Wine & Oyster Night

Last night I went to the 13th Annual B.C. Wine and Oyster Festival, a charity event put on by Liberty Wines for the Children's Hospital. It was held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, in the ballroom, and was basically a (large) room with different wineries offering tastings around the perimeter, and different restaurants offering oyster bars in the middle. I'd never tasted raw oysters before, and I have to say, I quite enjoyed them. I, forgoing the cocktail sauces, the tabascos and worcestires, liked them best with a little (okay, quite a lot) of lemon juice squeezed directly into the shell. L, who I was with, gamely tried them twice, but wasn't a huge fan, saying it was "like having a mouthful of ocean". As if this was a bad thing!

As for wines, we tasted quite a lot, but here were my highlights (note that these are basically all whites. By the time we got to reds, I was too drunken to take notes)

Garry Oaks Pinot Gris 2005 - smells like pineapple and passionfruit (mmm), and is really smooth, not at all harsh.
Arrowleaf Bacchus - light, fruity, cheerful
Gray Monk Ehrenfelser - very sweet but bereft of tartness, I liked it a lot but it was too much for L, almost caramel-y with a lingering taste.
Mt. Boucherie Semillon - easy to drink, not at all sharp.
(This is about when the wine started getting to me. The notes get a lot shorter, and on my program are no longer even trying to be in straight lines.)
Wild Goose Vineyards Gewurztraminer - sweet but still quite crisp, not at all cloying.
Tantalus Old Vine Riesling - Amazing, tart, one of my favourites.
Elephant Island Framboise/Apricot - Fruit dessert wines, my overall favourites, especially the Apricot.

That's about all I can make out from my notes; there are a couple where I just put "+" or crossed them out, and a couple where I was clearly unimpressed (one I described as "onion-y"! Mmmm!), but all in all, a good night. Til next year!