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‘Best Of’ Award of Excellence
Since then his career path has traveled through Australia’s prestigious bars, restaurants and wine regions before heading back to Canada to Banff’s renowned Rimrock Restort and Hotel, where as Maitre’d & Sommelier, he was responsible for developing the highly acclaimed wine collection. Moving on to Vancouver, Knowlton was led by a desire to explore Canada’s hottest dining city and joined the long established Le Crocodile, as Maitre’d of the French fine-dining restaurant. At West he now enjoys being part of the team who run one of Vancouver’s most progressive and celebrated restaurants. As Wine Director, Knowlton nurtures and grows the acclaimed selection adding carefully to the five hundred label list, always conscious to pass on value, quality and diversity when selecting new wines. His ambitions are to develop the wine list and educate the service team to assist guests in discovering new food and wine combinations that will ultimately heighten the dining experience at West.
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Wine Philosophy As a young restaurant we continue to enjoy the challenges of guiding the evolution of our wine program. The relentless commitment to excellence by our kitchen demands that we nurture the growth of a purposeful and wisely selected wine list to complement our food. The classic regions and producers of both new world and old world create the framework of any well-designed wine list. We believe the sourcing out of boutique wineries, uncommon varietals and obscure quality bottles brings personality and variety into a truly exciting selection. Particular attention has been paid to the depth of our selection of half bottles, in an effort to create even more wine and food-pairing options. While the collecting of wines is an arduous task in itself, the acquired wines demand respectful care and storage. We have created a visually stunning "Wall of Wine" and govern its tenants with a custom-designed temperature control system. This ensures that the condition of our selection -and our guests' satisfaction- are not compromised. Our wine list has been developed with approachability always in mind. Although many prestigious labels reside within our compilation, the focus of its maturity has been towards diversity of origin and ease of use. We are confident that our list has enough depth and range to appeal to the wide range of guests who dine with us. We hope you will enjoy what we believe to be an inspired and fun selection of beautiful wines. Please contact our Wine Director directly if you would like a copy of the wine list forwarded to you.
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Owen Knowlton moved from his native Ontario to Lake Louise, Alberta to follow his love of skiing; after joining the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise he quickly became enamored with the hospitality industry and his enthusiasm for wine began to grow.