The Wine World is Here
If you attend only one of the festival’s events, make it an International Festival Tasting. The Tasting Room at the Vancouver Convention Centre is the heart of the festival, where all 163 participating wineries and their principals gather to pour their select wines. Discover exciting new wines, or return to your favourites, sipping from premium wine glasses. The room will also feature Regional Tasting Stations from France, Emilia-Romagna, Germany, New Zealand, and South Africa, as many wine and food-related exhibitors.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE TASTING ROOM

Vive la France!
This year, take a wine tour of France in the Tasting Room, exploring 42 wineries from 10 regions. Discover how the diverse terroirs of Alsace, Champagne, Beaujolais, Bordeaux, Bourgogne, Languedoc, Loire, Provence, Rhône, and the South West create distinct, iconic wines.

Vine Stars
The stars of the global wine scene – winemakers, proprietors, senior execs – come to Vancouver every year to pour and discuss their wines with festivalgoers. That’s what makes this festival unique. Each winery will be represented in the room by a principal, someone closely involved in the wine-production process, there to share their wines and knowledge. You’re quite likely to find that the person serving your wine has their name on the bottle. Identify the vine star by his or her royal blue lanyard. Chat them up!

BC Liquor Stores Festival Wine Shop
Free bottle check and wine delivery
All wines served at the winery tables are available for purchase at the BC Liquor Stores Festival Wine Shop in the Tasting Room, but some are in VERY limited supply. When you discover a wine that you want to enjoy at home, don’t wait until the end of the session to buy it as it might be sold out – put it in the handy bottle check, and then continue your tasting session. Repeat as necessary. When you’re ready to leave, check out your wines. And if you live in British Columbia, whether you’ve bought one bottle or several cases, your wine can be shipped free of charge to your nearest BC Liquor Store. Very convenient!

Please note: the entrance to the Festival Wine Shop is in the Tasting Room and is only accessible to International Festival Tasting ticketholders during their tasting session.

Words to the wise
This is a wine tasting, not a food event. Be sure to have a meal before you arrive. That said, food samples are available to enhance your tasting experience.

Pace yourself. Have a game plan – you can’t taste every wine in the room. And don’t swallow everything that’s poured into your glass. Have a taste and then make use of the spit buckets at every table, by spitting or pouring out the rest. And if you do want to taste a lot of wines, we offer four tasting sessions over three days, so repeat as necessary!

Please don’t wear fragrance! All the noses and palates in the room will thank you.

Must be 19 or older (No Minors) to attend Vancouver International Wine Festival events. Two pieces of ID (one containing photo & birthdate) are required. Infants and children are not permitted.

Don’t Wine and Drive!
Don’t even think about bringing your car or bike.

• Take transit. BC Liquor Stores offers a free transit ticket at their Get Home Safe booth in the onsite Festival Wine Shop.
• Assign a designated driver
• Take a cab or limo
• Walk

The International Festival Tasting is graciously co-hosted by the embassies, high commissions or consulates of the participating countries:

Consulate General of Argentina
Australian Consulate
Consulate General of Chile
Embassy of the Republic of Croatia
Consulate General of France
Consulate General of Federal Republic of Germany
Consulate General of Italy
Consulate General of Japan
New Zealand Consulate General
Consulate General of Portugal
Consulate General of Romania
South African High Commission
Consulate General of Spain
U.S. Consulate General
Consulate General of Uruguay