MyWinePal

With Dry January almost finished, I tried two lower-alcohol wines from New Zealand’s Kim Crawford Wines.  I received their Illuminate Sauvignon Blanc 2023 and Rose 2023.  Both wines are bottled at 7% alcohol.  How did they get the wines down to 7%?  Most wines that are fermented dry are in the range of 11-14%.  From the winery, “‘Spinning Cone’ technology…

I did not consider reviewing other alcoholic beverages when I did my first Canadian Wine Trends analysis for 2021 consumption but am rectifying it by having an article for 2024.  In particular, I am covering craft beer, craft cider, and cocktails.  In my articles covering wines, the greatest volumes of queries have come from British Columbians, often followed by Quebec. …

Interest in enjoying sparkling wine on a regular basis has been increasing since people started buying prosecco.  But there is still Champagne, Cremant, Cava, Franciacorta, pet-nat, and generally termed sparkling wines from the New World.  How did sparkling wines capture Canadians’ interest in 2024?  I created graphs for various sparkling wine styles using Google Trends.  Let’s get into the graphs. …

This is my third article reviewing Canadian Wine Trends that happened over 2024.  In this article, I will review our interest in Old World (e.g. Europe) vs New World (e.g. North and South America) wines.  Did we get more interested in European wines? I used Google Trends to produce graphs for our interest in Old World and New World wine areas, showing…

While many people may think of full-bodied red wines for our cold winters, don’t count out lighter-bodied red wine with higher acidity and juicy bright fruit flavours.  They can brighten your day and pair nicely with a cheese plate, roast chicken, or fatty sausages.  One such wine is BC’s Robin Ridge Winery Gamay 2022.  It is also an organic wine…

This is the second of my Canadian Wine Trends 2024 articles.  I will cover our interest in red and white still varietal wines using Google Trends information.  Was there an overall upward slope (interest) or downward slope (disinterest) in a style over the year? Was there a peak at a certain time of the year? Let’s find out. Red and White…

Are you tired of drinking wines made with the same grapes?  Why not try some wines from Croatia with new grape varieties at Provence Marinaside during VanWineFest 2025?  Here is the dinner announcement with food and wine pairings.  Cheers! ~~~~~ (Vancouver, BC) – Tucked away on the eastern coast of the Adriatic is Croatia – a nation with a wine-making…

In 2022, I reviewed the 2021 wine trends across Canada, by province for different grape varieties and by regions around the world.  To do this, I used Google Trends. Google Trends.  Wikipedia describes Google Trends as “…a website by Google that analyzes the popularity of top search queries in Google Search across various regions and languages. The website uses graphs…

Here is an announcement about the VanWineFest 2025 winery dinners that go on sale, Jan 8, 2025. The Announcement Looking for an exceptional dining experience this February? VIWF winery dinners go on sale Wednesday, January 8, at 9:30 a.m. Many dinners sell out quickly, so don’t delay – get your tickets! This year, the festival features 14 spectacular dinners, including…

ASV Wines is a new California winery to me, but it has been around for several years.  Let’s welcome ASV Wines and taste their wines at VanWineFest 2025.  ASV Wines is certified or affiliated with the California Sustainable Vineyard & Winery Association (CSWA), California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF), International Featured Standard (IFS), California Association of Wine Grape Growers (CAWG) and…