MyWinePal

Did you know that SpierHead Winery from South East Kelowna won the “Best New Winery” at the 2012 BC Wine Awards, and that their Pinot Noir was ranked #1 by the judges at the 2012 Canadian Wine Awards?  Well now you know.  I’ve been in contact with SpierHead for a year now, tasting their wines [...]

Living on the west coast, we get spoiled with the mild weather, access to beaches, nearby mountains, sailing, enjoying the beach, and more.  One of our more recent perks has been access to wineries, and on a recent trip to Washington state, I ventured to Whidbey Island, and sampled wines from some of the wineries [...]

With every season, there is either grape growing, harvesting, vinification, aging, or bottling of wine. Recently I was happy to do some tasting in Vancouver of recently bottled wines from Le Vieux Pin and La Stella wineries.  These two wineries from South Okanagan offer different styles of wines; Le Vieux Pin being produced in a [...]

New Zealand, a land with maritime and mountain plateau climates nearby, each producing wines from the same grapes with different styles, flavours, and aromas.  Unique terroir.    For such a small island, they produce a significant amount of wine.  The vineyards cover 34,270 hectares in 2012; growing at least 25 different varieties of grapes (more [...]

Starting a restaurant is hard.  Running a restaurant is hard. Whether you are the owner, chef, wait staff, or any combination of these, you are dedicated, you love food, and what you do.  This week was the Vancouver Magazine 24th Annual Restaurant Awards in Vancouver, celebrating our restaurants, chefs, and staff who have been tantalizing [...]

Bartier Scholefield‘s slogan is “Wine is Narrative“, which I agree it is, at least maybe for boutique wineries, sourcing grapes from a small region.  In my previous article, BC Has a Wine Story, I talked about the story that wine tells through the terroir that the vines were planted and the grapes ripened. Bartier Scholefield’s [...]

04.16.2013.  That’s the date that the Okanagan Falls Winery Association (OFWA) launched their Inaugural “The Heart of Wine Country Comes to Vancouver” event to show their wines to the wine trade, which includes wine writers like me, but as well wine shop and restaurant owners and staff.  If you ask someone in Vancouver where is [...]

I look forward to the Import Vintners & Spirits Association (IVSA) Trade tasting.  You get to try the new wines, liquor, and beer coming into the BC market, and be the first to tell you what to search out in your local wine shop, or BC government liquor store.  With the latest IVSA, here are [...]

Driving down to Seattle from Vancouver, BC for Taste Washington, I always think about the wineries I’ve tried last year; how will their wines taste this year, and what new surprises will I find.  There is always some wine that fits your palate, whether it is a light, citrusy Sauvignon Blanc, a round full bodied [...]

It’s no secret that there are many Canadian snowbirds that fly down for the winter months in Southern California; Palms Springs, in particular. With the average maximum “winter” temperatures in Palm Springs in November to March varying between 22-27 degrees Celsius and beautiful sun, who wouldn’t want to be there?  But what can you do there?  Well [...]