Category: Okanagan

For the Etsell family, farming is in their blood, with their roots firmly entrenched in the Fraser Valley; first with turkeys, and now into viticulture and wine making. Their farming roots extend to the label, where they are called “Singletree Winery”. What is a singletree?  It is a wood and iron harness yoke with three iron rings circling a wood…

Yes, I know Father’s Day is a few days away, but here is a great wine and food pairing, which you could offer to your father or husband, on an IOU, if it takes too long to order both items. The Steaks I received two 1″ thick Strip Loin steaks from Fuego Diablo Premium Steaks, via courier, to review.  Shipped…

A mysterious postcard arrived in the mail inviting me to visit “the Family” and try some wine.  The Cosa Nostra maybe?  The address took me to a notorious location in downtown Vancouver, The Penthouse Night Club”.  Certainly a different location to try wine!  A Sicilian looking guy, dressed in 1930s-40s period suit and hat, greeted me at the door, waiting…

Which side of the Dordogne River do you sit?  Left Bank or Right Bank?  I ask this as I was presented with two bottles of Meritage; one from Time Estate and the other from McWatters Collection.  Both BC wines from the Okanagan Valley, and both Bordeaux blends, (but blends represented by styles from different sides of the Dordogne River). What is…

Summer is nearly upon us, but the weather feels like it is already here.  Time to spend time on the patio with family and friends. And of course some nice chilled bottles of BC white wine.  Last week I attended the latest BLOOM BC VQA Spring Release Tasting, and tasted the newest BC white wines, and I have a few…

I am a lover of Riesling.  It allows the wine maker to produce wine in many styles, from bone dry, to a lusciously sweet ice wine.  While we here in BC have talked about making very good aromatic white wines, I have not yet seen a systematic analysis of our aromatic grapes, Riesling in particular, and how the wines differ…

With all our wonderful sunny, warm weather in the Vancouver lower mainland, and the spot prawn festival going on, some nice fruity BC white wines would be appropriate.  Two bottles I received to try from SpierHead Winery in Kelowna are their Pinot Gris and Riesling, both from the 2014 vintage. I’ve been tasting their wines quite regularly over the past…

Harry McWatters is a pioneer in the BC wine industry. He was the founder of BC’s first estate winery, Sumac Ridge Estate Winery in 1980 and founded See Ya Later Ranch Estate Winery in 1995.  He “retired” from Sumac Ridge Estate Winery in 2008, but that retirement still sees him very active, setting up the TIME Estate Winery producing wine…

Red, white, and rose wines, newly released from Okanagan Crush Pad reached my door for tasting.  Just in time for our spring and upcoming sunny summer weather.  The wines in question I received: Mike B Riesling Cabinett 2014 ($24.90) Haywire Gamay Noir Rose 2014 ($22.90) Haywire Pinot Noir 2013 ($24.90) Mike B Riesling Cabinett 2014 This wine is the result…

BC Pinot Noir is well known to some wine drinkers, but maybe not enough.  Probably most people think of Burgundy, or Oregon, or New Zealand. But we do produce some decent Pinots here in BC.  I recently received a bottle of Haywire Canyonview Pinot Noir 2012 to review.  It comes with a screw cap but that doesn’t mean it cannot…