Category: merlot

Black Hills Estate Winery on the Black Sage Road in the Okanagan is best known for their “Nota Bene” Bordeaux blend red wine.  When I was taking my WSET classes downtown many years ago, it was extremely difficult to get a bottle of Nota Bene.  It sold out very quickly upon release.  One class mate lucky had purchased a bottle a few…

Time flies.  It does not seem to go in a linear fashion.  Things that have happened long ago, seem like yesterday.  Time compresses to me, the further things have happened in the past.  One such point to note is that the LaStella Winery in the Okanagan started in 2006; 10 years ago.  Yet to me, building my relationship with this…

The Naramata Bench, located to the north of Penticton on the east bank of Lake Okanagan, is home to many BC wineries.  It is a lovely drive along Naramata Road, where you can visit 24 wineries, and admire the views overlooking Lake Okanagan. If you are visiting the Okanagan you can easily spend one or more days visiting the wineries…

Black Market Wine Company that is, not the other kind. Black Market is one of our new wineries here in BC; located in Okanagan Falls, it consists of 3 people: Rob Hammersley, Michelle Shewchuk, and Mark Simpson. Mark is also the owner and wine maker for BC Wine Studio.  Rob and Michelle have some training in either viticulture or WSET education and look like they…

As part of a portfolio tasting from icon Fine Wine & Spirits a few weeks ago, a BC winery that I have heard of, and had a quick taste during one of the large BC VQA Trade tastings, surprised me.  Intersection Winery from the Okanagan surprised me with the great quality that they were offering.  Many of their wines I rated…

Where is the Okanagan Falls Region? The Okanagan Falls region reaches from the shores of Skaha Lake to the tip of Vaseux Lake, north to south. It is sandwiched between Penticton, Summerland and Oliver, the Okanagan Falls area is famed for some of Canada’s top wine production with the highest quality wines in the valley. It is the narrowest part…

Washington State has a plethora of wineries, in part due to its wider spans of flat or rolling hills and valleys, and less mountain coverage compared to BC.  According to washingtonwine.org there are “…50,000 acres (20,234 hectares) of vines and more than 850 wineries.”  In BC, the interior mountain ranges really limit the number of vineyards and wineries that we…

Wines come at all price points, from the cheap & cheerful, up to the ultra-premium or cult wines.  In BC it is hard to come across many wines that are in the cheap category because we have such limited areas for growing grapes.  One way for BC wineries to get more grapes is to source the grapes or wine from outside…

Learning about wine is a great experience.  It leads you to try new grape varieties, buy more expensive wines to see the difference with lesser priced wines, travel to wine destinations like the Okanagan or Napa Valley, and maybe start your own wine cellar. Winestains Wine Academy is a new venture that has opened up in Richmond, that offers WSET…

Harry McWatters is a leader in the British Columbia wine industry for the past 40+ years. In 1980, he founded BC’s first estate winery, Sumac Ridge Estate Winery, and later started See Ya Later Ranch Estate Winery in 1995.  He purchased and planted vines on his Sundial Vineyard on Black Sage Road in 1993. With Sumac Ridge Harry was able to…