Vancouver Gay Men's Wine Social

I like to think that I know a lot about wine events in the Vancouver area but I was taken by surprise that there's been an event - that's right up my alley - that has been ongoing for almost a year now without my hearing about it. While chatting about the blog with one of my teammates during our curling league's Pink Broom bonspiel, he mentioned that he's ben attending Vancouver Gay Men's Wine Social events for awhile now. That announcement certainly piqued my interest, but even better, he said that one was coming up shortly and that he'd see if he could swing me an invite.

He did - and here we are.

The VGMWS was started by a couple - new to Vancouver - after moving from NYC. The monthly get togethers in the Big Apple had been a staple of their New York lives and they apparently missed them enough to try and re-establish them here. Each month, a different wine lover volunteers their home for between 25 and 50 "Wine Boyz" - experienced and wannabe alike.

The host picks a theme for the evening and everyone attending brings along a bottle matched to the theme. Our first stab at the VGMWS saw California Cabs as the theme.

Rough way to start.

1473.  2010 Cannonball Cabernet Sauvignon (California)

Getting decent shots of the wines was tougher than getting a glass of wine. I had to use my phone as I didn't bring along my camera and, more to the point, I didn't want to be overly obvious since this was our first foray into this scene. No sense standing out too much or messing up the decorum, you know. I'm more than willing to sacrifice a sharper picture if it is going to play into another invite. (Of course I'm saying this just to make it clear that the fuzziness of the picture has nothing to do with the copious amount of wine that was available).

It was nice to see the assortment of wines that had been brought along - despite the fact that I hardly find there to be a great assortment of Cali Cabs at decent prices in our market. While it's certainly better than it was a decade ago, there's still something about wine crossing the border - and the prices that result from that crossing.

I didn't know anything about the Cannonball brand but the label caught my eye. The wine seemed a bit light compared to the Cabs we were trying in Napa and Sonoma back in the Spring; however, we did tend to try to go as high-end as could back then. After all, this is only a Friday night social - not a high falutin' tasting extravaganza.

1474.  2010 Avalon Cabernet Sauvignon (Napa Valley - California)

1475.  Rock & Vine - Three Ranches Cabernet Sauvignon (North Coast - California)

We continued to try a number of wines over the course of the evening but the two that stood out for us were the Avalon and the Rock & Vine. I don't know that either would stand a chance against a real big gun from California but, then again, you could drink a whole lot more of these two than you could for the price of one of those big gun bottles.

Neither Boo nor I knew many of the attendees at this month's social but, needless to say, I'm all over this concept and I'll have to hope that I can make it to more of them down the road. I can think of all sorts of themes that could be all sorts of tasty.