Tag: sparkling

Who is Bruce Nicholson? Bruce Nicholson joined Inniskillin Wines, Niagara-on-the-Lake as Wine maker on January 1, 2007, after working for 20 years in the Okanagan where he was the first wine maker, and then became the Senior Winemaker for Jackson-Triggs Okanagan Estate in British Columbia. Half of Bruce’s awards in 2012 were for ice wine.  Does he want to be…

Canada is a big country, with our wine grape growing areas on the limit of possibility, but at the edges of possibility is where you can make exciting wines, I’ve been told.  In the Festival Tasting Room I spent many hours tasting wines from BC, Ontario, and Nova Scotia, and speaking with the winery principals in attendance.  Below are the…

Did you know that there are 671 wineries in Canada, as of Feb 2017?  There are 276 wineries in BC.  There is grape wine being produced in BC, Ontario, Quebec, and Nova Scotia.  As part of the Vancouver International Wine Festival, wineries from across Canada were invited to attend, and to celebrate our 150th birthday as a country.  Bringing together…

A Look at the Past Sperling Vineyards, in Kelowna, BC, has been four generations in the making: 1860s – land is cleared, settled and farm established by Giovanni & Rosa Casorso 1920s – vines are planted and vineyard established by N. Peter Casorso 1930 to today – commercial wine and table grape production by Peter Casorso 1978 – Riesling Weiss…

Do you know how many wines will be presented at the Vancouver International Wine Festival 2017 Tasting Room?  Around 800.  Picking wines you really would like to try in your 3 hours of wine tasting would be like finding a needle in a haystack.  I had a chance to try some of the wines that you can find at the Festival,…

Harper’s Trail winery in Kamloops has blazed their own trail, trying out red and white grapes to find out what works best in this terroir, and has also added sparkling wine to their repertoire. I received 2 bottles of their latest sparkling wines, 2 bottles of their Rieslings, and a bottle each of their Pinot Noir and Cabernet Franc.  I…

Church & State is head and heart, change and tradition, roots and growth. Church & State is in constant conflict, yet always in perfect balance. Who Is Church & State Wines? Kim Pullen founded Church & State Wines in 2004. Purchasing a 25-acre estate on the Saanich Peninsula, which had been home to the defunct Victoria Estate Winery, Kim set…

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…

In the wine world, cool climate areas are making exciting wines.  Canada is viewed as cool climate, and I was wondering where we fall in the extreme north or south latitudes compared to other cool climate regions.  Here is what I found through a search on the web: Argentina‘s Patagonia wine region extends between 33.3° and 33.8° South. Osorno Valley…

Introducing Harper’s Trail Harper’s Trail, named for the cattle drive trail of pioneer rancher Thaddeus Harper, is the first estate winery from Kamloops. Tucked into the city outskirts on the bank of the South Thompson River, Ed and Vicki Collett’s vineyard sits among rolling hills of sage and grass, home to bighorn sheep, bears, and myriad birds. The backdrop of limestone, hoodoos,…