I dropped by Port Moody Liquor the other day for the BC Uncorked Preview. John Gerum of West Coast Wine Education was giving customers a free preview of the upcoming May 28th gala, which is now in its seventh year.
The philosophy behind BC Uncorked is to showcase BC food and wine and to promote the European approach in which wine is a component of meals, there to enhance the food and to help create a happy social environment. By comparison, wine in North America is too often treated as a cocktail and drunk on its own.
John works hard to ensure that each year he offers his guests a wide range of wine experiences from the well known ‘big guys’ to the popular medium producers, the smaller, sometimes lesser known wineries and even a few of the ‘garagistes’ such as Black Cloud and Anarchist Mountain (you really need to check them out). This year one-third of the wineries will be new to BC Uncorked, so if you’ve attended in the past, you’ll find lots of new wines to explore. There will be over fifty wineries in attendance with over two hundred wines to choose from. John has noticed that people often discover new favourites and have adopted the philosophy of ‘drink less, but drink better’.
Port Moody Liquor Store
Cheyenne from Port Moody Liquor Store was on hand pouring samples of wines from Quails’ Gate, The Hatch and Mission Hill, which will all be featured at the main event.
The wines were served with paired bites prepared by John. Goat’s cheese with chives and cream on garlic crostini’s topped with green onions was paired with Quails’ Gate Chasselas, Pinot Blanc and Pinot Gris. For the two red wines, the Hatch’s Screaming Frenzy Meritage and the Mission Hill Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon John offered braised Okanagan beef with wine and sage.
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A number of restaurants and caterers including, Earls, Montana, St James Well, Brew Street, Saint Street Grill, the Hard Rock Casino and many others will supply food for BC Uncorked. You definitely won’t leave hungry.
John told me a funny anecdote of one restaurateur who approached him and asked to be a part of this event. John was delighted to have him on board and asked him why he had decided to join the event. The owner’s response was that he had noticed that on the night of the event he had few customers because they were all at BC Uncorked, so he thought he’d better either join the event or close for the evening.
BC Uncorked is a fundraiser for BC Cancer’s Ride to Conquer Cancer and funds will go to Team Taylor. Besides a silent auction and a grand prize draw, there will also be a ‘Wine Wall’. For a $25 donation guests will “win” a bottle of wine valuing anywhere from $18 to $60! Every donation guarantees a win. See the BC Uncorked web site for further details.
BC Uncorked
Saturday, May 28th, 2016
7:00pm to 9:30pm
Entry $60/person (plus GST)
Heritage Woods Secondary
1300 David Street
Port Moody
