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*with apologies to David Bowie
In 18 years of covering the Winnipeg Wine Festival (and having worked a couple before that, back when the private wine stores were involved), you see (and taste) a lot of things.
Heck, there was even that one year I saw Gandhi.
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In this 2006 photo, Sir Ben Kingsley (centre) chats with Kenaston Wine Market proprietor Jim Jaworski (right) while I ponder my festival program. Sir Ben was in town filming You Kill Me with Téa Leoni. (Erin Shipley photo )
I learned early on that the festival’s main public tastings on Friday and Saturday nights aren’t ideal for making legit tasting notes about wines I’ve tried. Between the hordes of people clamouring to get their pours, gaggles of guests wandering around in clouds of perfume/cologne and such, it’s not ideal for pondering a Pinot or contemplating a Chardonnay.
Before they opened it to the public, the Saturday matinee tasting used to be the hotspot for industry types, restaurant/hospitality folks and the like to spend a few hours doing more substantive tasting. It’s still the best time for more “serious” tasting, as there’s usually more elbow room, and members of the public tend to attend on Saturday afternoon for that same reason.
Tip of the hat to this 2019 Winnipeg Wine Festival attendee, whose dedication to footwear in spite of obvious injury was admirable. (Ben Sigurdson / Winnipeg Free Press files)
I typically attend one of the two evening public tastings solely to people-watch while mindlessly enjoying sampling wines — I’m almost never making notes. Still, inevitably a sales rep will spot me and rope me into tasting through a range of products they’re sampling, meaning I’ll dutifully attempt to scrawl down my thoughts in my notebook.
What’s good, you ask? Let me check my indecipherable chicken-scratch notes… (Ben Sigurdson / Winnipeg Free Press)
The most awkward bit for me is inevitably, when navigating the big public tastings, I’ll hear the odd person mutter to a friend “hey, that’s the guy that writes about wine for the Free Press.” (As the one guy scribbling away in a notebook, I can kinda stick out.) I’ve learned to always have one recommendation in my back pocket to share when I invariably get asked about what I’ve tried and liked.
If I had a dollar for every one of these I’ve worn, I’d have enough for a decent Argentine Malbec. (Ben Sigurdson / Winnipeg Free Press)
Then there’s this one guy I see every year who, for reasons I’ve never understood, always gets me to sign his program guide. Rest assured, pal, those programs will NEVER appreciate in value.
Imagine how I felt in 2019 when, upon opening the Winnipeg Wine Festival program guide, I saw my mug next to a giant sub.
If you’re going this weekend, leave the car at home and share a cab or ride service, or take the bus. (The Jets play the Leafs at Canada Life Centre on Saturday night, and the game’s on Hockey Night in Canada, so you’ll not find a parking spot anyway.)
And if you see a guy with a ball cap pulled down, head buried in a notebook and skulking around the tasting room… well, come say hi, and let me know what you’ve tried that’s good.
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