Tag: Amphora

New Australian wine has arrived on our shores after a hiatus, in part due to COVID.  I attended a tasting of these new arrivals.  Some are new to BC while other wines are new vintages of wines that we already enjoy.  I missed out on a seminar, so have no additional pearls of wisdom for you, but here are my…

I received recommendations from a friend to visit Rosewood Winery & Meadery while I was visiting the Niagara region.  I was curious to attend, in part because I had not tried mead.  This winery, started in 2000, is owned by the Roman family and originated from Ukraine.  They are also the only winery in Ontario with a license to produce…

The history of using amphora and concrete tanks for winemaking dates back centuries. Amphorae, large clay vessels with narrow necks and handles, were widely used in ancient civilizations such as the Greeks and Romans for storing and transporting wine. These vessels provided an ideal environment for fermentation and aging, as the porous nature of clay allowed for a gentle exchange…

Have you ever tried an “orange wine” before?  An orange wine is a wine made with white grapes that have extended skin contact like is done for red grapes to extract colour and tannins from those grapes.  While white grape skin does not have much colour to extract, you do get some orange colour plus tannins from the skins.  At…

When I am on vacation, if there is a winery nearby, I will usually drop by.  In this case, 40 Knots Winery is in Comox, just 30 minutes away from Campbell River, so I popped in to say hi to Brenda Hetman-Craig, Owner of 40 Knots, and to sample some of her wines on their patio.  This was my first…

Clay and concrete vessels are two more historical materials that have been used to ferment grape must into wine. But both have been having a comeback in the last few years. I have two wines from Okanagan Crush Pad. The Haywire Pinot Noir 2020 is fermented in concrete and stainless steel vessels, and Narrative Syrah Viognier 2018 is fermented in…

Here are two BC wines you may want to consider serving with meals or with appetizers before your main meal during the holidays. Blue Grouse Estate Winery Estate Pinot Noir 2019 and Pinot Gris 2020.  The grapes are harvested from the winery’s vineyard on Vancouver Island.  The grapes on the estate are 100% organically farmed using no/minimal till cover crop…

This summer has gone haywire with all the forest fires. I hope they get under control soon. But Haywire wine is something we can all enjoy now. I received a bottle of Okanagan Crush Pad‘s Haywire Garnet Valley Ranch Pinot Noir 2018 and their Narrative Malbec 2018 to review. Both are wines that age in concrete or clay amphora and…

During the Wines of Portugal tasting that I was able to attend recently I had the opportunity to also have a short interview with Filipa Anunciação, the senior area manager from Wines of Portugal.  It was interesting to hear her answers to my questions.  I had a chance to speak with Nuno Vales from Wines of Portugal in 2014 and…

Top Drop Vancouver is a collaboration between Vancouver’s wine industry, that focus on smaller boutique and terroir-focused wineries from BC and around the world, and offers these wines to taste at a public event, this year held at the Roundhouse in Yaletown on September 8.  I was fortunate to be able to attend this walk-about event, with a glass in…