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The Canadian Rockies

Banff Springs Food and Wine Festival

By Carole Kotkin

Chances are, no matter where your vacation plans lead, your travels will include much time and effort devoted to everyone’s favorite pastime—food and wine. So why not make things simple and book your time away at one of the many fabulous food festivals that spring up around the world? Food festivals have all the ingredients for the ultimate getaway: scenic locales and stunning food and wine. Increasingly, to boost business, restaurants, resorts, hotels and cruise ships are creating wine and food festivals that highlight guest chefs. Hotels are eager to tap this growing market. It helps fill rooms during the low season or on weekdays when business is slow, and it often builds repeat business. This year, thousands of people will combine their vacations with cooking classes, culinary tours and food festivals. The chefs love it too, because they have an opportunity to interact other cooking professionals and to present their food to a new group of people.  

Banff, in the Province of Alberta, Canada is breathtaking in late fall with snow-capped mountains highlighting the breathtaking mountain scenery.  For the past 11 years, the majestic Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel and Spa has hosted the International Wine & Food Festival in late October. Dubbed, “The Castle in the Rockies’, this historic hotel located within Banff National Park, has recently undergone a $75 million restoration. Against the spectacular background of the Canadian Rockies, a sell-out crowd of 250  food and wine lovers welcomed the excuse to converge here to eat, drink, and learn. The event is kept small to allow interaction between the guests and chefs and winemakers. Generosity and extravagance are the hallmarks of this festival and may explain why participants often return year after year. This is an event that sells out far in advance, so book early. The festival features three indulgent days of wine tastings, cooking demonstrations, food sampling, winemakers’ dinners, and panel discussions led by the world’s culinary cognoscenti.

With the spotlight on fine wine, last year ‘s sold-out weekend began with a series of tastings of the world’s most prestigious wines and spirits ever held in Canada. One event billed as a once-in-a-lifetime tasting featured six vintages of Chateau Petrus, arguably Bordeaux’s most sought-after wine. The presenters were proprietor Christian Moueix and Serena Sutcliffe, a master of wine. A single bottle of the 1995 vintage is valued at $1,700. Moueix and Sutcliffe also presided over a seminar featuring Dominus Estate wines from Napa. Owned by Chateau Petrus, Dominus estate ranks among the best red wine producers in California. A single tasting of the Macallan single malt whiskies included The Macallan 1946, described as “a good caviar single malt,” worth $2,800. The Marchesi Piero Antinori, regarded as the ambassador for Italian wines, was on hand to present a memorable tasting of wines from his various estates. The success of New Zealand’s Cloudy Bay Savuvignon Blanc catapulted this vineyard into stardom. Edward Berry, Director of Sales and Marketing, presented a fascination tasting of Cloudy Bay’s portfolio. Corks were popping right and left on Sunday at the tasting of five selected vintages of Dom Perignon Champagne. These rare and old vintages magnified both the characteristics of a particular year and the Dom Perignon style.

Highlights of the event included feasting on fare from the Fairmont Hotel chains’ acclaimed chefs. The flavors of the Fairmont hotel chain came alive with renowned guest chefs Bruno Tison, executive chef of the Fairmont Plaza, New York City and Reed Groban, executive chef of the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess, who joined Banff Springs Hotel Executive Chef Martin Luthi and his culinary team of 132 chefs to prepare creative and delicious dinners and lunches. The formal samplings of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese and honeys from Emilia-Romagna, and caviar were designed to educate and inform conference attendees.

In between cooking demonstrations and seminars, guests were pampered with a visit to the  $12 million “Solace Spa” at The Banff Springs Hotel or squeezed in a visit Chateau Lake Louise, an awesome one hour drive from Banff Springs, to view one of the world’s most gorgeous scenes, Lake Louise and the Victoria Glacier. For those in need of some solitude after the festival, head to Fairmont’s Jasper Park Lodge, about a 4 hour scenic drive from Banff nestled in the heart of Jasper National Park, on 903 acres of pristine wilderness.  The Lodge has constantly been rated among the top hotels in the world. The sheer beauty that surrounds the resort is enough to keep you coming back year after year, but the red carpet service and excellent food is an added bonus.

For information on next year’s event call  403-762-6839

Space is limited to 250 people.

Getting There:  Air Canada

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