Pre-pandemic, this would be the time to talk about upcoming events throughout the region, break out the Google calendar, and start planning who gets to be the designated driver to and from festivals, dinners, and outdoor concerts.
Now, that planning will change. While wine, beer, cider, and distillery tasting rooms provide a sensory experience, inviting you to swirl, sniff, and sip, how will we experience this when the doors cautiously open? No contact curbside pick-up already feels somewhat normal – and wonderfully convenient – but what about walking up to a bar for a taste?
On the positive side, we have plenty of outdoor space to use. Many wineries and others have patios, perhaps even an outdoor bar, that can be used for social distancing and avoid bringing people inside, which would require extra time for sanitizing.
In other parts of the world, outdoor town squares and streets have been converted to dining piazzas. Using these public spaces for alcohol tastings in B.C.? Likely a big stretch given provincial liquor laws… but wouldn’t it be great, just for the summer? Or for a smaller producer to be able to buddy up with a restaurant that has a large patio, and “borrow” their outdoor space for tasting appointments?
Those options won’t be readily available without policy and licensing changes, but planning for a new kind of experience can start now.
“Now is the time to look at tables, chairs and the space you may have in the vineyard, for example, that can be turned into an outdoor tasting experience,” suggests Sandra Oldfield, co-founder of Fortify, an annual business conference and trade show for artisan fermenters and distillers.
And with social distancing in place for some time yet, appointments to try your next favourite drink may be “the new normal” for all tasting rooms, no matter what’s being poured.
No more crowds occupying a small space, thrusting wine glasses forward through the group? Maybe this will be a reboot to have more educational, thoughtful, and intimate (even two metres apart), tastings.
Many businesses have reservation systems in place, and to that end, Oldfield invites those in the alcohol sector to contact her to learn about a tasting room reservation option that will be available at a significant discount until May 15.
So much has changed in these last six or seven weeks. We may never get back to what we became used to, but maybe, just maybe, this will lead us to innovative and inspiring ways to showcase the terroir, the stories, and the unique flavours we have here in the Okanagan and across the province.
This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.