Enjoy Wine, Food, and Travel with Karl MyWinePal
Winemaking in the past has been dominated by men around the world, but times are changing. British Columbia is a great example. If you’ve ever cracked open a bottle of BC wine, there is a high probability that it was made by a female winemaker and/or the winery is female owned. Estimates suggest about 20% of lead winemakers in the…
Six months ago, in August 2025, I tasted BC’s Hester Creek Estate Vineyard Garland 2022 and The Judge 2022 Bordeaux-style red blends. These are their top tier Origin wines. Both wines were made in the epic year of 2022 when weather conditions and the harvest was perfect. At that time I first tasted these wines, both tied in my wine…
The new Lunar New Year of the Fire Horse starts on February 17, 2026. In a previous article on mywinepal.com, I listed wines that have a horse theme. One of the wines I listed was BC’s Haywire Winery Lunar Red 2022. I received a bottle of this wine to review and from my tasting notes, I think it should pair…
2022 was a super vintage for the Okanagan wineries. Hester Creek Estate Winery, as part of this epic vintage, vinified their first Super Tuscan style wine, named UNDICI. To taste UNDICI is to taste a little bit of Italy. UNDICI joins The Judge and Garland as part of their Origin Series wines. Together these three wines reflect the beautiful terroir…
We have had some turmoil in Canada and in BC for wines in 2025. Many BC interior wineries suffered from the 2024 cold snap causing them to either not produce any wine in 2024, or importing grapes from across the border, or from Ontario. We also had the removal of USA wines from BC government liquor stores. Overall, we had…
Today I have two wines for you from south Okanagan’s Gold Hill Winery; their Gold Hill Winery Sauvignon Blanc 2022 and Charisma Cabernet Merlot 2021. Charisma is their second label. Charisma wines curates charming approachable everyday drinking wines. There were scattered forest fires in the BC interior in 2021, but the winemakers at that time did not notice any smoke taint…
You may have noticed that I had not posted anything wine related for the last 2 weeks, as I was away, but now I’m back, and have my first two wines to tell you about from BC’s Township 7 Vineyards & Winery. I opened their Interlude Select Sauvignon Blanc 2024 and their Provenance Series Cabernet Merlot 2022. The Interlude Select…
We are well into the colder, winter weather now here in BC. So it is time to venture into deeper, red wines. I have two red wines from Oliver’s Gold Hill Winery. I have their Gold Hill Oxbow Reach Merlot 2019 and Oxbow Reach Cabernet Franc 2019. Both are interestingly from the 2019 vintage, with now 6 years of aging. …
I saved my last two wines from Domaine Artema Winery to be their Village Sparkling Rosé 2024 and their La Petite Mort (port style), NV, dessert wine. These two wines can cover the start and end of a delicious dinner. I did not decant either wine. In the first case, you don’t want the delicious bubbles in your sparkling wine…
I was privileged to be invited to attend the “Iconic Wineries of British Columbia” Holiday Preview this week, held at the Holt Renfrew, in downtown Vancouver. We sampled selections from Mission Hill Family Estate, Martin’s Lane, CheckMate Artisanal Winery, CedarCreek Estate Winery, Liquidity Wines, and Road 13 Vineyards. There were red, white, rose, and sparkling wines, along with canapes, made by the chefs from…
Video Guide Uncorks the Story of British Columbia Wines. Buy Now.
