Category: italy

Last week there was the Taste of Italy celebration held at the Vancouver Lookout downtown.  Wine and Italian cheese, prosciutto, chocolates, and more were there to sample. Here are ten wines that I quite enjoyed at the Taste of Italy.  Some of these wines are currently available in BC.  I marked those wines with a “*”.  The wines without the…

Valentine’s Day is coming up quickly.  Sparkling wine is always a nice treat on this special day.  I have two sparkling wines that I tasted that I think you would enjoy.  BC’s Singletree Winery offers their Traditional Method sparkling wine, Merryfield 2016.  Merryfield is made from 50% Chardonnay and 50% Pinot Noir grapes.  The wine spends 24 months on its…

This week we had our first Trade tasting of new wines or new vintages of wines, plus spirits with the IVSA.  I decided to concentrate on white and sparkling wines for this event, as I had a shorter time to taste that day.  Below are some of the wines that I enjoyed and hope you will find them soon, if…

New Year’s Eve is just around the corner.  Have you purchased your sparkling wines to celebrate?  Here are some sparkling wines I enjoyed this year that you may want to consider buying.  Some BC sparklers are only available at the winery, but the foreign bottles should all be available at BC Liquor stores.  Cheers! My Sparkling Wine Suggestions BC Wine…

A whole year has passed since my 2021 Wine Quiz, which was related to wines, wineries, and winemakers I was able to interact with and write about on mywinepal.com.  Here is my 3rd Annual 2022 Wine Quiz.  There are 10 questions gleaned from my articles this year. I hope you enjoy it!

What are the characteristics of a wine that I rate at 5-stars?   It is a wine that shows good fruit flavour characteristics, is very balanced between fruit/acidity/tannins/sugar (differences between red/white/sparkling/fortified wines), has good structure and longer length, and possible aging potential (4-stars), plus has some special characteristics, which could include minerality, superb balance and length, typicity of place, excellent aging…

Twenty-five wines coming from BC and around the world made it to my near-perfect – star category this year.  I’ve arranged these fantastic wines into BC wines followed by wines from the rest of the world.  Italian wine showed up prominently with my near-perfect wine scores.  Chardonnay showed prominently as well, primarily from BC. You should still be able to…

It is not every day that you get invited to a portfolio tasting of wines from Italy’s Antinori Estates.  Many of you have probably heard of their most famous wine, Marchesi Antinori Tignanello Toscana IGT, a Super Tuscan, that helped lead the way to blend in International grape varieties, e.g. Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, with Italy’s Sangiovese grape in Tuscany….

The holiday season will soon be upon us.  When I turned on a local FM radio station today they were already playing Christmas songs.  It’s time to start stocking up on wines to celebrate with friends and family.  Sparkling wines are often associated with the holidays.  For some people, a nice fortified wine, like a port wine is also appreciated…

Tomaresca is a winery named for the ancient seaside towers of Puglia and is trying to make the world notice and appreciate the quality of their wines.  The winery works with the Antinori family which has over 625 years of winemaking experience in Italy.  All of Tormaresca’s wines are crafted with 100% estate-grown fruit, which covers two estates. Grapes and…