Category: Malbec

Trying to think of an exceptional quality wine to buy for someone in your family or a special friend?  I have a few suggestions from the wines that I tasted over this past year.  These wines cover all regions of the world, and have different price points.  There should be something for everyone to love.  16 white and sparkling wines,…

The next winery to introduce you to at the Vancouver International Wine Festival is Bleasdale Vineyards.  Learn about their interesting region that has an afternoon breeze called the “Lake Doctor” to help slow the grapes ripening and should keep more acidity in the grapes.  Enjoy the read now from the winery, and tasting their wines in February 2015. ~~~ BLEASDALE…

A Bit of Argentine Wine Background Argentina is a large country that can boast over 300 sunny days a year and a dry semi-desert climate, and irrigation canals from the Andes mountains which helps them to be the 5th largest wine producer in the world.  Grapes were brought over by French, Spanish, and Italian immigrants. Believe it or not, nearly…

One of the definitions in The Free Dictionary of “portfolio” is “A group of investments held by an investor, investment company, or financial institution.” I thought that for a wine & spirits agency those bottles of wines and spirits are an investment to them.  They search out and try to find value, and then share these gems with the public. …

California and Argentina.  What does this US State and South American country have in common?  Answer: Paul Hobbs.  Through my interview with Paul, I learned about his love of wine and interest in making interesting wines from interesting regions around the world.  Having a northern hemisphere and a southern hemisphere harvest each year gives Paul the chance to refine his…

Did you hear last year that Painted Rock’s flagship Red Icon wine was listed in a Beijing restaurant at 5,280 RMB, the equivalent of CAD$900?  Quite a statement for a small, but high quality BC winery.  The latest red wine releases for Painted Rock just came out, and I was invited to sample them.  I wondered how the 2011 vintage…

A daunting task, picking my favourite wines from a total of 1750 wines being poured at the Vancouver International Wine Festival.  Thankfully I was able to visit the Acura International Festival Tasting Room 4 times as Media, splitting time between France and the rest of the world.  I have already covered my favourite French wines in a separate article.  In…

While the big draw for many people to the Vancouver International Wine Festival this year was sparkling wine, and French Champagne, specifically, there were many other wonderful wines to sample.  For this article, since France was the Theme Country, I would like to concentrate on their wines, sans Champagne.  My Champagne article is here. Every region in France is known…

Have you tried any wine from Brasil before?  Did you know that there are wineries in Brasil?  You may think of the beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema in Rio de Janiero, but if you go to the cooler climate in Southern Brasil you will find vineyards that were started by European settlers in the 1500s and continues today. I received…

Malbec is known as the signature grape of Argentina, but can it age?  We found this out, at least for our bottle sampled, during my Bodega Norton wine maker dinner earlier this month.  Bodega Norton’s Chief Winemaker, Jorge Riccitelli brought 3 bottles of their 1974 Malbec from Argentina for us to try.  Now this was not their Reserva level at…