Enjoy Wine, Food, and Travel with Karl MyWinePal
British Columbia’s wine industry continues to show just how much can be achieved in a relatively young wine region. The 2026 National Wine Awards of Canada provided a good reminder of that, with BC wineries earning an impressive 640 medals, representing 51% of all medals awarded at the competition. Beyond the medals, the results also point to the diversity of…
We are in the last few weeks of summer. Children are in school and parents are enjoying some quiet time. To celebrate the last days of summer and quiet time, I think some red wine is in order. I tasted two bottles of red wine from Osoyoos’ Adega on 45th Estate Winery. One is their Adega on 45th Estate Winery…
Rosé wines are quite enjoyable in the summer while you are on your patio, enjoying a meal, but these wines fit in throughout the year with their red fruit flavours and bright acidity. In BC we are familiar with the rose wines made here and maybe with rosé wines from Provence, but we should also be considering Ontario rosé wines. …
We are having wonderful summertime sunny weather, and it is a great time to review two BC rosé wines for you. I have Hester Creek Estate Winery’s Rosé Pinot Noir 2025 and Rosé Cabernet Franc 2025. Many people know about rosé wine being made from Pinot Noir grapes, but not too many know that Cabernet Franc also makes an excellent…
I recently decided to review two French red wines that are blends. Blends have the benefit that two or more grape varieties together fill in the weakness of the other grape. For example, one grape may be fruity but lack tannins, while another grape has plenty of tannins but lacks much fruit character. Putting the two grape varieties together makes…
BC’s Township 7 Vineyards & Winery has two elegant red wines that should go well with our beautiful summer plans of a BBQ with family or friends. The wines I received to review are their Township 7 Vineyards & Winery Benchmark Series NBO 2022 and Township 7 Vineyards & Winery Benchmark Series Reserve 7 2022. Both wines are blends. The…
On a lighter tone, at VanWineFest 2026, I had a chance to attend a walk-about lunch at LaSalle College Vancouver; French bistro fare prepared and served by LaSalle students, while sampling a selection of French wines representing seven French wine regions. Below is a list of the French wines followed by the menu. No wine reviews here, just some general…
Six months ago, in August 2025, I tasted BC’s Hester Creek Estate Vineyard Garland 2022 and The Judge 2022 Bordeaux-style red blends. These are their top tier Origin wines. Both wines were made in the epic year of 2022 when weather conditions and the harvest was perfect. At that time I first tasted these wines, both tied in my wine…
It is always a treat at a winemaker’s dinner to be able to talk with the winemaker who gives us some insight into how the wines we are drinking together were made and any challenges they encountered. I recently attended a winemaker dinner at Provence Marinaside, featuring Jessica Otting from the Niagara region’s Tawse Winery, who gave us those insights. …
We have had some turmoil in Canada and in BC for wines in 2025. Many BC interior wineries suffered from the 2024 cold snap causing them to either not produce any wine in 2024, or importing grapes from across the border, or from Ontario. We also had the removal of USA wines from BC government liquor stores. Overall, we had…
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