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Vancouver International Wine Festival 2022, Launch Party

The Vancouver International Wine Festival is finally back! And Vancouver is welcoming the world for a week long, wine fuelled, food celebration. On its 43rd year, VIWF is hosting series of winery dinners, seminars, and tastings.

As taken from the press release:
“This year’s festival features 100 wineries from 13 countries participating in 27 events over seven days. By the time the festival is over, attendees will have sipped and sampled some 680 wines.”
“While many events are already sold out, there are still a few tickets available for the Thursday evening International Festival Tasting and the Trade Tastings, several seminars and A Spring Fling Sunday Brunch– a bubbles and blush brunch to close off festival week.”

Tonight we were out in celebration of the launch, with a media preview party hosted by JOEY Bentall. Festivities kicked-off with a selection of delicious festival wines and an array of bites created by JOEY executive chef Chris Mills. Guests were invited to mix and mingle as wine continued to pour from the bar and small bites were brought out to feed the room.

Attendees were welcomed by JOEY group sommelier Jason Yamasaki. And Heard- a heart felt thanks from Christopher Gaze, Bard on the Beach artistic director; which the event supports. And then in unison, the room was led in a literal 2022 countdown by VIWF executive director Harry Hertscheg.

Below are some photos of the occasion. Followed by more stats of the VanWineFest in full.

VanWineFest by the numbers:
43rd annual (founded 1979)
7 days (May 16-22)
13 countries
100 wineries
27 events, including tastings, seminars, winery dinners, minglers, lunches, brunch and more
13 venues
~30 participating restaurants, hotels, caterers, vendors
~680 wines, including
~500 at International Festival Tastings
~180 at special events (dinners, seminars, etc.)
200 volunteers
Beneficiary: Since 1979, VanWineFest has raised $9.8 million for the performing arts. The festival was a founded as a fundraiser for the Vancouver Playhouse Theatre Company and continued as such until it closed in 2012. Since 2013, proceeds have gone to Bard on the Beach Theatre Society. Over the past 10 years, the festival has raised nearly $1.8 million for Bard on the Beach.

2023 Festival Dates:
VanWineFest is pleased to announce dates for the 2023 festival: April 24-30. After moving the festival to May in 2022, going back to February would have meant another compressed timeline for organizers and participants. With late April dates, there will be more time to plan and build a bigger and better festival. In 2023, the festival will be back in the East building of the Vancouver Convention Centre, partying like it’s 2009.

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