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I’m not one for the cold, but there is something deeply special about being surrounded by mountains, in a hot tub, while snow is falling down. I had that very experience at the Fairmont Chateau Whistler this past weekend, where I posted up for two days of indulgence at the 2024 edition of Cornucopia.

Here are my five biggest takeaways from Whistler’s biggest celebration of food, wine, and cocktails.

Leson #1: Everything’s better on a board

My 2024 Cornucopia experience kicked off with an extravagant dinner at the Fairmont Chateau Whistler’s Wildflower restaurant, where the culinary team presented a three-course meal—or rather, a three-course food experience. It started off with the biggest charcuterie board I’ve ever seen: it spanned the length of each six-person table, and was covered with every accoutrement imaginable. Addictive house-made potato chips? Check. Tangy and sweet pickled cherries? Check. An assortment of funky hard and soft cheeses? Check. Cured meat, from buttery prosciutto to salty salami? Check and check. The second course was served in regular dishes (disappointing!) but made up for it in flavour: the striploin with Pemberton potato puree, pomegranate seeds, and tamarind steak sauce was a highlight. For dessert, the beloved boards returned, this time covered in meringue that was spread and torched right before our eyes, and served underneath chocolate sauce, yuzu cake, frozen marshmallows, candied nut crumble, chocolate soil (it’s a thing), and chocolate caramel cake (my favourite). Inspired by the dessert board at Chicago’s famed Alinea restaurant, it was an exquisite way to end the meal, and proved that presentation, while not everything, certainly does make a massive difference.

Lesson #2: There’s no wrong way to describe wine.

The Fairmont dinner was put on in collaboration with the Similkameen Valley’s Vanessa Vineyard, and we were lucky enough to have legendary winemaker Howard Soon there to walk us through each glass—which included the 2022 Rose, the award-winning 2019 Syrah, and the 2019 Right Bank blend of merlot, cabernet sauvignon, and cabernet franc. What stood out to me the most—aside from Soon’s endless passion for wine—was his relaxed approach to tasting and discussing it.

“You know what minerality is?” he posed to my table as we sipped the rose. “If you fall on your face on the pavement and your mouth is full of gravel and blood—that’s minerality.”

Analogies, as any writer will tell attest to, can come from the most unlikely of places.

Lesson #3: Bears love syrah, too.

As we sipped on Vanessa Vineyard’s 2019 Syrah, Soon—who, by the way, was the second person ever in the wine industry to receive the Order of Canada, following only alcohol heavyweight Anthony Von Mandl—recalled the time that a mother bear and her two cubs ate 25 tonnes of syrah grapes and then promptly fell asleep among the vines. Not a bad life, if you ask me.

Lesson #4: Classic cocktails should be honoured—but that doesn’t mean they can’t be tweaked

Cornucopia might be best known for its elaborate dinners and parties, but it also offers excellent wine and spirit education throughout the festival thanks to its intimate seminars. I popped into a “cocktail showdown” at the Whistler Conference Centre that dove into the history and creation of two classics: the old fashioned and the Manhattan. Led by Vancouver-based Statera Academy’s Keith Nicholson, the workshop had us trying six different ryes and bourbons, picking our favourites, and then using them to make each of these iconic drinks. Off in my own little world, I accidentally used too much bitters in my old fashioned—but it ended up being perhaps the best version of the drink that I’d ever had. I love bourbon and I love old fashioneds, but sometimes the cocktail skews too sugary for me; adding more bitters gave it balance and character that I found utterly charming. Next time I order one at a bar, I may just ask for an extra dash of bitters. Because even more important than respecting a classic cocktail is respecting your own palate.

Leson #5: BC wineries need our support now more than ever.

My time at Cornucopia ended the same way it began: with a fabulous dinner. This one was located in the wine cellar below Bar Oso, put on by iconic Whistler restaurant Araxi in partnership with West Kelowna’s Quails’ Gate winery. This six-course meal proved to be a master class in refinement. House-smoked Tofino salmon with beet salsa and creme fraiche, paired with Quails’ Gate 2017 Dry Riesling—a match made in heaven. Peace Country grilled lamb rack with celeriac hummus, harissa carrots, and pine nut dukkah, served alongside the 2015 Boswell Syrah—utterly magical. Caramel mousse with Okanagan apples and the 2017 Optima dessert wine to finish it off? If I must, I must!

It was a decidedly special evening, though it wasn’t without its somber notes. A representative from Quails’ Gate—helmed by a fourth-generation farming family that was the first in the BC to plant pinot noir—shared a staggering statistic with me: due to severe cold snaps the last two winters, the entire Okanagan’s 2024 grape harvest only resulted in about five per cent of its regular yield. Our own Angela Vannatter went into detail about this in her recent story about Lake Country, explaining some of the ways that its winegrowers and winemakers are learning to pivot. Still, that statistic shocked me. So, if you are a person who drinks alcohol, or if you know someone who drinks alcohol, buy a bottle of BC wine—you may very well help stop a local winery from going bankrupt.

I don’t want to end things on that sad note, so instead I’ll wrap up on this one: Cornucopia is one of BC’s preeminent wine and food events for very good reason. Yes, there are excellent eats and sips (and rowdy parties, too, if that’s your thing)—but there are also opportunities for connection with growers and chefs and makers, for discovering something special and new, and for mind expansion.