Category: Okanagan

I posted this article for all the star-crossed lovers 2 years ago.  I thought I’d check out the wines, and I’d stand by them all, but in addition, new wines have come to the BC market, so I thought I’d add those ones in too, so enjoy this Valentine’s Day with an even greater range of wine.  And don’t forget…

Do you love Syrahs?  Did you know that there are many award winning BC Syrahs?  Why not try some of them at the BC Wine Appreciation Society Syrah tasting on January 14?  Their announcement is below. Enjoy! ~~~ Newsflash #1 BC Syrahs take the top four spots in Wine Access Canadian wine awards! Newsflash #2 We are bringing all four of these wines, plus five more…

In my last post I gave you my list of favourite white and sparkling wines that I tasted in 2012.  Hopefully, you can buy a bottle or two for one of your holiday soirees.   My follow-up to that article is my favourite red wines.  With a special request from my friend Kalpna, I have a section for Pinot Noir, but…

Recently I received two new red wines from Spierhead Winery; Vanguard 2010, and Pursuit 2010.  If you have not heard of Spierhead before, they are a relatively new winery, located in Kelowna, BC.  They were named BEST NEW WINERY at the  2012 B.C. Wine Awards. The first wines I tried from Spierhead was a Pinot Noir and a Riesling (Read my tasting notes…

I sat up at attention when this email message showed up.  Oyosoos Larose produces very high quality red Bordeaux blends in the South Okanagan.  Wine maker, Pascal Madevon‘s top wine being the “Le Grand Vin” and then a second tier, but also very tasty, “Pétales d’ Osoyoos Larose“.  I have met Pascal many times at wine tasting events and he…

By day you would think coffee shop, but by night a wine bar. The new Take Five Cafe on 62 W. Cordoba, in Gastown offers both to their customers.  I was invited to attend their grand opening this past week to see what they have to offer, and there is quite a range for you.  As I mentioned there is…

Yesterday Le Vieux Pin and sister winery, La Stella, opened their doors to select wine and food media in Vancouver to taste some of their newly released wines. There were 2 wines in particular that I concentrated on with notes, but there were also some nice Rhone style white blends that I would like to also describe to you. La…

With the changing seasons we have changes in menus at our restaurants.  Last week Dianne Chow and I went to Beachside Forno in West Vancouver to have a sample of items from their new fall menu.  We were greeted by manager, Andy, as well as Chef Jason Harris.  This evening we were treated to 3 of the new fall items,…

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure to interview Ezra Cipes, CEO of Summerhill Pyramid Winery, located in Kelowna, BC.  One of the things Ezra told me about was a new line of BC VQA wines that they are producing called “Alive“, making both a red and a white wine.  The wine labels really look alive too with pictures…

When you talk with visitors to the Okanagan, most will say they want to visit Summerhill Winery and see their pyramid, where they partially age all their wines. Some may say they also want to visit because it uses biodynamic farming methods.  I sat down with Ezra Cipes, CEO of Summerhill, and son of the founder, Stephen Cipes, at a restaurant…