Enjoy Wine, Food, and Travel with Karl MyWinePal
Vineyards surround Chile’s capital of Santiago. In the 19th century, Santiago’s rich moved to the valley around Santiago to try their hand as a landowner. They planted vineyards and built large estates. Despite Santiago’s growth and rapid consumption of arable land the Maipo Valley still thrives. It lies between the Andes and the coastal mountains, which keep the climate dry…
Chile is blessed with perfect conditions to grow grapes; a varied climate, warmer and drier in the north, and wetter and cooler in the south. A dry climate and soil types not conducive to the phyloxera louse allow Chilean vineyards to be grown on their own rootstock, not grafted. Some say that this allows you to taste the “true” flavour…
Did you know that SpierHead Winery from South East Kelowna won the “Best New Winery” at the 2012 BC Wine Awards and that their Pinot Noir was ranked #1 by the judges at the 2012 Canadian Wine Awards? Well, now you know. I’ve been in contact with SpierHead for a year now, tasting their wines and telling people about their…
Wow, the Vancouver International Wine Festival was sure busy for me. I attended a dinner, a lunch, a seminar, and visited the Festival Tasting room 3 times. I was able to speak with many winery principals from California, which is always interesting. They can tell you background information about the winery or a particular wine they are pouring for you. Some…
Chardonnay, a grape variety that can cause great disparity in wine drinkers. There are many that fall into the “Anything But Chardonnay” camp, and others that love that it can have many different expressions; depending on the climate, soil, and the hands of the winemaker. Some people do not even know they are drinking Chardonnay, but really enjoy French Chablis or…
I hazard to guess how many wines I tasted over the past year, but every year I find several gems that I pass along to you as I taste them. Getting ready for the holiday season, you may be considering buying wines to take to parties, or serving wines at your parties. What to buy? Here is a list of…
Sonoma County in California is not as well known as the county next door, Napa, but it should be better known due to it’s quality wines. Sonoma has a cooler climate than Napa, which is more inland, plus has the Mayacamas Mountains to block the cool maritime air. The unique climates of Sonoma County allow a wide range of red…
Tuesday evening, the rain fell, but it could not dampen my spirits as I entered The Flying Pig Restaurant in Yaletown to taste the wines from Ravenswood Winery, listen to winemaker Joel Peterson, and enjoy the entrees prepared to pair with the wines. Ravenswood’s motto is “No Wimpy Wines” and I may add that this could also apply to the…
I’m so excited because tomorrow I will be attending a media dinner to try a flight of wines by Ravenswood Winery wine maker Joel Peterson at the Flying Pig in Yaletown. The wines I will be sampling, and tweeting live to you will be: Ravenswood VB Chardonnay 2010 Ravenswood VB Zinfandel 2009 Sangiacomo Chardonnay Lodi Zinfandel 2009 Sonoma Zinfandel County…
With the changing seasons we have changes in menus at our restaurants. Last week Dianne Chow and I went to Beachside Forno in West Vancouver to have a sample of items from their new fall menu. We were greeted by manager, Andy, as well as Chef Jason Harris. This evening we were treated to 3 of the new fall items,…
Video Guide Uncorks the Story of British Columbia Wines. Buy Now.
