Tag: Gewurztraminer

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…

February 5, 2019 is the Chinese New Year of the Brown Earth Pig.   In Chinese culture, pigs are the symbol of wealth. 2019 is supposed to be a great year to make money, and a good year to invest. According to chinesenewyear.net, “Pigs might not stand out in a crowd. But they are very realistic. Others may be all talk…

What do you know about California wines?  Most people probably think of it as a place for high-quality Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay wines.  But that is not all there is to California wines.  There are many other wines available from California that are very enjoyable; some cool-climate wines like Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc. To help prepare you for the California wineries attending the…

BC VQA wines are released twice a year; once in the Fall and then in the Spring.  The Fall wines tend to show more white wines, as well as Pinot Noir, while the Spring event has more red wines.  This tasting I was able to taste many fine white wines as well as some surprising reds.  The Okanagan Valley is…

We all love drinking our BC wines.  Although we do have a hotter climate in the South Okanagan, we still are overall a fairly cool climate region, doing well with aromatic white varieties, along with Pinot Noir and Gamay, as you move north or along the coast.  Our mountainous interior limits the extent of our vineyards but if you cross the…

This was my first portfolio tasting for Amo Vino Distributors, a small boutique wine agency co-founded by Marisa Varas and Jessica Luongo.  Their wines are primarily from Europe, but there are also some California and BC wines to be found.  The wines from Greece and Portugal figure prominently, along with their country’s indigenous grapes.  You won’t find a huge list…

Creston, BC is probably not what you first think of when someone mentions a grape growing and wine-producing region in BC. But it is. And it has a long history of orchard fruit production.  I found this out on my recent trip to the interior.  I knew that the Baillie-Grohman Estate Winery is located in Creston, and I know they produce very good…

Did you know that during the ice age, glaciers up to 3 km thick covered the Okanagan and carved out the valley we love?  The retreat of the glaciers left benches covered with fertile soil where many wineries grow their vines.  Okanagan Falls, between Penticton and Oliver, I think holds a sweet spot for growing grapes and making wine.  It has…

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…

Last week the BC wineries who are part of the Vintners Quality Alliance (VQA) presented their latest releases of red, white, and sparkling wines.  74 wineries had tables and each poured around 4 wines on average.  So 296 new releases hit our market, with some wines available at BC liquor stores, while others only available a private wine shops, or…