Tag: okanagan

In my previous article on two sub $20 bottles of Cabernet Merlot blends from Mission Hill, I introduced you to the “intro” level of their wines, 5 Vineyards, and an alternate label, Ganton & Larsen Prospect Winery.  I noted that there are higher level tiers to Mission Hill’s wines.  Moving up one level we have the “Reserve” Series.  I was…

Founded in 1981 by proprietor Anthony von Mandl, Mission Hill Family Estate has a solid reputation as a leader within the wine community that helped define the Okanagan Valley.  His winery won the Avery Trophy in 1994 for ‘Best Chardonnay in the World’ at the International Wine & Spirit Competition in the United Kingdom and made the world take note…

Harry McWatters is a leader in the British Columbia wine industry for the past 40+ years. In 1980, he founded BC’s first estate winery, Sumac Ridge Estate Winery, and later started See Ya Later Ranch Estate Winery in 1995.  He purchased and planted vines on his Sundial Vineyard on Black Sage Road in 1993. Harry is the owner of TIME Estate…

In 2015, I only rated 7 wines with 5 stars.  There were many wines that came close to my idea of perfection in a glass, and many of these I gave 4.5 stars.  These are amazing wines still and I highly recommend purchasing any of them.  There are 77 wines that I classified as 4.5 stars.  All of these wines…

This is the second chance that I have had to taste and write about the wines from Serendipity Winery, in the Naramata Bench.  My previous review of Serendipity Winery’s wines is at this link.  The winery is managed and owned by Judy Kingston and her daughter Katie O’Kell.  They have 2 winery dogs, Toby and Whiskey, to greet you if…

Burrowing Owl Estate Winery is one of the wineries from BC that both locals and visitors to our province know about.  I had guests once from New York state want to try Burrowing Owl wine.  Burrowing Owl has been a consistent producer and I was happy to try out the latest wines that they sent me to review. In 1993…

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…

BC is a cool climate region, but we all know as we travel from South Okanagan northward, the climate does cool down, and that there are preferences for growing warmer climate grapes further south, and more aromatic whites further north.  From the BC Riesling Review, we see that Riesling is grown in the Okanagan Valley from the border up past…

With summer holidays and then the extended power outage due to the wind storm this past weekend, I have finally finished tasting through all the 2013-14 vintages of BC Riesling that I received from BC wineries.  Thank you all.  My next step is to enter all my tasting notes into a database.  The database will be broken down by primary…

The Wines of British Columbia shone at The Judgment of BC Wine Tasting with Steven Spurrier and DJ Kearney today.  Steven Spurrier, the Consultant Editor at Decanter magazine, headed the famous Judgement of Paris in 1976 (which was made into the movie “Bottle Shock”).  The Judgement of Paris carried out two blind tasting comparisons: one of Chardonnays and another of…