Category: italy

The Luigi Bosca family has a 120 history of growing grapes and producing wines in Mendoza, Argentina.  Alberto Arizu the great-grandson for the Luigi Bosca winery spoke to us today about the history of the winery, the family, and the Malbec grape. His great grandfather, originally from Italy, bought land in the Mendoza region is 1901 and started to plant…

What is Vin Santo? According to Wikipedia “Vin Santo is a style of Italian dessert wine. Traditional in Tuscany, these wines are often made from white grape varieties such as Trebbiano and Malvasia, though Sangiovese may be used to produce a rosé style known as “Occhio di Pernice” or eye of the partridge. The wines may also be described as straw…

I have talked about the origins of the Chianti Classico Gran Selezione wines in a previous article, but there is always more to learn.  I was invited to attend a recent Masterclass on Chianti Classico Gran Selezione wines and I would like to share some of that knowledge with you, as well as give you my tasting notes on my…

What Do You Know About Chianti Classico? “Chianti Classico” and should not be confused with “Chianti”, which is a separate denomination that surrounds Chianti Classico. In 1716, the Tuscan Grand Duke Cosimo III, established for the first time in history the borders of the production area for Chianti Classico.  It covers the area between Siena and Florence and covers 70,000…

Most of the excitement about the Vancouver International Wine Festival is with the theme country or region; California for this year.  But, we should not shy from visiting the rest of the Tasting Room and try wines from other parts of the world, as well as Canada.  Below are a dozen wines that I enjoyed and recommend for you to…

Valentine’s Day is a special day to spend with your significant other.  A bottle of sparkling wine to sip together is a great way to cap, or start, the evening together.  Below are 6 different sparkling wines that I tried over the last 12 months, from BC and overseas, that I think are exceptional.  Enjoy these wines on their own,…

My first Trade tasting for 2019 was this week, with agents showing the latest new wines they have brought to Vancouver or new vintages of wines that are currently in our market.  I was quite surprised by how many sparkling wines I had a chance to try.  I normally see a peak interest in sparkling wine leading up to the…

Grapes may have different names depending on where they are grown around the world.  How much do you know?

The Vancouver International Wine Festival 2019 starts February 23.  A big part of the festival is attending the International Festival Tasting Room that has 160 wineries attending, pouring a total of 1450 wines.  How do you know which wineries you want to make sure you try?  California is the theme region, so there will be more wineries from there, compared…

We are getting closer to VanWineFest 2019 and the stars are aligning.  The stars you can see at the Vancouver International Wine Festival Tasting come from our theme region, California, as well as from around the world, and even from our own Province!  What is a vine star?  A vine star is a term the Festival uses for winery principals…