Enjoy Wine, Food, and Travel with Karl MyWinePal
Now that you have some background about the BC winery situation for 2025 from part one of Brent Gushowaty’s article, here is the second part of the article I have for you by Brent when you are at a BC winery’s tasting room. Your Tasting Room Manners – Before You Arrive Group Think For most wineries, large groups arriving unannounced…
Have you started touring BC wine country this summer? I have a two part article about touring BC wine country in 2025, written by Brent Gushowaty. In part one, he covers: The impact of the 2023/24 freeze Introduction of 2024 “replacement wines” Evolving winery business models and tasting innovations Part Two will focus on the practical aspects for the casual…
Many people are familiar with grape varieties like Chardonnay and Pinot Gris, but there is a whole world of exciting and distinctive grape varieties waiting to be explored. Albariño, Viognier, and Grüner Veltliner each bring unique characteristics and flavours that set them apart from the usual white wine offerings. Whether it’s Albariño’s refreshing citrus and coastal minerality, Viognier’s lush stone…
The BC coastal wineries and the Fraser Valley had a completely different winemaking experience compared to the interior of BC in 2024. With the cold weather winter snap in the Interior, most of the vitis vinifera vines died so many winemakers had to source grapes from outside of BC; Many chose Washington and Oregon states. The coastal and Fraser Valley…
My last stop on my two-day tour of the Fraser Valley was at Taves Estate Cidery and their associated family farm. You can easily spend a whole day here if you have children as they will be fascinated by all the farm animals. They can pet and feed rabbits, goats, and more. I enjoyed petting the animals, and taking a…
When we talk about BC wine, many people think about the Okanagan, which does have a majority of our vineyards and wineries. But, there are other regions across BC with wineries. The Fraser Valley around Abbotsford is one of those areas. Tourism Abbotsford helped organize a trip for me to visit a few wineries and a cidery so that I…
If you look up the definition of “delicious” in the dictionary, you may see “Seaside Pearl Lover’s Lane Merlot 2020“. Seaside Pearl Farmgate Winery, located in the Fraser Valley has been producing top-quality wines and more people should know about them and enjoy their wines. The grapes for this particular wine come from Okanagan Valley. This winery makes small-production, top-quality…
In the late Fall, I interviewed a few BC winemakers about their 2022 harvest, but the wines were still fermenting in tanks, barrels or other vessels. The winemakers sounded optimistic, thanks to the warm Fall weather. But how would the wines taste? This we explored with the following winemakers at the BC Vintage 2022 media preview: Laurent Fadanni, Whispering Horse…
The British Columbia Governor General Wine Awards results came out this week and I am pleased to see that four wines from Seaside Pearl Farmgate Winery picked up Gold and Silver medals. I am tasting their Silver award-winning Interurban Cabernet Foch 2020. I am also tasting their Royal Engineers Petit Verdot 2020 (Their 2019 Petit Verdot was in the competition…
Spring is officially here so time to celebrate the sun and get out to the patio, beach, or park. With many locations in Vancouver allowing wine to be enjoyed you may want to consider bringing along a few cans of Seaside Pearl Farmgate Winery, “Daffodils to go” sparkling wine. It is 250ml so not a problem to finish by yourself….
Video Guide Uncorks the Story of British Columbia Wines. Buy Now.
