MyWinePal

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 [...]

Part of the Vancouver International Wine Festival are seminars; Seminars to make you more informed about wine. I had the wonderful opportunity to attend the Chateau St Jean Cinq Cepages Vertical tasting seminar. And now, you can share in some of my knowledge. What is Cinq Cepages? Cinq Cepages is a blend of five Bordeaux [...]

February 10, 2013 is a new Chinese New Year.  This new year will be the Year of the Water Snake. It begins on the first day of the first lunar month (usually in late January or early February) and ends on the 15th day of the first lunar month (Lantern Festival). According to Chinese Horoscopes, [...]

In my last post I gave you my list of favourite white and sparkling wines that I tasted in 2012.  Hopefully you can buy a bottle or two for one of your holiday soirees.   My follow-up to that article is my favourite red wines.  With a special request from my friend Kalpna, I have a [...]

Recently I received two new red wines from Spierhead Winery; Vanguard 2010, and Pursuit 2010.  If you have not heard of Spierhead before, they are a relatively new winery, located in Kelowna, BC.  They were named BEST NEW WINERY at the  2012 B.C. Wine Awards. The first wines I tried from Spierhead was a Pinot Noir and a [...]

This is my second year at the Taste of Tulalip. Last year I was getting my feet wet, trying to learn the ropes.  Here is the  link to my Celebration Dinner notes last year.  This year, I came prepared with a plan, and how to pace myself.  The Taste of Tulalip starts off with the [...]

I sat up at attention when this email message showed up.  Oyosoos Larose produces very high quality red Bordeaux blends in the South Okanagan.  Wine maker, Pascal Madevon‘s top wine being the “Le Grand Vin” and then a second tier, but also very tasty, “Pétales d’ Osoyoos Larose“.  I have met Pascal many times at [...]

BC wines are continuing to make strides around the world.  Last year BC wineries won more than 2000 medals in national and international competition according to the BC Wine Institute.  BC has over 208 wineries today.  We grow over 75 different grape varieties!  Merlot is the most planted grape in BC, and Pinot Gris is [...]

When you talk with visitors to the Okanagan, most will say they want to visit Summerhill Winery and see their pyramid, where they partially age all their wines. Some may say they also want to visit because it uses biodynamic farming methods.  I sat down with Ezra Cipes, CEO of Summerhill, and son of the founder, [...]

I always appreciate seminars held with wine makers and winery principals to discuss their wines.  In this case it was with wine maker Severine Pinte and General Manager Rasoul Salehi from Le Vieux Pin in the Chateau Belair Boardroom of the Sutton Place Hotel. Le Vieux Pin is one of my favourite wineries in the [...]