Delara’s New Winemaker Dinner Series Kicks Off Sept. 11th

Melanie Gravel — Wine Director and General Manager at Delara restaurant — has a way of capturing the poetry of wine and terroir, and translating it into a story that feels both approachable and compelling. She gets your curiosity going, opens you up to exploring, and never lets anything get precious or feeling out of reach. Which is why we’re stoked to see that she’s put together a lineup of winemaker dinners this Fall.

September 11th: Delara x Whispering Horse Winery

Delara launches its new winemaker dinner series on Thursday, September 11th with Fraser Valley’s Whispering Horse. In the restaurant’s atrium, guests will sit down to a five-course menu featuring some of Delara’s most personal recipes — plum and saffron stew, koofteh with roasted vegetables, and beef short ribs — paired with bottles poured by winemakers Melissa Giesbrecht and Laurent Fadanni. Like Delara, Whispering Horse strikes a balance between tradition and experimentation, making this first collaboration a natural fit. “This dinner is a celebration of two entities who make traditional recipes using locally grown ingredients,” says Gravel. “For Chef Bardia, that means drawing on local farms’ produce to shape the menu; for Whispering Horse, it’s crafting traditional sparkling wines from hybrid grapes in the Fraser Valley.” More details, including the full menu, and tickets available here.

Thursday, September 11th | 7pm | $145 | Delara Restaurant

September 18th: Delara x Portugal

The second installation of the winemaker series is a dinner that looks to Portugal’s winemaking traditions through Delara’s Persian lens. Think zucchini fritters with cheese, chicken with barberries, lamb shank, and a Persian love cake — each paired with bottles like Pico “Terras de Lava” Arinto dos Acores and Luis Seabra’s “Xisto Ilimitado.” A welcome cocktail built on Licor de Ginja and plum wine opens the night, setting the tone for an evening that looks to history while carrying it forward with modern sensibilities. As Gravel puts it, the Delara x Portugal dinner is “a way to show how we take “standard” ingredients and update them through the use of modern techniques, same as they do with classic grapes in Portugal”. More details, including the full menu, and tickets available here.

Thursday, September 18th | 7pm | $145 | Delara Restaurant

September 25th: Delara x Esquimalt Vermouth

The final, and “most adventurous” in the trio of themed dinners explores the versatility of vermouth – both in the glass and on the plate – when Delara collaborates with Vancouver Island’s Esquimalt Vermouth & Apéritifs. Guests can expect an inventive pairing of cocktails and aperitifs with dishes like saffron profiteroles with goat cheese, steelhead trout with turmeric and dill, duck fesenjoon, and chocolate halva cake. “This Dinner is the more oddball one,” says Gravel. “I wanted to have a pairing menu with Vermouths, as I think they are a very gastronomic drink and most people don’t know the incredible versatility of it.” Served neat, over ice, or mixed into cocktails, Esquimalt’s range shows how this wine-based aperitif slips easily between aperitif, pairing partner, and conversation starter. More details, including the full menu, and tickets available here.

Thursday, September 25th | 7pm | $145 | Delara Restaurant

September is a season of reset — an ideal time to slow down, pay attention, and enjoy what’s abundant. These dinners create space to explore wine without pretension, focusing instead on the connection between what’s in the glass and what’s on the plate. Get into it by snagging tickets for any (or all) of Delara’s Fall winemaker dinners here.