The perfect food and wine pairing is like the fateful meeting of destined lovers, best celebrated with a tiny mock wedding presided over by a curmudgeonly pepper mill with a heart of gold. Combine cuisine and wine the way nature intended with today’s Groupon: for $30, you get a Taste of Canmore outing on Friday, November 4 from 6 to 10 p.m. at Silvertip Resort (a $75 total value). The outing includes:

• Admission with unlimited liquor and food sampling (a $50 value)
• Admission to an after-party at the Rose & Crown Pub (a $25 value)<p>

The 7th annual Taste of Canmore ferments a flavourful frontier of more than 150 international wines and beers amid the Bow Valley pines and Rocky Mountains of Silvertip Resort’s lodge and golf course. Festival tickets grant guests a mountain-bound evening within the lodge, and unlimited drink sampling to make each patron feel as important as the prime minister at a soda fountain. Festival-goers dive into piquant pours, sampling the main event of more than 75 local microbrews and imported beers. Two-ounce taste tumblers provide ample reflection time, and 75 wines from five continents as well as several whiskeys, including Scottish single malts, sit ready for those with pavlovian hops aversions.

Drinks craving company can cozy up to appetizing small plates prepared by eight of Alberta’s lauded chefs. Guest gourmands from restaurants such as The Georgetown Inn, Bow Valley Gourmet, Thai It Up, and Rustica sling turkey confit, prime sliders, and gambas and avocado, all waiting to fill up their dance cards with names from the eclectic lineup of libations. While enjoying the culinary jubilee, guests may spot curious moose, deer, and caribou dissatisfied with that night’s woodland karaoke party. After 10 p.m., revelers relocate to the Rose & Crown’s traditional English tavern to bask in the warmth of wood finish and gaze at photos of local landscapes.