Playhouse Festival Favourites

In fact, if the 2010 Vancouver/Whistler Olympic bid committee really wanted to impress the IOC inspection team last month, they should have tapped into the vast network of local wine and food gurus to co-ordinate a culinary week IOC members would not soon forget.

Today, as you read this column, the 25th Playhouse celebration of the grape will be in high gear. It's still not too late to purchase tickets to the International Tasting Room for tonight and Saturday's evening tastings, but if you can't be there why not hold your own tasting at home.

The following sneak preview of only six festival labels (or one per cent of the selection inside the huge Vancouver Trade and Exhibition Centre tasting room) will set you back $136.46, which is why a $59 festival ticket, which gives you access to 594 other wines, is such a bargain.

This year's underlying theme, Chile, has had its fair share of coverage in the run up to the festival, so today we turn our attention other parts of the wine world that are delivering what local wine lovers like most -- value-for-money. Here are some current favourites:

The Hardys Tintara Shiraz 1999 represents a new range of wines replacing and upgrading the old Bankside label that used to appear in this market. It's made with fruit from one of my favourite South Australian appellations, McLaren Vale, using time-honoured techniques such as open top fermenters and gentle basket-presses. Look for an intense smoky leather nose complete with blackberry jam and anise notes. The smoky oak pervades the blackberry, plum fruit and vanilla flavours of this plush red.

American Zinfandel could be described as the shiraz of the '80s and '90s, although there's no reason to abandon the grape in this decade. Kendall-Jackson Zinfandel Vintner's Reserve 2000 opens with cedar sandalwood and smoky, dusty notes but with time (in the glass) more blackberry and cherry fruit aromas come to the fore. It's very soft on palate (K-J style) with plenty more blackberry and spicy fruit flavours. The finish is slightly dry and acidic but it will be fine with food. Good weight and length.

Following in the same dense, full-bodied red category are the new dry wines of Portugal's Douro Valley. Once thought to be only fortified port wine country, these fully fermented table wines are a hit with serious wine drinkers.

Quinta do Crasto Douro Vinho Tinto 2000 is a great example of the genre. Expect an attractive cherry-berry, licorice fruit nose and textures that are suave and soft. This is well chosen fruit, perfectly handled and very stylish. A fresh mouth-watering red that is perfect with food -- a real winner for the price.

Spain continues to sputter in this market, lacking the numbers to besiege consumers with a wall of wine in government grog shops but much of what is here is worth investigating such as Conde de Valdemar Crianza 1999.

This easy-sipping Rioja is made at Oyón just north of Logrono by Martinez Bujanda. The nose is a mix of smoky, shoe leather and spiced plum aromas with a touch of vanilla and tobacco leaf. Similar smoky sour cherry, resiny, leather flavours mark this soft, round and elegant red that finishes just a touch dry. Ready to drink.

Australian golfer Greg Norman's putter may have gone cold but the Greg Norman Estates Shiraz 1999 is as hot as it gets. Prominent black fruit aromas mark a nose streaked with spice and pepper. It's not as plush on the palate as more northerly-based Oz shiraz. In fact, some would say it's very French. You'll love the savoury black cherry fruit flavours with undertones of mocha, coffee and chocolate. Firm dry and particularly well suited to food.

Finally for all our international guests take the time to stop by a Canadian wine booth and taste some of the local competition and the wines tourists can't seem to get enough. CedarCreek -- the 2002 Canadian Winery of the Year as awarded by the judges at the Wine Access Canadian Wine Awards -- is pouring several winners, including a solid 1999 CedarCreek Pinot Noir Estate Select from the Okanagan Valley.

The Estate pinot is a blend of grapes grown at Greata Ranch and CedarCreek giving this pinot a spicy, earthy character on the nose with hints of Worcestershire sauce and black cherry fruit. Earthy tobacco, dried cherry fruit flavours mix with soya in the aftertaste. Drink now.

For last minute festival information visit www.playhousewinefest.com For tickets, call Ticketmaster at 604-280-3311 or see www.ticketmaster.ca or call The Playhouse at 604-873-3311.

Sun wine columnist Anthony Gismondi is also co-host of The Best of Food and Wine, which airs at noon each Saturday on CFUN 1410 AM.

RED WINES FROM AROUND THE WORLD

Wine: Hardys Tintara Shiraz 1999, South Australia

Price: $23.99

UPC: 9311043048630

Score: 15/20

Comments: Smoky oak, blackberry fruit and vanilla flavours.

Wine: Kendall-Jackson Zinfandel Vintner's Reserve 2000, California

Price: $25.95

UPC: 08158413140

Score: 15.5/20

Comments: Cedar sandalwood, blackberry and spicy fruit flavours.

Wine: Quinta do Crasto Douro Vinho Tinto 2000, Douro Valley, Portugal

Price: $18.95

UPC: 5604123000494

Score: 16.5/20

Comments: A fresh, mouth-watering red that is perfect with food.

Wine: Conde de Valdemar(Martinez Bujanda) Crianza 1999, Rioja, Spain

Price: $19.99

UPC: 745641054004

Score: 14/20

Comments: Spiced plum aromas with resiny, leather, smoky flavours.

Wine: Greg Norman Estates Shiraz 1999, Limestone Coast, South Australia

Price: $26.95

UPC: 023859552285

Score: 16.5/20

Comments: Savoury black cherry fruit with undertones of mocha/coffee/chocolate.

Wine: CedarCreek Pinot Noir Estate Select 1999, Okanagan Valley

Price: $24.95

UPC: 777819059023

Score: 14/20

Comments: Spicy, earthy nose with hints of Worcestershire sauce and black cherry fruit