Better logistics and date availability have prompted the influential Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival (VPIWF) to return to the newly renovated Vancouver Exhibition and Convention and Exhibition Centre for its March 28 through April 3 run.
Tickets for the 62-event festival, which features 176 wineries from 15 countries, go on sale January 25. VPIWF used space at the new Vancouver Convention Centre last year for its main public tastings.
Festival director Harry Hertscheg points to British Columbia Liquor Distribution Board statistics to show how influential his festival has become.
Wine sales in the province for the two countries that the VPIWF featured last year – Argentina and New Zealand – grew many times the 4% overall growth rate of B.C. wine sales in the year that ended September 30.
“It means that our wine festival impacts the marketplace,” Hertscheg said.
“In that 12-month period, Argentina wine sales in B.C. are up 25%. New Zealand wine sales in B.C. are up 27%.”
This year’s theme region is Spain, and its theme wine style is fortified wines – a category that Hertscheg believes is misunderstood and has a bad reputation.
“People are mortified at fortified. Many people are really scared of it,” he said.
The 33rd annual VPIWF coincides with the second annual Vancouver Wine Law Conference, which takes place March 29 and will feature topics such as:
- interprovincial shipping laws;
- business partner relationships; and
- the reform of laws that restrict people who own both a liquor manufacturer and a retail store.
The festival will have for the first time an iPhone app, which is made by Vancouver-based Xomo Digital Inc.
Users won’t be able to buy tickets or wines through the app. But they’ll be able to scroll through a list of the 1,650 wines expected to be poured at the festival and rank selected wines.
