Enjoy Wine, Food, and Travel with Karl MyWinePal
I love to stumble across new wineries to me. Willow Wine Cellars is a Garagista winery out of Underwood, WA. Brendan and his wife, Tarnna, have been making wine out of their garage for 10 years. He poured me a glass of their Albarino wine, noting that in Spain, Albarino is known as “The Wine of the Sea”. It pairs…
What do you know about the wines from Uruguay? One winery that has consistently been attending the Vancouver International Wine Festival is Bodega Garzón. I have enjoyed speaking with Mele Sosa from Bodega Garzón about their wines and tasting them as well for several years. Uruguay is well-known for red wines made from the Tannat grape, but they also produce…
In my previous article, I talked about the top wines that I tasted at the International Festival Tasting Room during VanWineFest 2023. Those were wines that are in my 4.5 – 5 star range. But as I checked my notes, I saw that I had many enjoyable wines in the 4 – 4.5 star range. Below are my tasting notes…
I and other Trade people were invited to “explore the Pacific Wine Route with us. In the spirit of expedition and discovery, take a page from Lewis and Clark: come taste through the green, gentle slopes of Oregon’s unique beauty, and emerge through Columbia River to find the stern, mighty desert of Washington State…One, powerfully raw. The other, raw power.” …
My last video interview at the Vancouver International Wine Festival was with Mele Sosa from Bodega Garzón a winery in Uruguay. This winery is well-known here for its Tannat and Albariño wines. Mele has been coming to the VanWineFest for several years. I have interviewed her in the past and am lucky to be able to interview her this year. …
It’s been two years since we last tasted wines from around the world at the Vancouver International Wine Festival. During COVID grapevines produced grapes and wine was made but may have been a little harder than normal to get workers in the vineyard and in the winery. Below are my Old World wine selections. Most of the vintages are 2020…
2021 was a year of extreme weather conditions in BC, which had an impact on BC grapes and wine production. Temperature records were shattered in many regions. I’ve been told that Kelowna, Kamloops, Osoyoos, and Lillooet were among 60 cities that broke temperature records. The heat dome in the summer causes grapevines to shut down until the weather cools off. …
As I mentioned for my five-star wine ratings this year, COVID limited the number of events and thus wines that I could taste that came from around the world to BC. That being said, I am grateful for the BC wineries that sent me wines to taste, plus wines from wine agencies. There are many wines that fit into my…
Where is Rias Baixas and what kind of wines are made there? This could easily be a question on a WSET exam. But luckily for you, this is not a test, and I am going to give you the answer. Rías Baixas is located in Spain’s northwest region of Galicia. Coastal and green, this region is said to resemble Ireland…
As BC is large with a cooler coastal climate and a hotter, drier interior, our yearly vintages can cover a range from marginal to exceptional. Luckily we have been closer to the exceptional end of the vintage spectrum these last years. How was the 2018 vintage? I attended a media preview of the 2018 vintage and had 4 winemakers from…
