Category: organic

For those of you looking for organic-certified BC wines, here are two from the Similkameen Valley’s Robin Ridge Winery.  It is a small, family-operated winery located in Keremeos.  They keep to minimal intervention in winemaking, using indigenous yeasts for fermentation.  The two wines I recently received to review are the Robin Ridge Winery Riesling 2022 and Robin Ridge Winery Gamay…

I enjoy having dinner with friends and introducing an unfamiliar wine.  For my latest dinner, I brought a bottle of Kamloops’ area wine, Monte Creek Ranch Frontenac Gris 2024.  This is an organic wine using a hybrid grape, Frontenac Gris, that is cold hardy to survive winter blasts, while regular vitis vinifera grape vines would perish. I picked this wine…

Created through a collaboration between Provence Marinaside and Haywire Winery, this newly released, limited edition, Brut Nature Sparkling wine is all about purity, precision, and place. Crafted from 66% Pinot Noir and 34% Chardonnay grown at Haywire’s organically farmed Garden Valley Ranch estate vineyard in the high-altitude Okanagan, the wine carries a subtle shade of pink in the glass. Bottled…

French wines from the Côtes du Rhône and Côtes du Rhône Villages AOCs are here to show a new generation of drinkers just how delicious and versatile these appellations can be. I have a rosé and 2 red wines from these AOCs to review: Louis Bernard, Cotes du Rhone, Rosé, 2024 Mas de Sainte Croix Tendresse d’un Climat, Cotes du…

Cruising on the Rhine River with Avalon Waterways cruise line, the wine list at dinner changes daily.  Here are a few of the wines I tasted from my first two dinners.  All wines from the cruise are European. Many are from Austria.  None of these wines are currently available through the BC Liquor store, but who know, they may be…

I started my wine tasting at the International Festival Tasting Room during VanWineFest 2026 with French white and sparkling wines.  Below are my favourite white and sparkling wines.  I noticed after making my list that almost all the wines are made from the Chardonnay grape.  I am not sure how many of these wines are still available for purchase, but…

My next set of Ontario Chardonnay wines to review comes from Cave Spring Vineyard.  This winery is one of the pioneers in the area, having been around for four decades.  They are certified by Sustainable Winegrowing Ontario and their wines are also vegan-friendly.  The two wines I received to review are Cave Spring Vineyard Chardonnay 2024 (coming from a selection…

My next wine for my Ontario Chardonnay Review comes from Tawse Winery, located in the Twenty Mile Bench area of the Niagara Peninsula.  I received their Tawse Quarry Road Vineyard Chardonnay 2023 for the review.  They farm organically, although I didn’t notice an organic symbol on the wine label.  This vineyard has been certified organic since 2008.  Here are my…

I attended one dinner during the Vancouver International Wine Festival this year, courtesy of the Festival.  It was with Maison Chapoutier at  L’Abattoir.  It was a truly spectacular evening with Mr. James Leonardo De Sá from M. Chapoutier telling us about the winery and the wines we enjoyed that evening.  Did you know that Canada represents Chapoutier’s largest market outside…

In my earlier article I wrote about two Chardonnay wines from Maison Joseph Drouhin. One coming from Macon-Villages comes from a large region in the south end of Burgundy and the other from their Drouhin-Vaudon Chablis, from the Valley of Vauvillien.  Today I have the other two Chardonnay to tell you about.  Both are estate Chablis, one being their Chablis…