Tag: Tannat

A Tour de France in Your Glass Food and wine go together, especially in France.  I attended the VanWineFest 2026 seminar, A Tour de France in Your Glass.  With Moderator, Arnica Rowan, we took an oenological journey through seven classic French wine regions, each with their own unique characteristics and history. We crossed the country from Champagne to South West…

Moon Curser Vineyards in the south Okanagan, Osoyoos specifically, is well-known for their big red wines.  I recently visited the winery and tried four red wines and one white wine.  Moon Curser was unfortunately affected by the 2024 winter cold snap, so lost some of their vines.  As such, they brought in some grapes from Washington state to help make…

Here are two big red wines.  One from a grape you may not know too well, Tannat, and the other wine is a Chianti Classico, but at the top tier, Gran Selezione.  The Tannat wine comes from Argentina, which is uncommon, as Argentina is best known for Malbec.  But this Tannat shows that it also does well in Argentina.  Let…

What do you know about the wines from Uruguay?  One winery that has consistently been attending the  Vancouver International Wine Festival is Bodega Garzón.  I have enjoyed speaking with Mele Sosa from Bodega Garzón about their wines and tasting them as well for several years.  Uruguay is well-known for red wines made from the Tannat grape, but they also produce…

I don’t usually put wines from different wineries together in a post, but today I did. Why? I wanted to show you that BC makes blends, and not necessarily traditional blends, like from Bordeaux. In BC and the New World, we are not tied to the restrictions of our region. We can experiment with our wines and make blends that…

As I was out in the Okanagan in September visiting a few wineries, I took a few pictures of different grape varieties. We all know the names of different grapes, but what do they look like? Did you know that ripe Pinot Gris skins are not yellow? As they mature they turn a pinkish brown and then purple colour. Below…

My last video interview at the Vancouver International Wine Festival was with Mele Sosa from Bodega Garzón a winery in Uruguay.  This winery is well-known here for its Tannat and Albariño wines.  Mele has been coming to the VanWineFest for several years.  I have interviewed her in the past and am lucky to be able to interview her this year. …

While the term “Cru” is most often used for the French classification system, the “Cru” concept can apply to any vineyard or group of vineyards recognized for their superior quality. This seminar at the Vancouver International Wine Festival took us on a global journey to some of the wine world’s greatest vineyards to discover what makes their terroir and wines…

At the Vancouver International Wine Festival, I spent time at the International Festival Tasting room on Thursday and Friday to taste as many wines as possible.  I published my Old World wine selections a few days ago and now it is time to give you my New World wine selections.  New World wines are typically categorized as being from the…

Grape harvest time is special.  There is the beauty of the ripe grapes and the leaves of the vines starting to change colours and the sights, sounds and smells of the grapes as they are sorted, crushed, and pumped to vat or barrel.  And the anticipation of making great wine from the grapes that the winery spent countless months and…