Tag: bcvqa

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,…

Every Fall we have the Colours Fall Release of BC VQA wines.  Over the last year, what changes has there been to our vineyards, grape varieties, and the number of wineries? Comparing the tasting booklet from both years by the BC Wine Institute we know: there are 10 more wineries, and 299 more acres of vineyards. that Merlot, Pinot Noir,…