The Vancouver International Wine Festival is underway this week, and it has lots of amazing wine related stats. The Festival sent me this list, and I thought I’d pass it along to you. Enjoy, and see you at the public tasting on Thursday night at the Convention Centre! Savour all the Italian wines featured this year. Also, remember DON’T DRINK AND DRIVE. Take a cab or bus home.
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Vancouver, BC (February 23, 2016)—It’s a bad week for dishwashers but a great week for wine lovers.
By the time the 38th Vancouver International Wine Festival, which is in full swing all around town, wraps up Sunday night, dishwashers will have dealt with 82,000 wine glasses.
And 25,000 wine lovers will have sniffed, swirled and sipped from a selection of 1,470 wines by 155 wineries from 14 countries at 54 events. In total, festival goers will have sampled from or stocked their cellars with some 43,000 bottles of wine.
VanWineFest is headquartered at the Vancouver Convention Centre, which is the site of the Acura Tasting Room, the hub of the festival, on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. It is home to four International Festival Tastings and two Trade Tastings, presented by ContainerWorld.
VanWineFest by the Numbers
- 38th annual (founded 1979)
- 8 days (Bacchanalia Gala Feb 20; festival Feb 22-28)
- 24,678 admissions in 2015* (97% of all available tickets were sold)
- 14 countries
- 155 wineries
- 54 events, including 22 winery dinners
- 28 venues
- ~ 50 participating restaurants, hotels, caterers
- 1,470+ wines, including:
o 700+ at International Festival Tastings
o 145+ additional wines at Trade Tastings
o 625+ at special events (dinners, seminars, etc.) - 43,000 bottles sampled and/or purchased
- 82,000 wine glasses used
- 2016 theme country: ITALY (60 wineries and 240 wines)
- 450 volunteers
- Beneficiary: Since inception in 1979, VanWineFest has raised $8.5 million for the performing arts. Since 2013, proceeds have gone to Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival; the fest contributed $175,000 to Bard in 2015.
