Taste… Celebrate BC’s Flavours

July 4, 2011 0 Comments

As a foodie myself, I was so excited to hear about Taste, the third annual festival of food and wine in Victoria! The event is all about local tastings of Vancouver Island food and wine from all over BC. What is better than experiencing all of the best from your very own city and province? Not only that, but proceeds from this event go to The Land Conservancy (TLC). It’s a fantastic opportunity to enjoy amazing food and drink, while supporting a special organization close to the heart of many Victorian’s.

Now, when I say event, I truly mean EVENT. As their website cleverly explains, the whole experience of Taste uncorks on Thursday, July 21^st and continues on through Friday, Saturday and Sunday, with two to three activities related to food and drink every day.

Thursday starts out with “Trade Tastings” which is a tasting of wines from all across Vancouver Island and the mainland BC. Also on Thursday is, “The Main Event” (which I won’t lie is what I am SO excited for!) Here you have the opportunity to taste more than 100 BC wines, as well as an amazing selection of local and seasonal cuisine.

Friday there is a tea tasting session with the amazing Daniela Cubelic from Silk Road and then in the evening “Sips and Seafood” which, as one would expect, showcases all the yummy delicacies of the ocean.

Saturday, July 23^rd, there are three opportunities, the first being a “Taste and Learn at Finest At Sea” which focuses on sustainable seafood. (This is quite neat! Bob Fraumeni of Finest At Sea, Canada’s only 100% producer of known product origin seafood and sustainable seafood, invites all to his plant for an informative discussion.) Next on Saturday is “Swine and The Vine” which is a focus on Vancouver Island wines and organically raised whole roasted pig. If you haven’t had a whole roasted pig, you should try this with Taste! Yum…. The third session on Saturday evening is “Vancouver Island Vs. The World – A Blind Tasting” which tests your wine palate by comparing wines from the backyard stand against their international cronies. Can you taste the difference?

Sunday, the last day of Taste, starts off with “Band, Bubbles & Bennys” which celebrates local sparkling wines with a three-course brunch featuring none other than Eggs Benny. (Just description this session made my mouth water and my tummy grumble.) The event wraps up with “Land and Sea Harvest on the Family Farm” which celebrates summer with a family-style al fresco dinner out in the field at Ventreight Farms. What a beautiful way to finish an amazing event!

I think one of the greatest aspects of this foodie event, Taste, is that although it is a weekend of extravagance, if you don’t have the time (or funds) to go to all of the individual sessions, tickets to each of the sessions are individually sold. So, if you can only make it to Thursday’s wine tastings, you aren’t obligated to buy tickets for the entire weekend, but only the wine tasting session. For a busy bee like myself, this is perfect! I don’t have to feel obligated to go to every single session and can pick and choose what is most interesting to me!

So, make sure to check out their website and get in on some of the amazing sessions happening from July 21^st – 24^th at Taste in Victoria!

Photo credits to Caroline West

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This post was written by Kristy Kulyk who has written 21 posts on Foodie.ca.

Victoria, British Columbia

Kristy was born in the interior of British Columbia, but soon after moved to beautiful Victoria. She considers herself to be an “island” girl and hasn’t (and likely won’t) leave the city she grew up in. After graduating high school Kristy attended Camosun College and then went onto the University of Victoria, earning an Associates Degree and Bachelor of Arts along the way. She now works for a real estate development company in Victoria’s suburbia.

With her spare time Kristy enjoys seeing friends and family, camping, being outside, as well as fulfilling her creative needs by painting, cooking and dabbling here and there with interior design. She also takes time to give back to the community by organizing events/projects that benefit different charities and organizations in her community. As a part of giving back to the community, Kristy volunteers with an agency in Victoria, providing emotional support to those who have been traumatized/victimized. One of her biggest passions is food – whether it be cooking it, eating it, smelling it or imagining it. She chooses to live a more low-carb type of lifestyle and so finding and experimenting with foods that have a lower carbohydrate content is what really gets her excited. With that said though, she does take advantage of what she likes to call, “cheat days”, where she eats whatever carb-filled food she likes. (Everyone needs cheat days…)