I just can’t help loving passionate people, and there are a few beauties I meet once a year at the Vancouver Wineshow.

The first beauty is a dude. His name is Derek Shelton, and he could drop you into trance anytime. I’m serious, he is a family man, wine expert, and hypnotist.

Hypnotists know how to make you feel good.

Derek was love at first sight. I was at the chocolate booth, he was just another dude walking by and I couldn’t tell you what we said to each other but it was funny. I couldn’t tell you how long it took to learn his name but that doesn’t matter anymore. We started out strangers and became friends.

This year we took our wine show friendship one step further and hit an after party in the Heineken room. Turned out the Heineken room was the place to meet some very successful people. When asking why they served beer at the afterparty and not wine, a winemaker said,”It takes a lot of beer to make good wine.”

I couldn’t tell you who the wine maker was but Derek could because Derek knows people.

Derek knows wine. 

Every year I learn something new. This year I learned about “Reisling Off Dry Wine,” and “Rioja.”

The Reisling Off Dry offers a fresh, spirited nose revealing a deep-squeezed drizzle of lime over slices of passion fruit and guava folding onto a broad mid-palate of orchard stone fruit with recurring citrus acidity and seductive floral notes. Those aren’t my words. I’d say the wine might best compliment a Thai, or Indian food dinner. 

Rioja is a wine region in Spain, with Denominación de Origen Calificada. Rioja wine is made from grapes grown in the autonomous communities of La Rioja and Navarre, and the Basque province of Álava. The Rioja grape dates back to 873.

That’s a long history of wine!! Discover more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rioja_(wine)

Wine knows people.

This is the first year I’ve taken a real effort to learn names. Let’s talk about some of these fabulous new names, and to hopefully they read this one day!!!

Nicole- I’ve seen Nicole around the last few years and we can’t help but smile when we see each other. This year I had to stare just below her bust for a good minute to read her name badge. I memorized it and then Googled her because that is what I do. Now I follow her on most social media platforms.

Kara- is a bombshell. Being seen making her laugh in public raises your status 100 points. I’m not kidding, and we were on the slow and steady when a drunken biddy saw our connection and said, “Just blabble, blabble!!!”

We both said, “Pardon?”

Wrong question, that drunken biddy tried to help us out with “hooking up.” Which would have been fine had my girl Jody Lea been there to say yes, this one is a keeper… but Jodes wasn’t there and getting rid of that old biddy was like getting rid of a stomach ulcer. Then Kara was gone, but not given up on.

Darcy- the news girl. Darcy, her friends, and myself closed out the wine show with two full bottles of wine. Thats right, while the crews were tearing down the show, we poured full glasses of Cabernet Sauvignon and laughed our faces off! Then we became facebook friends… yeaaaaa!

Danny- the STUD. Danny wears the most bad ass suits at the show, and he looks like he could shoot you in the face… but he is the friendliest mother f*#@’er out there.

Peter & Bri- I know Peter’s dad well. Everything except his name. Haha, and what winery he owns. Perhaps Derek will one day read this blog and fill in the blanks in the comments.

Vanessa- our Heineken room bartender. She was hardly old enough to know what beer tastes like but she was witty. She had an answer for everything and I’ll never see her again but if I do I’ll say, “Hey do I know you from somewhere?” And when I hear her voice… I’ll say, “Vanessa?”

I can’t tell you the rest of my list because then they’ll know I didn’t know his or her name

Derek has a bromance.

Corey,

Every tenth beauty at the wine show has had some kind of relationship with Corey. Corey’s other buddy Bob told me that Corey met a girl a 7:30, and by 7:31 he was “fixing her breasts.” According to Bob, at 8:00pm Corey disappeared for an hour.

The wine show is a big event.

There are so many wine vendors I didn’t get to see my good friend Leah, and I see her every year. Leah is such a babe with such a wonderful attitude that makes me sad that we didn’t get to cross paths. I’m still putting happy thoughts out into the universe!!!

Here is the deal.

I love wine and I love all the people who attend the show. Last year I made a video:

And posted a blog that was never shared: Chocolate Wine and GoPro At The Vancouver Wine Show.

The bottom line is.

There is an old saying that goes:

Well, there is plenty of wine to be had at the Vancouver wine show, and you can find me most years at the Ritter Sport Chocolate Bar with a smile turned ON.

Have a great and wonderful day,

Devin Bisanz

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