Category: Semillon

Update 2025:  With the BCGEU strike on, purchasing BC wines is a little harder to do.  There are still private stores around, mainly in the Vancouver area or Victoria, but some scattered throughout the province where you can find BC wines.  BC wines are also a bit more scarce due to the 2023 and 2024 harvests, in which interior wineries…

Do you collect wines?  Sometimes a few bottles get pushed to the bottom and you forget about them till one day, several years later, you are searching for a wine and you rediscover these aged bottles of wine.  That did not happen to me, but I do age my wines and sometimes try to save some for a special occasion. …

Did you know that Monday, August 7, 2023, is BC Day? On this day, which I assume will be wonderfully sunny, would be great to celebrate with a bottle(s) of BC wine. I have two sparkling wines from Hester Creek Estate Winery that are great on the patio with nibbles as I tried it out myself. I have their Hester…

In my previous article, I talked about the top wines that I tasted at the International Festival Tasting Room during VanWineFest 2023.  Those were wines that are in my 4.5 – 5 star range. But as I checked my notes, I saw that I had many enjoyable wines in the 4 – 4.5 star range.  Below are my tasting notes…

It has been four years since I last attended Taste Washington in Seattle.  COVID shut down the event, but now Taste Washington is back and maybe even better.  This is the event where you can taste the wide variety of wines made across Washington state, without having to drive yourself.  Winery focus seems to have changed.  During my tasting time,…

I have two more sparkling wines for you to consider for your holiday purchase. The two sparklers are from BC’s Hester Creek Estate Winery. The Hester Creek Ti Amo 2021 is a Charmat method (think Prosecco) sparkling wine, while the other wine is the Hester Creek Old Vine Brut 2019 made from Estate Pinot Blanc fruit using the Traditional Method…

I have been a fan of Mt. Boucherie Estate Winery‘s wines for many years.  I still have a bottle of their 2003 Summit Reserve Semillon I purchased at the winery that I hope to open this year with friends.  On my recent trip to Kelowna, I messaged their winemaker, Jeff Hundertmark, to see if I could meet with him.  Not…

2021 was a year of extreme weather conditions in BC, which had an impact on BC grapes and wine production.  Temperature records were shattered in many regions.  I’ve been told that Kelowna, Kamloops, Osoyoos, and Lillooet were among 60 cities that broke temperature records.  The heat dome in the summer causes grapevines to shut down until the weather cools off. …

Top Drop Vancouver 2022 was on May 10 and 11.  Part of the event was a large tasting room, with 40 wineries presenting a selection of their wines.  There was also to my great happiness, cider as well, which I will get to later in this article.  Top Drop Canada puts on this event yearly (except during the COVID shutdown),…

Have you heard of Frind Estate Winery before?  They are one of the newer wineries, located in West Kelowna.  Eric Von Krosigk, their winemaker, comes with lots of great knowledge.  He is originally from Vernon. In 1983, Eric moved to Germany to apprentice and work at wineries in the Mosel and fell in love with sparkling wines. In 1991, Eric…