Wine and Oyster Festival 2006

Playing the shell game.

It was the 13th time around for the BC Wine and Oyster Festival last Tuesday, and as every year, the crowds the festival attracts and the change it takes in at the door just keeps on getting bigger.

And why shouldn't it? Considering the wines that are being poured, the value for dollar of the $40 entrance ticket, and the reassuring fact that all the money taken in, minus the cost of the room ($11,000 for three hours – up from $7,000 in 2006) and the carpet cleaning ($700) goes to support the Oak Tree Clinic at the BC Children’s Hospital.

The ticket price stays low because nearly everything is donated, including the wines from some of our province’s best wineries, the oysters from local producers, as well as water, bread and support services from other sponsors. Liberty Wine Merchants, the organizers of the festival, chip in all the administration costs.

Perhaps the biggest heroes of the evening however, were the shuckers supplied by such Vancouver restaurants as O’Doul’s, Joe Fortes, Rodney’s Oyster House, Monk McQueens, The Boathouse and The Sandbar. For those guys, the evening is one long, hard-working gig. Now matter how fast or furiously they pried open those shells, the ends of the lineups of the oyster ravenous hoards were never in sight.

Robert Simpson, the owner of Liberty, thinks that the festival may now have outgrown its oyster-only food component and next year he would like to make it more of a BC Wine and Food fest. Oysters will still play a major role but there will be other items to absorb the grape juice -- more BC seafood, artisan cheese and other products. At this point, anything would be considered just as long as it was locally produced.

Changing that element will take the pressure off the oyster companies to come up with so much product, some of the anxiety off of Liberty from having to worry about whether the oyster companies are going to  come through every year, and hopefully shorten some of those lineups.

Results for the popular votes for the evening’s best oysters and best wines should be available by this Friday and we will amend this posting to include them once they are received.