Tag: Gewurztraminer

You may not have heard of Blue Grouse Estate Winery from Duncan before, but the winery has quite a history.  In 2012 the Brunner family took over the winery but it was owned for many years by Dr. Hans Kiltz and his wife Evangeline in the late 1980s, where they discovered several grape vines planted on their land.  The grapes…

Who is Calliope Wines? The Wyse Family, founders of Burrowing Owl Estate Winery, has a second label called Calliope, which pays homage to a tiny hummingbird found in southern British Columbia. The grapes for Calliope wines are sourced from local vineyards in the South Okanagan and Similkameen Valleys. Their goal is to create expressive, fresh wines from each grape variety…

After summer holidays are over and you are all relaxed from the sun, food, and wine with family and friends, September comes around.  For the wine trade, this is the start of the busy season leading up to Christmas, and with this there are many agency portfolio tastings.  I attended two portfolio tastings this past week, and I’m here to…

Sometimes you get some free time and can take a quick trip to the Okanagan.  That recently happened to me.  I wanted to visit at least 2 new wineries to me on this trip. I stayed in Kelowna, and checking the latest winery map, I saw that I have been to all in the area before, so I fixed my…

Summer is nearly upon us, but the weather feels like it is already here.  Time to spend time on the patio with family and friends. And of course some nice chilled bottles of BC white wine.  Last week I attended the latest BLOOM BC VQA Spring Release Tasting, and tasted the newest BC white wines, and I have a few…

I tip my hat to the pioneering spirit of Ed and Vicki Collett for starting their winery, Harper’s Trail, in Kamloops, BC, leading the way for people to consider this as a new area in BC for grape wine production.  I’ve been in contact with Ed and Vicki since just before they released their first vintage, and have been very…

February 19, 2015 will be the Chinese New Year; the Year of the Sheep.  Haywire Wines from Summerland in the Okanagan have released their second vintage of the Lunar New Year wine.  I was privileged to try their first release for this current year, the Year of the Wooden Horse.  The wine was crafted to complement Asian dishes.  With the…

One of the definitions in The Free Dictionary of “portfolio” is “A group of investments held by an investor, investment company, or financial institution.” I thought that for a wine & spirits agency those bottles of wines and spirits are an investment to them.  They search out and try to find value, and then share these gems with the public. …

While it is not quite as hot and sunny as in Greece at this time of the year, it is warm enough for me, to look forward to enjoying some chilled aromatic white wines on the patio, along with a plate of oysters, chilled shrimp and cheese.  I received these three bottles of aromatic white wines from Summerhill Pyramid Winery…

Although James Dean did not to the best of my knowledge make it to the Penedes region in Spain, it was through his association with Jean Leon, that we have the Jean Leon winery, as I discussed in Part 1.  If you missed Part 1, I highly recommend reading Part 1 before continuing with Part 2, as it gives you…