Tag: BCWine

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,…

Road 13 Vineyards has been producing award-winning wines for quite a while.  They were awarded the Winery of the Year 2018 by WineAlign.  In November 2018 Road 13 Vineyards were purchased by Mission Hill Family Estate from Kelowna.  So these wines will be one of the last vintages produced by the original Road 13 Vineyards family for you to try….

This is the third release from Winemaker’s CUT from Oliver, BC by Michal and Martina Mosny.  I congratulate them on their dedication to these small production wines and the quality that they deliver in the bottle.  They undertake sustainable farming, hand harvest their grapes, adhere to zero pesticides, low sulphur use, and let the wines develop naturally to express the characteristics of…

The Canada Day long weekend celebration is this weekend.  Picnics and bbq and generally getting together with friends and family will happen.  Enjoying this scene with Canadian wine would make it even better in my opinion.  Below is a list of Canadian wines I tasted over the past year that I think would be fun to have this long weekend. …

The CheckMate Artisanal Winery is a project by the von Mandl family, who established the Mission Hill Family Estate Winery.  Mission Hill won the Top Chardonnay in the World in 1994 at the International Wine & Spirit Competition in London.  Their Chardonnay and Merlot vines, some which are now over 40 years old, are being used by CheckMate. As in…

Riesling, Pinot Gris and Viognier were prominent in this BC VQA Spring wine release tasting.  It is not surprising as white wine releases are more common in the Spring while more red wines are released in the Fall.  Viognier though I think made a bigger showing this year than in past years, and showed well.  Lots of fruit flavour and…

Keeping in the theme of the 2018 vintage release, I recently posted on Instagram my review of Haywire‘s Baby Bub 2018, and promised a fuller review with rating here.  And here it is! The Haywire Baby Bub 2018 is 375ml so you and your significant other can easily drink this wine to start or finish an evening.  This Charmat method…

As BC is large with a cooler coastal climate and a hotter, drier interior, our yearly vintages can cover a range from marginal to exceptional.  Luckily we have been closer to the exceptional end of the vintage spectrum these last years.  How was the 2018 vintage?  I attended a media preview of the 2018 vintage and had 4 winemakers from…

It is the Easter weekend for many people around the world, and besides the religious celebrations, enjoying meals with family and friends is also a big part.  The BC VQA Spring wine release kicked off this week, but the wines may not yet be at your local bottle shop or BC Liquor Store.  Here are 5 BC VQA wines that…

Okanagan Falls, located between Penticton and Oliver, holds, I think, a sweet spot for growing grapes and making wine.  It has long warm days and cool nights, which allow the grapes to reach full ripeness as well as keep their acidity.  The Okanagan Falls Skaha Winery Association, consisting of 14 wineries, with 32 vineyards, held a tasting recently, which I attended.  In…