Category: Chablis

I tasted through many years this year through Trade tastings with agents and BC VQA wineries, the Vancouver International Wine Festival, visits to wineries, and personal purchases.  I rate all the wines I taste from 1 to 5 stars.  Fortunately, the quality of many wines is quite good, giving them at least a 3 out of 5-star rating.  At the…

Top Drop is the last major wine tasting in Vancouver before the start of summer. Top Drop is meant to represent the best in terroir and winemaker craft. Nature and Nurture.  Wineries from around the world are selected for the best of both, and we were not disappointed.  In my 5 star wine rating, most wines were at least 4…

Sometimes the best wines around are the ones that are not generally listed in BC Liquor stores.  They are known as Spec or Special Order wines.  You can find these wines through some private wine shops, or you could order them through these shops, but you may need a minimum order size. I attended Select Wines‘ portfolio tasting and enjoyed…

Beer and wine lovers; dog and cat lovers. Can they co-exist or appreciate each other? That latter question was tackled at the Cornucopia seminar on “Craft Beer for Wine Lovers“. I must admit that I do appreciate beer, so it was not a hard sell for me, and I think the other people in the seminar also found beers that…

It is always a special time when a wine agency opens their portfolio of wines for you to taste, review, and recommend.  This past week I had a chance to try the wines from Select Wines’ annual portfolio tasting.  With any tasting of this magnitude there will always be more wines than time to taste them.  I try my best…

My second agent portfolio wine tasting for September is by Andrew Peller Ltd and Andrew Peller Import Agency.  Through both branches they show off our local BC wines, and the wines the represent from around the world.  It was a great sunny day, and they had their wines out for us on a patio.  Greeting me was Howard Soon, senior…

After summer holidays are over and you are all relaxed from the sun, food, and wine with family and friends, September comes around.  For the wine trade, this is the start of the busy season leading up to Christmas, and with this there are many agency portfolio tastings.  I attended two portfolio tastings this past week, and I’m here to…

At a certain quality level of wine, which typically comes from wineries that have decided to spend the extra effort on selecting grapes from the best vineyard plots, hand picking and sorting the grapes, and letting the grapes express themselves in the wine without an over agressive human hand, you get shades of perfection (note that I am not talking…

When you think of Chablis, elegance comes to mind for me.  Floral and citrus fruits, stone fruits, whey and honey are all flavour descriptors for these wines, and one in particular; flint.  The flint (some may say smokiness) comes from the Kimmeridgian soil, a mineral-rich clay, that also contains marine fossils which are responsible for its lime content. With the…