Enjoy Wine, Food, and Travel with Karl MyWinePal
While I was Grinch-like in awarding 5 stars to only three wines I tasted in 2024, I was more Oprah-like with the 4.5-5 -star wines. Plus, there are many quality wines, so it should not be a surprise. This year there were 13 BC wines, 18 Italian wines, 4 French wines, 2 Californian wines, and 4 wines from New Zealand…
Nestled on the picturesque Naramata Bench in the Okanagan Valley, Ruby Blues Winery offers a charming blend of exceptional wines and stunning vineyard views. In 2007 Prudence and Beat Mahrer started Ruby Blues Winery, after selling Red Rooster Winery. Their goal is to keep the winery small and sell locally. I recently received two bottles of wine from Ruby Blues…
When you buy wine in a BC Liquor store, you don’t think about how the wine was selected for the shelves. Behind the scenes are many wine agencies that search for wines from around the world, to build their portfolio, and have some of their portfolio sold through BC Liquor stores with the remaining wines, usually specialty wines, sold in…
I have two BC wines for you today. One is from Mayhem Wines in the Okanagan Valley and the other from the Robin Ridge Winery in the Similkameen Valley. I thought these two wines may show off some fresh BC fruit flavours and go well with holiday get-togethers. Let me tell you about them. My Wine Tasting Notes Mayhem Wines…
Kevin Judd from the Greywacke winery in Marlborough, New Zealand, may not sound familiar to many readers, but Kevin is one of the pioneer winemakers in Marlborough. He was born in England and raised in Australia where he studied winemaking. In 1983 he moved to New Zealand and was the founding winemaker at Cloudy Bay, which all New Zealand wine…
When you visit Da Silva Vineyards & Winery on the Naramata Bench, it feels like you are transported to Portugal. The tasting room is beautiful, with bone-white walls and chandeliers, giving off a European feel. The wines are equally special. Richard and Twylla da Silva own the winery, with Richard coming from a Portuguese background. The names of some of…
During my week-long trip to Penticton, I took a one-day side trip to Kelowna to see the Farmer’s Market and to visit Spearhead Winery. I’ve been a fan of their Pinot Noir and Chardonnay wines for many years. They recently received recognition as WineAlign 2024’s Best Performing Small Winery. I also appreciate the winemaking skill of Grant Stanley who was…
I have two white wines to tell you about from BC’s Blue Mountain Vineyard and Cellars. The winery is located in the Okanagan Falls area, which has the perfect climate for Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. One of the wines I tasted is Blue Mountain’s Reserve Cuvée Chardonnay 2022 while the other wine is their Blue Mountain Estate Cuvée Pinot Gris…
Recently VinsAlsace visited Vancouver and brought a range of their Alsatian wines from sparkling, light-bodied and dry wines to full-body, thicker, rich-flavoured wines. They wanted to let us know in this Trade tasting that the variation in the rocks and soil brings different personalities to their wines. The soils are quite varied with granite, limestone, marl-limestone, clay-marl, marl-limestone-sandstone, sandstone, volcanic,…
The first official Naramata Bench winery I visited on my weekend trip to the Okanagan was Bench 1775 Winery. This winery has gone through a few transformations. I will let the winery tell you their story, in their own words, “Bench 1775 (formerly known as Paradise Ranch Wines Corp.) is one of the only two Okanagan Wineries producing icewine and…
Video Guide Uncorks the Story of British Columbia Wines. Buy Now.
