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“The Hart House Restaurant really cares about their food and user experience”, I thought as I sat there on a Saturday night with my dining companion.  The white cotton patterned table-cloth, the beautifully decorated rooms, the knowledgeable servers, the beautifully plated food, all caught my attention. I came as a guest to try their Seafood Celebration Prix Fixe menu, which…

Australia is the theme country for the Vancouver International Wine Festival 2015.  But what do you know about the wineries that you will meet in the Tasting Room, at seminars, or dinners?  This, and upcoming articles written by the Australian wineries, and posted here in mywinepal.com, will help you discover these Australian wineries, so you can go to their tables…

Chile, eventhough it has been making wine since the 1500’s, still holds surprises.  One more recent surprise was that some of the Merlot grapes that they thought they were growing was actually the Bordeaux variety, Carmenere; a grape that was long forgotten in Bordeaux as it was too difficult to ripen.  Carmenere and Merlot look very similar but ripen differently. …

Kevin O’Brien is a man that is compelled to know about the terroir in the McLaren Vale of Australia, and to put that knowledge to the best use in planting vines and growing expressive fruit.  The types of rocks, which wear down to form soil, can guide the vineyard owner to plant certain types of grapes.  Certain grapes do better…

“Are ravens circling a good or a bad omen?”, Joel thought, as the black winged birds, about the size of a football, with long wingspan, and tapered wings, and each feather, like so many shiny throwing daggers silently glided above his head, this dark and gloomy evening, the copper Autumn moon just half exposed, peaking behind the gathering storm clouds…

A Bit of Argentine Wine Background Argentina is a large country that can boast over 300 sunny days a year and a dry semi-desert climate, and irrigation canals from the Andes mountains which helps them to be the 5th largest wine producer in the world.  Grapes were brought over by French, Spanish, and Italian immigrants. Believe it or not, nearly…

The first biodynamic wine I tasted was at a wine tasting at the South World Wine Society.  The topic was not biodynamic wines at all.  I do not remember the topic, other than it was red wines from Australia, and it happened that one of the bottles was from a biodynamic winery.  That wine tasted more alive and vibrant than…

I first posted this article 2 years ago, and the styles of wines that I described then, still hold for your turkey or ham Thanksgiving dinner this year.  The wine vintages from the wineries below will have changed, but these are all quality wines from quality wineries here in BC, and you should feel comfortable purchasing them at your local…

Haywire Canyonview Chardonnay 2012 is quite different from any other Okanagan Chardonnay that I can remember tasting.  I had to nose it and taste it several times.  What was it that this wine in the glass was telling me?  The aromas straight from the bottle were quite wild and different.  But before I go on to provide you with my…

A portfolio tasting is a great place for a restaurateur, liquor store staff, and wine media, like me, to find out about the latest vintages of wines, and brand new wines, for a wine agent’s portfolio.  With a change in season, for example, restaurants may want to change their cooked dishes, and to these dishes they should match up /…