MyWinePal

Along with the Bourgogne seminar I attended, there was also a Trade tasting featuring 19 Domaines, Maisons and Caves Coopératives. Like the seminar, this Trade tasting featured village wines that too often go unnoticed.  They reflect the terroirs that shaped them and offer an unbeatable quality-price ratio, not to mention wonderful tasting pleasure.  Here are my favourite wines from this…

Holly Frey and Maria Trimarchi are two podcasters with a show called Criminalia which tries to dig in and take a closer look at some of history’s crimes and criminals from the ancient past, Egyptian times, to the near present.  The first year of their podcast covered “female poisoners” and as cocktail lovers they thought, why not enjoy a cocktail…

Here are my final two Argentinean Malbec wines that I would like to present to you in preparation for Malbec World Day, April 17, 2025.  The first wine is Doña Paula Estate High Altitude Malbec 2023 and the second wine is Luigi Bosca Wines’ Malbec 2022. You may remember that I wrote about the Luigi Bosca Wines’ La Linda Old…

Did you know that Canada is a very important market for French, Bourgogne, wines?  We are the third largest market in volume and sixth largest market in term of value.  The Canadian Bourgogne market is weighted toward white wines, particularly from Chablis. Our seminar today introduced us to some Bourgogne wine regions that we may not have much familiarity, but…

Opposites attract, at times.  Other times, it is great to enjoy their diversity.  I’m taking the latter track in this tasting of a low-alcohol Australian Chardonnay and a fuller-bodied Malbec from Argentina.  Some people are looking for low-alcohol, and lower calorie, wines, while others want to enjoy the full-body and richness of other wines.  I have Yalumba’s Y Series Lighter…

We had another successful year at the Vancouver International Wine Festival for 2025.  There was some controversy with western USA states being the theme region this year, but I appreciated that these western states, California, Oregon, and Washington, supplied BC Okanagan wineries that asked with grapes so that they could produce wines for the 2024 harvest.  It is good to…

The Vancouver International Wine Festival (VanWineFest) has been a staple in the city’s wine scene since its inception in 1979. Originally a one-day event at the Hotel Vancouver featuring just a single winery – Robert Mondavi – the festival has since grown into one of North America’s largest and most prestigious wine festivals. Every year, it attracts wineries from around…

The wines of BC and the rest of the world, excluding the USA, were the last of the wines I tasted at the International Festival Tasting Room during VanWineFest 2025.     Read through my wine tasting notes below and if you find some wines that spark your interest, check out your local BC Liquor store, some private wine shops,…

From my recent tastings of white and sparkling wines from west coast USA during VanWineFest 2025, a few key trends emerge. Chardonnay remains a dominant varietal, showcasing a range of styles from richer, rounder textures with lower acidity in Paso Robles to fresher, more mineral-driven expressions from Oregon’s Willamette Valley. There is a clear emphasis on texture and mouthfeel, with…

I have two more Malbec wines from Argentina to tell you about in preparation for Malbec World Day on April 17, 2025. These two wines are both 2021 vintage, although one is listed as Reserva, it may have some additional claims to older vines or longer aging, while the other is noted as a single vineyard wine. The two wines…