Category: Pinot Gris

I have two BC wines for you today.  One is from Mayhem Wines in the Okanagan Valley and the other from the Robin Ridge Winery in the Similkameen Valley.  I thought these two wines may show off some fresh BC fruit flavours and go well with holiday get-togethers.  Let me tell you about them. My Wine Tasting Notes Mayhem Wines…

Kevin Judd from the Greywacke winery in Marlborough, New Zealand, may not sound familiar to many readers, but Kevin is one of the pioneer winemakers in Marlborough.  He was born in England and raised in Australia where he studied winemaking. In 1983 he moved to New Zealand and was the founding winemaker at Cloudy Bay, which all New Zealand wine…

I and other Trade individuals were invited to Discover Extraordinary Italian Wines.  Some of the wineries at the event were searching for local representation, while other wineries already have an agent and their wines are in BC Liquor stores or private wine shops and restaurants.  I’ve put a “*” beside those wineries that have local representation, so you should be…

During my week-long trip to Penticton, I took a one-day side trip to Kelowna to see the Farmer’s Market and to visit Spearhead Winery. I’ve been a fan of their Pinot Noir and Chardonnay wines for many years. They recently received recognition as WineAlign 2024’s Best Performing Small Winery. I also appreciate the winemaking skill of Grant Stanley who was…

I have two white wines to tell you about from BC’s Blue Mountain Vineyard and Cellars. The winery is located in the Okanagan Falls area, which has the perfect climate for Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. One of the wines I tasted is Blue Mountain’s Reserve Cuvée Chardonnay 2022 while the other wine is their Blue Mountain Estate Cuvée Pinot Gris…

Recently VinsAlsace visited Vancouver and brought a range of their Alsatian wines from sparkling, light-bodied and dry wines to full-body, thicker, rich-flavoured wines. They wanted to let us know in this Trade tasting that the variation in the rocks and soil brings different personalities to their wines.  The soils are quite varied with granite, limestone, marl-limestone, clay-marl, marl-limestone-sandstone, sandstone, volcanic,…

The first official Naramata Bench winery I visited on my weekend trip to the Okanagan was Bench 1775 Winery. This winery has gone through a few transformations.  I will let the winery tell you their story, in their own words, “Bench 1775 (formerly known as Paradise Ranch Wines Corp.) is one of the only two Okanagan Wineries producing icewine and…

The second winery on the Naramata Bench I visited was Howling Bluff Estate Winery.  This is a small family-run winery, starting with the land purchase in 2003, that specializes in Pinot Noir wines, although they also produce other quality wines. I met with co-owner and winemaker, Luke Smith, sitting at the tasting room patio, where we chatted about the latest…

Across the vineyard from Meyer Family Vineyards in Okanagan Falls, is their sister winery, Mayhem Wines created by JAK Meyer and his sister, Terry. The grapes come from the Anarchist Mountain Vineyard in Osoyoos as well as vineyards on the Naramata Bench and Oliver.   While tasting the wines below, winemaker Ajay Chavan came out to talk about his wines. He…

Day Two of my visit to the Fraser Valley had me at the Mt. Lehman Winery.  I met with co-owner and winemaker, Vern Siemens, who tasted his wines together with me, discussed his winemaking methods, his favourite varietals, and much more.   The grapes are I believe all from the estate; the white grapes for sure, but do not remember exactly…