Category: terroir

It has been a long voyage of discovery for me to find out what type of relationship Riesling grapes have with the soils of BC, or as some may say the terroir of the area.  As mentioned in previous articles, it started with the idea, then contacting all BC wineries that produce a Riesling wine, to ask for a sample…

With summer holidays and then the extended power outage due to the wind storm this past weekend, I have finally finished tasting through all the 2013-14 vintages of BC Riesling that I received from BC wineries.  Thank you all.  My next step is to enter all my tasting notes into a database.  The database will be broken down by primary…

I am Terroir.  I have been thinking about this for quite a while.  The thought has percolated from the sun that has shone on my head, percolating through my brain, through my veins, mixing with the air that fills my lungs, and reaching my toes, where the roots have grown into the ground I stand.  Terroir is not a new…

Chile is a fascinating country, with climate and terrain that vary from the Atacama desert in the north to glaciers in Patagonia to the south, and everything in between!  From Wikipedia I learned that by surface 80% of South America’s glaciers lie in Chile.  Then there are the Andes Mountains, which controls/modifies the weather coming in from the Pacific Ocean.  With…

Bartier Scholefield‘s slogan is “Wine is Narrative“, which I agree it is, at least maybe for boutique wineries, sourcing grapes from a small region.  In my previous article, BC Has a Wine Story, I talked about the story that wine tells through the terroir that the vines were planted and the grapes ripened. Bartier Scholefield’s story comes from the Summerland…

BC‘s wine story, just like all other wine regions, is heavily dependent upon it’s terroir.  You may have heard of the term terroir, but what does it mean, and what is BC’s wine story? What is Terroir? Terroir is a many splendid thing!  Depending on who you ask, you may get many different answers, but all the answers share one…

The Vancouver International Wine Festival has come and gone, but memories of the event still run through my head.  One event that I think about was the Chateau Olivier dinner at Le Gavroche downtown.  If you have not been to Le Gavroche, it is a small 2 story building located at 1616 Alberni St.  It has that small restaurant charm.  I…

I admit that I do not know much about the wineries in the Olympic Peninsula, Washington State, but I decided to make a trip out there to find out more about these wineries. One winery that I visited, and had a very interesting and informative time was Camaraderie Cellars in Port Angeles, WA. I spent part of an afternoon with…

In Part 1 of my Tasting at M. Chapoutier, I introduced you to the winery and my view standing on the Hermitage hill overlooking other surround appellations. It was an excellent tour of the Hermitage vineyard, followed by an extensive tasting of their wines.  In Part 1, I gave you my tasting notes about Chapoutier’s Tradition level of wines.  And…

One of my overall favourite wineries in the world is M. Chapoutier.  Like Domaine Huet, that I wrote about earlier, M. Chapoutier, is also a biodynamic winery.  I arrived at the winery around 10:30am.  Already hot and sunny in the Rhone Valley.  I was met by Mr. Samuel “Sam” Boissy.  To better understand the wines I would soon be tasting,…