Tag: bcvqa

In BC we love to celebrate the success of our wineries both locally and abroad.  Monte Creek Winery in Kamloops is one winery in our newer wine regions, the Thompson Valley, that is having success and would like to share that wine experience with you.  Here is the announcement of their latest wine awards, and how you can purchase their…

Spearhead Winery produces very nice Pinot Noir wines that I have had the pleasure of reviewing over many years.  I received a bottle of their latest release the Spearhead Pinot Noir Cuvée 2018 to review.  They used Pinot Noir clones Pommard, Dijon Clones 777, 828, 667, and 115, and Mt Eden in the production of their Cuvée blend.  The exact…

It’s Fall now.  We can’t hide from it, so time to embrace it with red wines.  I’m tasting Church & State Wines, Cabernet Franc and Merlot 2017, with the grapes coming from the Okanagan Valley.  2017 had a hot summer with smoke from forest fires starting in July.  Fortunately the smoke did not affect the grapes as it was early…

Why 2 Reviews of 4 Wines? I received a shipment of wines from Gold Hill Winery in Oliver, BC, over the summer and I’ve been tasting them two wines at a time and writing my tasting notes for you.  Twice during my tasting, one of the two bottles had a defect, so the wine was not review-able.  When you are…

Here are two more white Rhone Valley grape varieties that are made by Church & State Wines.  The Viognier and Roussanne grapes come from their Coyote Bowl and Bella vineyards in the south Okanagan.  The soils in these vineyards consist of sand and gravel.  How do these soil types affect wine’s aromas and flavours?  Sand gives fruitiness, elegance, less colour,…

Today I’m tasting two white grape varieties from Alsace and from the Rhone Valley, but grown in BC!  Church & State Wines grows both Pinot Gris (Alsace) and Marsanne (Rhone) grapes.  And have done them very well.  Church & State Wines originated on Vancouver Island near Victoria, and later added a second winery in Oliver in the south Okanagan.  The…

On my recent trip to Kamloops I stopped at Harper’s Trail, Monte Creek Ranch, and Privato Vineyard and Winery.  At Privato I was able to spend a few quick minutes to try the latest releases of wines with their host Kristin.  I tasted through several of their wines with Kristin last August.  This time I tasted their 2019 Rose, Gewurztraminer,…

Are you seeing the forest or the trees? An airliner or a bird’s eye view? General or more specific? That is what I wondered as I tasted these two bottles of Pinot Gris by Okanagan Crush Pad’s Haywire Wines from Summerland, BC. that were sent to me to review. The first wine, Haywire Pinot Gris 2019, has grapes sourced from…

What were you doing in 2000?  If it was just before January 1, you were probably worrying about all our computers and anything running with a computer chip and code stops running when the clocks turned to “00”.  Luckily we all survived.  This was a rare event. Another rare event is vintage Champagne; that is Champagne made with a year…

Icewine from Canada is famous around the world. While we did not invent Icewine, we are recognized as a world leader in Icewine production.  It is amazing that you are able to get juice out of frozen grapes and the resulting nectar in your glass. Test your BC Icewine knowledge with these 4 questions.  No googling! If you like quizzes,…