Tag: Stoneleigh

One of the things I really enjoy about the Vancouver International Wine Festival is the ability to talk to wine makers and/or winery owners about their vineyards, their harvest, and their wines.  It makes tasting the wine so much more interesting, and may spur you to travel to visit that winery, or country, or region.  This year we will have…

Beside the theme country every year in the Festival Tasting room of the Vancouver International Wine Festival, there are all the other wineries from countries around the world offering their wines for you to try.  Below are 15 wines that I thought were excellent.  Some may be in BC liquor stores and others may have only been available during the Festival….

Yes, Pinot Noir is the signature red wine grape for New Zealand, and Sauvignon Blanc is their signature white grape.  I asked this question as Sauvignon Blanc can get most of the world’s attention with its greater extent of vines (at 20,497 ha as of 2015), compared to the next largest production of Pinot Noir at 5,514 ha.  Pinot Noir…

Did you know that Sauvignon Blanc has been grown in New Zealand for over 40 years?  It all started in Marlborough on the South Island in 1973 and has spread north and south.  Before there was Sauvignon Blanc growing in Marlborough there were sheep grazing.  New Zealand still has a lot of sheep; many more than there are people, but…

Did you know that in New Zealand there are 25 varieties of grapes planted in commercial quantities for wine production?  But two of those varieties stand out, as the signature grapes of New Zealand: Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc.  Today I would like to dish on some New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs that I tried during the “New Zealand in a…

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,…