The winner will be presented with the Puddifoot Award: a Riedel Carafe, an Engraved Challenge trophy and a bottle of vintage port, by John Puddifoot, of WH Puddifoot Ltd,  at the Seventh Annual Awards Lunch: Celebrating Excellence event on Friday, April 23, 2010. The winner will also receive a Trade Super Pass to the Playhouse International Wine Festival for 2011.

Event Details:

Date:                      Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Registration:             5:15 pm – 5:30 pm
Competition Start:     5:30 pm
Finish:                     7:00 pm
Judging:                  7:00 pm – 8:00 pm

Award announced:     8:00 pm

Entry Guidelines and Information:

• Entry to the competition is FREE
• All entrants must be employed professionally in the wine industry in some capacity (e.g. retail, hospitality, production, agency)
• Entrants must be 19 years of age or older
• No one formal education style is preferred over another

This year competitors will be required to rotate around 5 judging stations. At each station, a competitor will be asked to talk for 3 minutes on a specified wine-related topic. Each station will represent a different subject area. The judges’ decision is final.

Competition space is limited. All entrants must email the following information by Thursday, April 8th 2010 to: mshipway@aii.edu or call 778 373 9022

1 – Name
2 – Telephone
3 – E-mail address
4 – Company name
5 – Position
6 – Wine Credentials (if held)

Organizers at The International Culinary School will create a shortlist and successful entrants will be contacted by email

This year’s judging panel:

Barbara Philip (MW)
Neil Ingram (Boneta Restaurant)
Michaela Morris AIWS (House Wine)
Stephen Bonner (ABV)
Mark Shipway AIWS (The International Culinary School)

Previous Sommelier Challenge winners:

2009    Keith Nicholson (Le Crocodile)
2008    Chris Giroux (Bacchus at the Wedgewood Hotel)
2006    Kimberley Hall (The Fairmont Waterfront)
2005    Pamela Cohen (International Sommelier Guild)

About WH Puddifoot Ltd

WH Puddifoot Ltd began as an import business specializing in high-end retail giftware, and has since grown into one of Vancouver’s premier fine-glassware retailers.

About The Art Institute of Vancouver

The Art Institute of Vancouver is one of The Art Institutes (www.artinstitutes.edu), a system of more than 45 education institutions located throughout North America, providing an important source of design, media arts, fashion and culinary arts professionals.

Twelve countries will participate in the Sommelier World Cup, including Canada, Denmark, Germany, Russia, the UK, and the USA.  The competition is open to individuals who work in a hotel or in the restaurant business.  All semi-final events will take place in participants’ home countries during May and June of 2010.  The Eastern Canada semi-final, held in Toronto, will take place on Tuesday, May 18.  It will be followed by the Western Canada semi-final in Vancouver on Thursday, May 20 2010.

Winners from the semi-finals will have a week-long, all expenses paid, trip to South Africa for the final competition.  The final competition dates have been set for October 11^th to 19^th 2010.  The final showdown will be judged by a panel including both South African and international wine experts.  All finalists will tour the country’s winelands, visiting wineries, meeting the winemakers, and tasting wines as well as enjoying fine cuisine in South Africa’s iconic restaurants.

Eligible competitors may register for the 2010 WOSA Sommelier World Cup at www.wosasommeliercup.co.za/qualifier.php.  Space is limited to a total of 40 Canadian competitors, so register early!Wines of South Africa Sommelier World Cup Semi-Finals
Eastern Canada (Toronto) – Tuesday, May 18 2010
Western Canada (Vancouver) – Thursday, May 20 2010

Follow WOSA Canada on Twitter at www.twitter.com/WOSACanada

PLAYHOUSE WINE FESTIVAL WILL BRING WORLD’S TOP WINE PRODUCERS & PERSONALITIES

Meet the industry’s international young guns and master vintners

Vancouver, BC, March 25, 2010 – The 2010 Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival will open its doors to some of the most progressive winemakers and winery principals in the world. These trailblazers will be at various Festival tastings and events, offering both wine neophytes and serious oenophiles alike the unique opportunity to meet and chat with them one-on-one.

LEADING LADIES

Joining from theme region Argentina and representing Bodega Catena Zapata is Laura Catena, Winery President and daughter of iconic proprietor and Decanter’s Man of the Year 2009, Nicolas Catena. As the leader of the research and development initiatives for the winery, Laura focuses on Malbec-specific site selection and blending from different altitudes – a practice that is unique to Argentina. In addition to her trendsetting in Mendoza, Laura lives part-time in San Francisco, where she works both as an emergency room doctor as well as an educator in emergency medicine. At the Festival, Laura will lead an intimate tasting of two choice verticals including all three Super Malbecs at the Bodega Catena Zapata: Now and For All Time event held at the Terminal City Club, Ceperley-Walker Room, 837 West Hastings Street, on Thursday, April 22^nd from 5:15 – 6:45 pm.

Recently crowned German Wine Queen Sonja Christ is a 25-year-old MBA graduate and winemaker’s daughter from the Mosel region. Sonja will be joining the Festival this year as an ambassador for German winegrowers. The Wine Queen is selected via a national competition that pits wine savvy women against each other for a title that bears the unique responsibility of educating the public domain on all things German wine. One of her 250 international appearances this year will include a celebration of Germans wines alongside bites by Chef Rob Belcham and beats from DJ Leanne at this year’s German Zest Fest being held at Campagnolo Restaurant, 1020 Main Street, Tuesday, April 20^th from 9:00 – 11:00 pm.

MASTER MAKERS

From pioneering single-vineyard wines in California, to crafting unfiltered, unfined wines with native yeasts, Paul Hobbs has established a reputation that reaches far beyond the sunny regions of Napa and Sonoma. His love of old-world techniques and forging into unknown territory has seen him playing an integral role in determining the direction of the winemaking revolution in the Festival’s co-theme region, Argentina. Lecturing on worldwide regional variations in both viticulture and vinification, Global Winemaking with Paul Hobbs takes place at VCC West, meeting room 110, 1055 Canada Place on Thursday, April 22nd from 5:00 – 6:45 pm.

Venerated sommelier and Gerant of Rubicon Estate, Larry Stone will be in Vancouver to lead a boardroom tasting of hand selected vintages from the legendary winery. Mr. Stone is the only American to have earned the title of French Master Sommelier from the Union de la Sommelerie in France, is a two-time recipient of the James Beard Award for Outstanding Wine Service, and sits on the Board of Directors of the Court of Master Sommeliers. His fascination with the grape has led to becoming actively involved in winemaking, and Stone creates Napa Valley Cabernet, Cabernet Franc and Merlot for Rubicon under his own Sirita label, named for his daughter. The Rubicon Estate: Rutherford Dust & Larry Stone event will take place at the Terminal City Club’s Ceperley-Walker Room at 837 West Hastings Street on April 21^st from 4:00 – 5:30pm but is SOLD OUT, however Larry Stone is also scheduled to attend Laura Catena’s Boardroom Tasting.

MOVERS AND SHAKERS

Known for his outstanding Syrahs and Cabernets, South African winemaker Marc Kent joins the Festival representing his winery Boekenhoutskloof. A former server who tasted his way through several vintages of all the first-growths including wines from DRC, Petrus, and the Mosel – by the age of 22 – Marc went on to produce wine for Boekenhoutskloof (the only SA winery to be rated “Outstanding” by Robert Parker) and the first and only winery at which he has ever worked, producing 500 cases in his first vintage in 1996. Marc is considered by his peers to be a rising star in the arena of young, energetic winemakers producing quality small lots out of South Africa. Mark will be speaking at the South Africa Treasure, North Shore Gem winemakers dinner at Moustache Cafe, 129 West 2^nd Street, North Vancouver on April 20^th from 6:30 – 9:30pm.

An outstanding group of international wine stars will gather for the Festival’s first Meet your Match: Speed Dating Meets Wine Tasting event. Guests will have a very unique opportunity to personally ask questions of each attending principal, including New Zealand’s Matua Valley winery founder, Bill Spence, the man responsible for the first plantings of sauvignon blanc and subsequently spearheading a country-wide movement. Also attending will be Kendall-Jackson Winemaster and Chief Operating Officer, Randy Ullom who is charged with the direction of vineyards in California and Argentina, and is one of the few winemakers in the world to work two harvests a year in two different hemispheres.  Guests will also have a chance to chat with Okanagan wine aficionado and internationally recognized winemaker Anthony Von Mandl; the young and dynamic Chianti Classico estate man, Sergio Zingarelli; Trapiche trailblazer Daniel Pi; and Beaucastel’s Thomas Perrin to name a few. Each of these prolific personalities will be clad with wine and ready to answer questions about their lives, their love of wine, and more at VCC West, 1055 Canada Place on Saturday, April 24^th from 5:00-6:45 pm.

About the Playhouse Wine Festival

The Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival, Canada’s premier wine show, runs from April 19 to 25, 2010. The Playhouse Wine Festival is one of the biggest and oldest wine festival events in the world. The featured theme regions for 2010 will be Argentina and New Zealand with the global focus of rosé. The festival features a week of special events including a gala auction, wine seminars, wine minglers, winery dinners, lunches and brunches at fine restaurants and hotels. The Playhouse Wine Festival is produced by the Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Society, which has three mandates: provide an informative, educational and entertaining wine experience for consumers and trade; be a premier marketing opportunity for the wine industry and festival partners; and raise funds for the Playhouse Theatre Company. Since its inception in 1979, the festival has raised over $6.8 million to enable Western Canada’s leading theatre company to mount 209 productions and develop extensive community outreach and educational programs.

The Shore Club generously presents the Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival.

Loved ones(restaurant workers or not) are welcome.

Tix are $55 and include tax, gratuity and beer. ; )

Get your tix at refuel. Call 604 288 7905 for details.

WHEN: Monday, January 25th, 2010
from 2:00 to 5:00 PM

WHERE: Four Seasons Hotel
791 West Georgia Street

WHO CAN ATTEND: Anyone who works in the hospitality trade industry – restaurants, hotels, bars, nightclubs, casino’s or pubs – No Minors!

More than 60 agents will be showcasing hundreds of products; the newest, best and brightest wines, beers and spirits that the world will taste at Vancouver 2010.

We look forward to seeing you all at this wonderful tasting event on Monday January 25th.

Questions? Please call 604.581.0374, or email ivsa@shaw.ca.