Category: bc

With all our wonderful sunny, warm weather in the Vancouver lower mainland, and the spot prawn festival going on, some nice fruity BC white wines would be appropriate.  Two bottles I received to try from SpierHead Winery in Kelowna are their Pinot Gris and Riesling, both from the 2014 vintage. I’ve been tasting their wines quite regularly over the past…

Harry McWatters is a pioneer in the BC wine industry. He was the founder of BC’s first estate winery, Sumac Ridge Estate Winery in 1980 and founded See Ya Later Ranch Estate Winery in 1995.  He “retired” from Sumac Ridge Estate Winery in 2008, but that retirement still sees him very active, setting up the TIME Estate Winery producing wine…

Red, white, and rose wines, newly released from Okanagan Crush Pad reached my door for tasting.  Just in time for our spring and upcoming sunny summer weather.  The wines in question I received: Mike B Riesling Cabinett 2014 ($24.90) Haywire Gamay Noir Rose 2014 ($22.90) Haywire Pinot Noir 2013 ($24.90) Mike B Riesling Cabinett 2014 This wine is the result…

Harper’s Trail winery in Kamloops, BC has been blazing a trail in this new wine grape growing region of BC.  With any new region, the vineyard manager and the wine maker have to learn about their soil, which grape varieties grow best in their soil,  the variety of oak barrels that enhance their wines just right, etc.  I received a…

BC Pinot Noir is well known to some wine drinkers, but maybe not enough.  Probably most people think of Burgundy, or Oregon, or New Zealand. But we do produce some decent Pinots here in BC.  I recently received a bottle of Haywire Canyonview Pinot Noir 2012 to review.  It comes with a screw cap but that doesn’t mean it cannot…

Wine grapes from two different vineyards plus native yeasts from each vineyard, produces two unique wines.  The winery in question is Haywire and the wines were made at Okanagan Crush Pad, in Summerland, BC.  The two wines I tasted from Haywire were: Haywire Switchback Vineyard Pinot Gris 2012 Haywire Canyonview Vineyard Chardonnay 2013 The Switchback Vineyard was the first vineyard…

Who would think that you could get a taste of both the New World and the Old World from Riesling produced in Kamloops, BC?  Well indeed that is what I experienced with two wines from Harper’s Trail winery.  The Riesling vines were planted in 2008 and 2009 over two blocks; the Pioneer Block and the Silver Mane Block, with the…

I tip my hat to the pioneering spirit of Ed and Vicki Collett for starting their winery, Harper’s Trail, in Kamloops, BC, leading the way for people to consider this as a new area in BC for grape wine production.  I’ve been in contact with Ed and Vicki since just before they released their first vintage, and have been very…

Trying to think of an exceptional quality wine to buy for someone in your family or a special friend?  I have a few suggestions from the wines that I tasted over this past year.  These wines cover all regions of the world, and have different price points.  There should be something for everyone to love.  16 white and sparkling wines,…

I am privileged to try so many wines from around the world each year, here in Vancouver.  Sparkling, rose, red, white, and fortified wines have all passed my lips.  And for some instances there is a wine that stops you in your tracks, all your senses become heightened as they focus on the spectacular wine in your glass.  I would…