Enjoy Wine, Food, and Travel with Karl MyWinePal
The Wines of British Columbia shone at The Judgment of BC Wine Tasting with Steven Spurrier and DJ Kearney today. Steven Spurrier, the Consultant Editor at Decanter magazine, headed the famous Judgement of Paris in 1976 (which was made into the movie “Bottle Shock”). The Judgement of Paris carried out two blind tasting comparisons: one of Chardonnays and another of…
I first wrote this article in August 2015 when these 2 wines were first released during a walk about food & wine tasting, but then in the Fall I received a bottle of each wine again at home to re-taste. Since August, approximately 4 months have elapsed till this re-taste. Both wines are under screw cap, so did the aromas…
Where is Tappen, BC? I have not heard of Tappen either until I visited Recline Ridge Vineyards and Winery. Tappen is a small town a few minutes drive west of Salmon Arm, BC. It is not in the hotter, drier climate of the Okanagan. The area is lush with forest, rolling hills, farmland, and the large water body, Shuswap Lake….
Do you know where Lake Country is in BC? Most people probably don’t, but it is just a short drive north of Kelowna. One of the first wineries in BC, Gray Monk Estate Winery, was established in Lake Country. Other Lake Country wineries are 50th Parallel Estate, Arrowleaf Cellars, Intrigue Wines, and Ex Nihilo Vineyards. I was recently in the…
There are many methods or devices that people use to add oxygen to wine to soften it up and bring out the flavours and aromas of the wines. It can be as simple as a decanter. One of the devices which I heard about, called OptiWine, caught my interest. I emailed the company optiwine.fr and asked them for one of…
Sometimes you get some free time and can take a quick trip to the Okanagan. That recently happened to me. I wanted to visit at least 2 new wineries to me on this trip. I stayed in Kelowna, and checking the latest winery map, I saw that I have been to all in the area before, so I fixed my…
For the Etsell family, farming is in their blood, with their roots firmly entrenched in the Fraser Valley; first with turkeys, and now into viticulture and wine making. Their farming roots extend to the label, where they are called “Singletree Winery”. What is a singletree? It is a wood and iron harness yoke with three iron rings circling a wood…
Which side of the Dordogne River do you sit? Left Bank or Right Bank? I ask this as I was presented with two bottles of Meritage; one from Time Estate and the other from McWatters Collection. Both BC wines from the Okanagan Valley, and both Bordeaux blends, (but blends represented by styles from different sides of the Dordogne River). What is…
Summer is nearly upon us, but the weather feels like it is already here. Time to spend time on the patio with family and friends. And of course some nice chilled bottles of BC white wine. Last week I attended the latest BLOOM BC VQA Spring Release Tasting, and tasted the newest BC white wines, and I have a few…
I am a lover of Riesling. It allows the wine maker to produce wine in many styles, from bone dry, to a lusciously sweet ice wine. While we here in BC have talked about making very good aromatic white wines, I have not yet seen a systematic analysis of our aromatic grapes, Riesling in particular, and how the wines differ…
Video Guide Uncorks the Story of British Columbia Wines. Buy Now.
