Wines of Chile – Terroir Seminar 2013 @WoC_CanadaWest

 mywinepal  June 4, 2013

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…

Enjoy Food, Wine and Music at Vancouver Fan Club

 mywinepal  June 1, 2013  1 Comment on Enjoy Food, Wine and Music at Vancouver Fan Club

Recently I received an invitation to experience the food, wine, and music of Vancouver FanClub in downtown Vancouver.  Loving all three things, I readily accepted.  My guest attending with me was Dianne Chow, who is well known in the tweeting and blogging sphere here in Vancouver.  Walking into Vancouver FanClub, I was transported to New Orleans, with the interior brick…

Gastown Wine Crawl – Exciting Sips from Seacove Group

 mywinepal  May 27, 2013

This past week, the Seacove Group, a wine agency located in Vancouver, brought over 5 winery principals from Europe to show us a range of their wines.  Strolling through the cobbled Gastown streets, between restaurants, one could imagine you were in Europe.  The winery principals and the participating restaurants, hosting the principals are: Champagne de Vonage, Epernay, France,  Mr. Gilles…

Enjoying the Latest SpierHead Winery White Wines

 mywinepal  May 18, 2013  2 Comments on Enjoying the Latest SpierHead Winery White Wines

Did you know that SpierHead Winery from South East Kelowna won the “Best New Winery” at the 2012 BC Wine Awards, and that their Pinot Noir was ranked #1 by the judges at the 2012 Canadian Wine Awards?  Well now you know.  I’ve been in contact with SpierHead for a year now, tasting their wines and telling people about their…

Whidbey Island – Laid back West Coast Wineries

 mywinepal  May 12, 2013

Living on the west coast, we get spoiled with the mild weather, access to beaches, nearby mountains, sailing, enjoying the beach, and more.  One of our more recent perks has been access to wineries, and on a recent trip to Washington state, I ventured to Whidbey Island, and sampled wines from some of the wineries situated there. Where is Whidbey…

The Latest Releases from Le Vieux Pin and La Stella Wineries

 mywinepal  May 11, 2013

With every season, there is either grape growing, harvesting, vinification, aging, or bottling of wine. Recently I was happy to do some tasting in Vancouver of recently bottled wines from Le Vieux Pin and La Stella wineries.  These two wineries from South Okanagan offer different styles of wines; Le Vieux Pin being produced in a more restrained French style, while…

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New Zealand Wines to Impress at the NZ Wine Fair 2013

 mywinepal  May 3, 2013  2 Comments on New Zealand Wines to Impress at the NZ Wine Fair 2013

New Zealand, a land with maritime and mountain plateau climates nearby, each producing wines from the same grapes with different styles, flavours, and aromas.  Unique terroir.    For such a small island, they produce a significant amount of wine.  The vineyards cover 34,270 hectares in 2012; growing at least 25 different varieties of grapes (more than Pinot Noir and Sauvignon…

Vancouver Magazine 24th Annual Restaurant Awards

The Winners of Vancouver Magazine 24th Annual Restaurant Awards

 mywinepal  April 24, 2013

Starting a restaurant is hard.  Running a restaurant is hard. Whether you are the owner, chef, wait staff, or any combination of these, you are dedicated, you love food, and what you do.  This week was the Vancouver Magazine 24th Annual Restaurant Awards in Vancouver, celebrating our restaurants, chefs, and staff who have been tantalizing our tastebuds over the past…

My Latest Tasting Notes For Bartier Scholefield Wines

 mywinepal  April 21, 2013

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…

The Inaugural Okanagan Falls Winery Association Wine Tasting

 mywinepal  April 20, 2013

04.16.2013.  That’s the date that the Okanagan Falls Winery Association (OFWA) launched their Inaugural “The Heart of Wine Country Comes to Vancouver” event to show their wines to the wine trade, which includes wine writers like me, but as well wine shop and restaurant owners and staff.  If you ask someone in Vancouver where is the Naramata Bench, they could…