Prairie Fairies Fowl Supper

There are a couple of annual events that are perennial dates on our calendar and their stories are inevitably going to be posted here - even when they might not be best known for for their contribution to the enjoyment of wine.

The Prairie Fairies Fowl Supper is one of them. This year's Supper was the 11th annual and wouldn't you know it - I forgot to bring along the camera. Luckily Tyrant was attending the event with us and he had his camera in tow.

The Fowl Supper is a take off on the prairie tradition of town dinners throughout the fall to celebrate the harvest and the community. Our's simply has a bit of twist - that would be the "Prairie Fairies" part. What started as a church basement dinner for a group of Prairie transplants in the late 90's has morphed into one of the most anticipated events on Vancouver's gay calendar. In a town that is famous for its party people waiting until the last moment to commit to an event, the Fowl Supper has now has a tradition of selling out its 600 tickets within minutes of them going on sale. I know of no other event on the gay calendar that can come close to making that claim.

A whole charitable organization, the Fillmore Family Foundation, has been formed as an umbrella group to shepherd the dinner and the over $370,000 that has been raised for local charities.

It's one of the most unique events in town - bringing together club kids, curlers, cowboys and a whole swack of Saskatchewan trucker caps - and that doesn't include some of the mothers, grandmothers and great aunts that come along for the night. In addition, I think you can be pretty much guaranteed that this is the only event in Vancouver that features a jellied salad contest that sets all those Martha Stewart-y genes a-twitter. I quite loved this year's winning goldfish bowl.

Primarily focusing on turkey, hostess Doreen Fillmore's drag entertainment and an eclectic mix of dance tunes, fine wine isn't necessarily a priority for the event. Now based in a community centre hall, there's a rather limited choice in wine - a red and a white. We worked our way through one of each.

634. 2009 Two Oceans Pinot Noir (South Africa)

635. 2009 Two Oceans Sauvignon Blanc (South Africa)

Although I know these wines are pure entry level, I thought I'd take a quick look at them online. Turns out that Two Oceans claims to be the top selling South African wine in Canada and one of the top 10 selling wine brands overall in the country. I don't know if that's the same for BC as well. Regardless, they're styled for easy drinking with an emphasis on bringing forward the fruit - indeed, I suppose an emphasis on being fruit forward is a good thing at a big old gay event like this. You'll just have to pardon the pun.

I'm not going to go on about the wines or winery since they weren't the highlight of the evening. For many, I'm sure that highlight was gameshow host, Barb Snelgrove's, admiration of and banter about Mayor Gregor Robertson's tight fitting jeans. I've gotta say that, whether you like the man's politics or not, he was one helluva great sport - and when he joked about gerbils, well, I thought I'd fall out of my seat laughing.

It will be a hard laugh to follow up with next year. If we're in town, we'll no doubt be there though. In fact, I'm working on a couple jellied salad ideas of my own.