern border, will be represented at the festival.

One of the more northern reaches is Langhe, home of Vietti’s handsomely elegant Perbacco Nebbiolo. Nebbiolo is a mainstay of red grape royalty in Italy’s north and in this bottle it presents all the enjoyable — and thankfully accessible — qualities of the cultivar.

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Aromas of lush berry and herbs lend their way to a juicy entry with a lick of spice and overall lip-smacking vibrancy.

Food-wise, it’s time to bring on roast pork or lamb gyros. 

Bottom line: A, taut and engaging.

Da Silva Vineyards & Winery 2021 Pinot Noir, B.C. ($44.99, available through the winery)

While Italy is the theme country for this year’s festival, wineries from 12 countries will be in attendance. Included in the mix is Canada, with nearly 30 B.C. wineries featured. One of these is Penticton’s Da Silva Vineyards & Winery.

Pouring a dense ruby garnet, their robust Pinot Noir wafts aromas of ripe dark fruit, leaf pile and vanilla.

Aged 18 months in a combo of French and Hungarian oak, it presents an engaging melange of fruit and savoury, concluding with velvety tannins and lingering freshness.

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Bring on the roast pork tenderloin or wild mushroom risotto. 

Bottom line: B+, smooth Pinot operator.

The Swirl: Victoria Beer Week 

Not into the wine festival? Well, then consider Victoria Beer Week.

The 10th anniversary of this key celebration takes place March 1-9 at venues across the city, with an array of seminars, tastings, trivia nights and dinners on offer.

For complete details and to buy tickets head to victoriabeersociety.com/victoriabeerweek/.

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