Enjoy Wine, Food, and Travel with Karl MyWinePal
More champagne for everyone! ~~~ EPERNAY, FRANCE – The Comité Champagne today announced the 2021 Champagne harvest started on 6 September. Weather conditions in the Champagne region are good for the ripening of the grapes, but conditions across the vineyard are unusually varied. Because Champagne always picks its grapes by hand, this means that the organization of picking this year will have to be adjusted. Weather conditions in…
Today I have another lesser-known AOC in the southern Rhone Valley – AOC Ventoux. You may be very familiar with one of the wineries from AOC Ventoux, Château Pesquié. Their wine labels in solid blocks of colour should be very familiar to you when you check on the shelves in the BC Liquor Stores and elsewhere across Canada. I have…
Many of us are familiar with the wine regions of Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne, and the Rhone Valley, but there are many sub-regions, which have their own Appellation d’origine Contrôlée (AOC) that produce quality wines at reasonable prices. Many of the wineries are family-run as well, with the vineyards and wineries being passed down through families. I would like to present…
Today I have a bottle of Lou Coucardié Red 2012 from the well-known winemaker, Monsieur Michel Gassier from AOC Costieres de Nimes in the south of France, part of the Rhone Valley. This red wine is a blend of 49% Mourvedre, 35% Grenache, and 16% Syrah, coming from his organic vines. If you wonder what is Lou Coucardié, the winery…
What an honour for Provence Marinaside Owner and Chef Jean-Francis Quaglia to be knighted by the Government of France in an award ceremony this week (Aug 18/21) at the restaurant. We all knew his dishes were excellent and we now have the culinary country of the world, France, also acknowledging Executive Chef Quaglia’s skills. Here is the press release about…
Today I am pleased to open and taste a bottle of Château Pesquié Terrasses Red 2019 from the Ventoux AOC. A wine made with 60% Grenache and 40% Syrah. I will be interviewing one of the owners, Frédéric Chaudière, about his wine and about the AOC Ventoux. The AOC is very interesting as Mont Ventoux controls the temperature of the…
This is a first for BC as far as I can remember. The Veuve Clicquot Champagne House coming to the Okanagan for a special event with OAK Estate Winery in Summerland. Limited tickets so buy yours asap! Press release below. ~~~ (Summerland, BC) – Summer is here and one of the best things about the season is eating alfresco, especially…
Do you enjoy Alsatian wines? They are very food-friendly, with Riesling being the best-known grape from the region. There are also other aromatic white varieties, like Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, and Gewurztraminer, and now Pinot Noir is becoming more widely known. I attended a virtual Alsatian Digitasting Fair this week and interviewed four winemakers at their wineries. The wineries I…
What do Bordeaux, Burgundy, and the Okanagan have in common? Dylan and Pénélope Roche of Roche Wines. This married couple met while pursuing their winemaking careers and during their world travels worked in Bordeaux and Burgundy. They then moved to the Naramata Bench where they started Roche Wines. One item of interest is that Dylan spent 5 years in Burgundy…
April 17 was World Malbec Day, and coincidentally a few days prior, I received a copy of “Malbec, A Tumultuous Wine Journey from Woe to WOW” by Vanda Jackson. Vanda, a Canadian from Nova Scotia, is a journalist by training and a lover of Malbec wine, in particular from Argentina. This love of Malbec guided her to writing this book…
Video Guide Uncorks the Story of British Columbia Wines. Buy Now.
