Enjoy Wine, Food, and Travel with Karl MyWinePal
New Zealand, a land with maritime and mountain plateau climates nearby, each producing wines from the same grapes with different styles, flavours, and aromas. Unique terroir. For such a small island, they produce a significant amount of wine. The vineyards cover 34,270 hectares in 2012; growing at least 25 different varieties of grapes (more than Pinot Noir and Sauvignon…
Wow, the Vancouver International Wine Festival was sure busy for me. I attended a dinner, a lunch, a seminar, and visited the Festival Tasting room 3 times. I was able to speak with many winery principals from California, which is always interesting. They can tell you background information about the winery or a particular wine they are pouring for you. Some…
The first time you walk into the International Festival Tasting Room can be intimidating, with 175 wineries pouring 3 or more wines each, you have at least 525 wines to try. But over time, you become a wine tasting veteran like me, setting up a strategy, checking out the background of some wineries you may not have heard of before,…
I hazard to guess how many wines I tasted over the past year, but every year I find several gems that I pass along to you as I taste them. Getting ready for the holiday season, you may be considering buying wines to take to parties, or serving wines at your parties. What to buy? Here is a list of…
Yesterday afternoon was beautiful and sunny, and the Dockside Restaurant perfectly placed in Granville Island looking over the water. With this as our backdrop we were enticed to try wines from around the world by 17 different wine agencies here in Vancouver. The name of the event is Pelican Bay Wine Tasting. As I had not attended this event before,…
New Zealand is well known for its clean air, temperate climate, and dare I say, super natural environment? New Zealand’s wine industry goal is to be 100% sustainable, organic, or biodynamic by 2012. I read that over 95% of their vineyards are operating under an independently audited sustainability programme and over 90% of their wine production is also under an…
January 23, 2012 is a New Chinese New Year. This new year will be the Year of the Black Water Dragon. It begins on the first day of the first lunar month (usually in late January or early February) and ends on the 15th day of the first lunar month (Lantern Festival). A Dragon is a legendary creature. All legendary…
November is always a special time for tasting new wines at the Import Vintners and Spirits Association (IVSA). It’s just one month away from the Christmas and New Years holidays. And that means lots of sparkling wines to taste. So with this in mind, I spent almost all my time at the IVSA tasting bubbles. And my picks are here…
What is a Portfolio Tasting? If you have never been before, it is a wine tasting held by a wine agent of all, or many of, the wines that they represent. It is a great place to taste many different wines, typically from different countries, and learn a bit about the style of wines that they carry. Are they focused…
In my previous article about preparing for your Summer Wine Trip in the Southern Hemisphere, I outlined most of the wine producing countries and some airline ticket prices from Canada to those countries. This is Part 2 of this article, where you will get to know a bit about the signature grapes of Chile and Argentina and a few (not…
Video Guide Uncorks the Story of British Columbia Wines. Buy Now.
