This weekend’s wine fest is a must-attend event that will put many old stereotypes to rest with head-turning new offerings

The most intriguing wine festival you’ll attend this year is just days away. Trust me on this; I’ve been there. Israel is the wine country we’re talking about, and the second-ever Vancouver Israeli Wine Festival takes place this coming Sunday (May 4) at the Four Seasons Hotel Vancouver. The first occurred in 2006, and it opened a lot of eyes, piqued plenty of palates, and brought the flavours of an entirely new world of wines to hundreds.

This time, it’ll be even more and even better: world-class wines from wineries all over Israel—Galilee, Shomron, the Judean Hills, and the Negev. They’re promoting it as “a winetasting event for all wine lovers”, and that’s precisely what it offers—an opportunity to get your nose stuck into some of the most fascinating new wines in the world today.

Get set to turf a lot of old opinions—stereotypes, really—and sample some wines that will likely set you back on your heels just a little.

We finally have some of them in the government liquor stores now, and they’ll be there on the tasting tables, particularly Golan Heights, Galil Mountain, Yarden, and Dalton. There will also be wines from some of the other more than 150 wineries, big and (mostly) little—some of them very little; they talk in terms of total number of bottles, not cases, in annual production!—that have cropped up in the new and surprising Israeli wine regions during the past couple of decades.

As well as the labels currently represented in B.C. Liquor Stores—on their own shelf, no less—there will be other visitors from Galilee, Rimon, and Tabor wineries; Carmel and Recanati from Shomron; Ella Valley Vineyards from the Judean Hills; and Yatir Winery from the Negev. Be prepared to have your head turned around, especially by venerable major player Carmel, which for the longest time sent us some absolutely appalling wines. Big change there.

Details on the one-day festival can be found at www.israeliwinefestival.ca/. Tickets are $35, and that’s a solid bargain. The second Vancouver Israeli Wine Festival is upon us; maybe it could become an annual event, if we get a few more labels into B.C. It’s the only such festival in Canada, and it’s a must for your wine-event calendar this spring.

here’s one for the Guinness guys, surely a record: the 2006 Nota Bene, the amazing and legendary red-wine blend from the South Okanagan’s amazing and legendary Black Hills Estate Winery, has just been released and it’s all gone. Well, almost all gone—there are a couple of minor exceptions.

This has to be some sort of wine-speed record: it took 47 minutes for the whole shebang—3,300 cases—to go out the door to savvy wine lovers and collectors, what with on-line ordering and that complicated, 21st-century way of doing commerce.

Never fear—I’ve got mine. Oh, only a bottle, not one of those 3,300 cases, but hey, it’s a start. And what does it taste like? How would I know? If the new vintage is true to form, as in previous vintages the wine won’t be ready to drink for at least another four or five years. Even then, it will only be starting to show its charms. So ask me again after the Olympic circus has left town, and the sweeping-up is done—say, summer of 2011—and we can chat about it over a glass.

Nota Bene is the delicious red Meritage-style blend that winemaker Senka Tennant created in 1999. The formula is 47 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, 37 percent Merlot, and 16 percent Cabernet Franc. (There it is, all you need to make your own world-shaker wine.)

I have had the most pleasant opportunity to taste each vintage, and I hope to continue that tradition. The winery has since been sold to a multipartner company, and while the winemaker has been retained for a few more months, I don’t know what will happen when she takes her leave.

Meanwhile, if you absolutely have to get your mitts on a couple of bottles of Nota Bene, a very limited release—25 cases, all told—will be offered for sale this coming Sunday (May 4) only at the winery, as part of the Okanagan Spring Wine Festival. Meaning that if you go to the Israeli event here in town, you’ll have to dispatch your proxy to the Valley. Maximum two bottles per customer; price somewhere in the 40s.

Wine shops and smart restaurants around the Lower Mainland will also have some available if they’ve been snappy about getting their dibs in. Otherwise, Tennant’s no less sought-after white blend, Alibi, will be available on-line at www.blackhillswinery.com/ starting June 1. No word yet on the luscious dessert wine Sequentia, or if there’s to be any Black Hills Chardonnay this vintage.

When last I looked, there were only four tickets left for the Naramata Bench Wineries Association’s first-ever Naramata Unfiltered wine-education retreat, taking place Monday and Tuesday (May 5 and 6), so you can assume it’s full. But this heralds the start of something you might want to get in on next time: a multiseminar event in the vineyards, some serious food-and-wine pairing, plenty to taste at lunches and dinners, plus premium accommodation in the Naramata area. Those Unfiltered “designer gumboots” will be totally eBay-able any day now.

The 22-member association plans to do three such retreats each year, so look for ones in the summer and fall.