Enjoy Wine, Food, and Travel with Karl MyWinePal
The new Lunar New Year of the Fire Horse starts on February 17, 2026. In a previous article on mywinepal.com, I listed wines that have a horse theme. One of the wines I listed was BC’s Haywire Winery Lunar Red 2022. I received a bottle of this wine to review and from my tasting notes, I think it should pair…
It is always a treat at a winemaker’s dinner to be able to talk with the winemaker who gives us some insight into how the wines we are drinking together were made and any challenges they encountered. I recently attended a winemaker dinner at Provence Marinaside, featuring Jessica Otting from the Niagara region’s Tawse Winery, who gave us those insights. …
Here are two more delicious wines that you should buy and enjoy right now while we are drowning in our winter rains, or snow, in BC. The two wines from the Okanagan’s Hester Creek Estate Winery are their Columbia Valley Collection Viognier 2024 (grapes coming from WA state), and their Cabernet Sauvignon 2022 (grapes coming from estate fruit). I bought…
Every year in the deep, darkness and pouring rain of winter in Vancouver, we have Dine Out Vancouver, to try to get us out and excited about food, wine, and hopefully life. I booked a dine out experience at Provence Marinaside. A top notch restaurant in Vancouver, serving excellent French cuisine. Here are a few pictures of what I enjoyed…
I have two Chardonnay from Lillooet’s Fort Berens Estate Winery. One wine, made in 2023 comes from their estate grapes, while their 2024 Chardonnay grapes come from WA state, with the wine made in Lillooet. Lillooet, as well as the Okanagan, was hit hard by the 2024 winter cold snap, killing many grape vines, necessitating the purchase of grapes from…
2022 was a super vintage for the Okanagan wineries. Hester Creek Estate Winery, as part of this epic vintage, vinified their first Super Tuscan style wine, named UNDICI. To taste UNDICI is to taste a little bit of Italy. UNDICI joins The Judge and Garland as part of their Origin Series wines. Together these three wines reflect the beautiful terroir…
Chinese (Lunar) New Year 2026 is the Year of the Fire Horse, starting on February 17, 2026 until February 5, 2027. The Horse embodies enthusiasm, speed and fieriness, bringing a year focused on bold moves and exploration. The Year of the Horse brings themes of freedom, action, and momentum, encouraging bold moves, new projects, travel, and social connection, fuelled by…
2023 was a little challenging for BC wineries with reduced yields (~34 to 56 percent loss) coming from a winter cold snap. Harvest was a little later as the growing season was a bit cooler, with a dry Fall. How did that affect the wines in the Okanagan? I have a small sample size of two wines to review for…
We have had some turmoil in Canada and in BC for wines in 2025. Many BC interior wineries suffered from the 2024 cold snap causing them to either not produce any wine in 2024, or importing grapes from across the border, or from Ontario. We also had the removal of USA wines from BC government liquor stores. Overall, we had…
Today I have two wines for you from south Okanagan’s Gold Hill Winery; their Gold Hill Winery Sauvignon Blanc 2022 and Charisma Cabernet Merlot 2021. Charisma is their second label. Charisma wines curates charming approachable everyday drinking wines. There were scattered forest fires in the BC interior in 2021, but the winemakers at that time did not notice any smoke taint…
Video Guide Uncorks the Story of British Columbia Wines. Buy Now.
