Tag: carmenere

Beside the theme country every year in the Festival Tasting room of the Vancouver International Wine Festival, there are all the other wineries from countries around the world offering their wines for you to try.  Below are 15 wines that I thought were excellent.  Some may be in BC liquor stores and others may have only been available during the Festival….

This past year I tasted a tremendous number of wines from around the world, but some wines really resonated with me.  It may have been the great balance of fruit, sugar, acidity for a white wine, or the fruit, tannins and minerality in a red wine, or something else. Something that made the wine stand above the other wines.  Could…

Have you ever read the winemaker’s notes that is sometimes on the back label of a wine bottle or from the winery’s website then try to see if you can pick up the same aromas and flavours?  Or even more challenging, to taste the wine first on your own; making your own notes, then reading what the winemaker says about…

The 2015 New World Winery of the Year from Wine Enthusiast magazine is Santa Carolina Winery from Chile.  To say they are New World though is quite interesting as the winery has been in existence since 1875.  But of course, we are discussing more of New World style in wines. Chile is blessed with the perfect climate for wine production…

Washington State has a plethora of wineries, in part due to its wider spans of flat or rolling hills and valleys, and less mountain coverage compared to BC.  According to washingtonwine.org there are “…50,000 acres (20,234 hectares) of vines and more than 850 wineries.”  In BC, the interior mountain ranges really limit the number of vineyards and wineries that we…

In conjunction with TED2016, held here in Vancouver, the Wines of Chile participated by bringing some wines for us to try.  These wines though represent sustainable initiatives taken by these wineries. In Chile there is a sustainability code that a winery can be certified for through a 3-tier qualification process.  While not all Chilean wineries are sustainable, the goal is…

Chile, eventhough it has been making wine since the 1500’s, still holds surprises.  One more recent surprise was that some of the Merlot grapes that they thought they were growing was actually the Bordeaux variety, Carmenere; a grape that was long forgotten in Bordeaux as it was too difficult to ripen.  Carmenere and Merlot look very similar but ripen differently. …

Over the past year, I’ve had the opportunity to try many wines from around the world, in many different styles.  Out of my recommendations from the year, here are my picks that I think will make the holiday season more festive.  I tried to pick wines from most price points and all corners of the world. I also only picked…

Have you ever heard of a portfolio tasting?  Most people probably have not, unless you attend wine tastings on a fairly regular basis.  A portfolio tasting is when a wine agency, like Select Wines & Spirits, pours their selection of wine (and spirits) in a casual (usually) walk-about fashion, where you can taste the wines and talk with the rep…

Vineyards surround Chile’s capital of Santiago. In the 19th century, Santiago’s rich moved to the valley around Santiago to try their hand as a landowner. They planted vineyards and built large estates. Despite Santiago’s growth and rapid consumption of arable land the Maipo Valley still thrives. It lies between the Andes and the coastal mountains, which keep the climate dry…