Category: Sauvignon Blanc

This was my first dinner to attend at the Vancouver International Wine Festival.  Justin Seidenfeld, Senior Vice President of Winemaking & Winegrowing, of Rodney Strong Wine Estates spoke at the dinner providing us insights into the excellent wines that they brought to pour at this dinner. This dinner was hosted at Riley’s Fish & Steak, providing us both seafood, beef,…

With Dry January almost finished, I tried two lower-alcohol wines from New Zealand’s Kim Crawford Wines.  I received their Illuminate Sauvignon Blanc 2023 and Rose 2023.  Both wines are bottled at 7% alcohol.  How did they get the wines down to 7%?  Most wines that are fermented dry are in the range of 11-14%.  From the winery, “‘Spinning Cone’ technology…

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…

Wineries change hands as the original owners decide to either retire or otherwise move on.  The new owners then have to live up to or surpass the reputation of that winery.  I was invited to a winemaker’s dinner at Provence Marinaside with the winery being BC’s Fairview Cellars. Fairview Cellars was taken over by husband and wife team, Danielle and…

You may not have heard of Jean-Claude Mas but his family began growing grapes in the south of France in 1892.  Jean-Claude gained experience in the wine business and education around the world, coming back to the family business when he inherited his father’s vineyards in Pézénas of 35 hectares.  In 2000 he created Les Domaines Paul Mas from these…

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…

After visiting Cannon Estate Winery, my next Fraser Valley winery stop was at Singletree Winery, which is only a few minutes away.  Thank you to Tourism Abbotsford for setting this meeting up for me.  I met with Debbie Etsell from Singletree who poured me a selection of their wines, while I sat in one of their cabanas overlooking the vineyard….

When we talk about BC wine, many people think about the Okanagan, which does have a majority of our vineyards and wineries.  But, there are other regions across BC with wineries.  The Fraser Valley around Abbotsford is one of those areas.  Tourism Abbotsford helped organize a trip for me to visit a few wineries and a cidery so that I…

2023 was a tough year for Okanagan wineries.  Not because of forest fires, but because of the cold winter weather that killed between 34 – 56% of the vineyard vines.  The growing season was quite warm and resulted in general with faster grape maturation and harvest.  A quick harvest due to summer heat typically means that the grapes are not…

It’s time for a short vacation to visit my family in Alberta.  I decided to bring along two bottles of BC wine to share with them and also spread the word about our wonderful wines.  The two wines I brought were: Okanagan Crush Pad’s Narrative XC Sparkling 2022 and Township 7’s Blue Terrace Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc 2023.  Let me tell…