Tag: Gamay Noir

Cool climate wines are where the vibrant acidity and tart fruit flavours. Citrus trending to stone fruits for white wines, and red fruits like strawberries, raspberries and red cherries.  A cool climate region to consider for wines is Vancouver Island.  There are a few wineries there, and one in particular, Blue Grouse Estate Winery in Duncan, has been producing some…

Two points that you may not have thought of, but have experienced: When you go to a restaurant, the bottles of wine are not decanted ahead of time, so you taste the wine as it is just opened. You go to a Chinese restaurant but are unsure of which wines to pair with the cuisine.  You opt for tea. The…

Buying French wine can be daunting.  The name of the grape is not seen on the bottle.  There could be the name of the village or vineyard on the bottle.  None of which probably helps many people here in Canada.  But with perseverance and a bit of knowledge you can learn a bit about a wine region, such as the…

Chinese Year of the Red Fire Monkey Chinese New Year Day of Red Monkey is on February 8, 2016. According to chinesefortunecalendar.com, “…According to Chinese Five Elements Horoscopes, Monkey contains Metal and Water. Metal is connected to gold. Water is connected to wisdom and danger. Therefore, we will deal with more financial events in the year of the Monkey. Monkey is a…

Beer and wine lovers; dog and cat lovers. Can they co-exist or appreciate each other? That latter question was tackled at the Cornucopia seminar on “Craft Beer for Wine Lovers“. I must admit that I do appreciate beer, so it was not a hard sell for me, and I think the other people in the seminar also found beers that…

Red, white, and rose wines, newly released from Okanagan Crush Pad reached my door for tasting.  Just in time for our spring and upcoming sunny summer weather.  The wines in question I received: Mike B Riesling Cabinett 2014 ($24.90) Haywire Gamay Noir Rose 2014 ($22.90) Haywire Pinot Noir 2013 ($24.90) Mike B Riesling Cabinett 2014 This wine is the result…

Okanagan Crush Pad keeps telling us that “Wine is Narrative“.  Every wine tells a story.  Some stories though are more interesting than others.  I think the more specific a place, the more the terroir can speak through the wine.  While there is nothing wrong with wines where the grapes are sourced from widely separated areas, maybe the story is harder…

A friendly competition never hurt anyone.  Well maybe egos.  Today’s friendly competition is between Okanagan Crush Pad’s Haywire Rose 2011 and Bartier Scholefield (BS) Rose 2011.  Both wines are produced from Gamay Noir grapes grown from the same vineyard in Oliver.  What is different is the style of rose.  The grapes were harvested two weeks apart and vinified differently.  Let…

Since Bartier Scholefield started producing their wines in 2011, in the Okanagan, BC, I have been fortunate to try them and write about them for you.  They have been keeping to their “Wine As Narrative“, telling us a story about the terroir, from where it was produced.  Their wines are produced as much without wine maker intervention, so that you…

What wines do you pair with Asian food?  I hear this question quite often.  When we think of wine, we think of  traditional European dishes such as roast beef, chicken, pasta, etc.  But what do you do with a Malaysian sate with peanut sauce?  That is what Haywire Winery from the Okanagan tried to answer for us, while we enjoyed…