Category: organic

New Year’s Eve is just around the corner.  Have you purchased your sparkling wines to celebrate?  Here are some sparkling wines I enjoyed this year that you may want to consider buying.  Some BC sparklers are only available at the winery, but the foreign bottles should all be available at BC Liquor stores.  Cheers! My Sparkling Wine Suggestions BC Wine…

What are the characteristics of a wine that I rate at 5-stars?   It is a wine that shows good fruit flavour characteristics, is very balanced between fruit/acidity/tannins/sugar (differences between red/white/sparkling/fortified wines), has good structure and longer length, and possible aging potential (4-stars), plus has some special characteristics, which could include minerality, superb balance and length, typicity of place, excellent aging…

The holiday season will soon be upon us.  When I turned on a local FM radio station today they were already playing Christmas songs.  It’s time to start stocking up on wines to celebrate with friends and family.  Sparkling wines are often associated with the holidays.  For some people, a nice fortified wine, like a port wine is also appreciated…

I have two Pinot Noir wines from St. Hubertus & Oak Bay Estate Winery to tell you about today.  One is from 2019 and the other is 2020.  Look closely at the labels.  Can you spot two differences between these two wines, besides the year?  One difference is the wine on the right is a Reserve level wine. The second…

Beaufort Vineyard & Estate Winery is a small family-run winery (by Sylie Senay and Rolland Tanguay and their son, Alex Guertin) in Courtney – Comox on Vancouver Island.  I had not heard of the winery, but as I was nearby I thought I would check-in. The winery is certified organic and also follows regenerative and sustainable agriculture.  They grow 10…

Rose wine with its fresh acidity and bright red fruit flavours works well with many food pairings. I decided to try pairing a bottle of Chateau La Coste 2021 Rosé from Provence, France, with a slow-smoked bbq pork shoulder I cooked using my BBQ. The pork shoulder was covered in a dry rub made with brown sugar, salt, pepper, smoked paprika,…

The Canada Day long weekend celebration is on with picnics and bbqs and generally getting together with friends and family.  Enjoying this scene with BC wine would make it even better in my opinion.  Below is a list of BC wines I tasted recently that I think would be nice to have this long weekend.  Enjoy. A Few Suggested BC…

I have two more apple ciders for you from Creek & Gully Cider in Penticton; their Fortuna 2020 and Goldie 2019.  PACS Certified Organic apples are used by Creek & Gully.  Fortuna is made with equal parts Red Delicious, Spartan, Braeburn, and Salish apples. I have not heard of Salish apples before so checked online.  According to BC Tree Fruits,…

What do you know about certified organic wines?  Do you only have to not spray the grapes with synthetic pesticides and herbicides or is there more to it?  How do you know if a wine is made with organically grown grapes?  Your best method to figure out if a wine is certified organic is if there is a certification symbol…

As promised, with the start of summer and summer sunshine, I opened up two bottles of apple cider by Creek & Gully Cider from Penticton. I have their Creek & Gully Newtown Granny 2020 and their Pink Lady 2020 made from organically grown Granny Smith + Newtown-Pippin and Pink Lady apples respectively. Both ciders are sparkling made via pet-nat method….