Tag: VQA

I checked the 7-day weather forecast for Vancouver, and it is RAIN every day. So time for me to open a big red wine. In this case, I opened the Upper Bench Estate Winery Cabernet Sauvignon 2017. It is 4 years old already and has many years left in it. This wine does have 5% Merlot in the blend to…

On my way back to Vancouver from my trip around the interior of BC, I stopped by Monte Creek Ranch Winery, just east of Kamloops to get an updated tasting of some of their wines.  Wines do change in the bottle over time.  They have a nice tasting room that looks northward.  Across the highway, you can see some of…

Speck Bros. Bianco Secco Lazzara ($17.95 at LCBO) Last weekend I opened Spec Bros’ Bianco Secco Lazzara as a little pick-me-up. And today I wanted to share my tasting notes on this bubbly made from Riesling with supporting roles coming from Gewürztraminer and Chardonnay. Green apples, pears, lemon rind, white blossoms, hay, and a touch of sweetness dominated the nose….

Do you like flavourful white wines? Well this one, Singletree Farmhand 2020, has it in spades. I think it would be a fun wine to have with a cooked ham for Thanksgiving 2021 as well. It is a blend of 80% Sauvignon Blanc and 20% Viognier. I think the Viognier was really ripe at the time of harvest and really…

I enjoyed my time visiting District Wine Village.  In Part 1 of my article, I provided some background and tasting notes for three wineries.  In this article, the remaining two wineries I visited at the District Wine Village that I will now cover are: Valley Commons Gneiss Wines I did intend to visit a third winery, Winemaker’s CUT, but the…

Yesterday was the announcement of winners for the 2021 BC Lieutenant Governor’s Wine Awards.  I was very pleased to read that Spearhead Winery won 3 Platinum Medals for 3 different Pinot Noir wines.   Here is the press release about the awards and the winners. ~~~ (KELOWNA, BC) October 8, 2021 – The 2021 BC Lieutenant Governor’s Wine Awards were announced…

Thirty Bench Small Lot Gewürztraminer 2019 $29.95 (from winery) Over the weekend, I posted a reel featuring my favorite fall salad which I paired with this wine – a local Ontario dry Gewürztraminer. Now this is a varietal I don’t necessarily gravitate towards, but when I tried it during a visit to Thirty Bench Wine Makers over the summer, I…

Have you heard about District Wine Village, which opened this summer in Oliver, BC?  It is unique in that a group of wineries, have their production facilities in the same location at the Village.  Many of them are smaller, new wineries, while there is one large, and one medium well-established winery that have production facilities offsite at their winery.  There…

Situated on the north end of Osoyoos is Bordertown Vineyards and Estate Winery.  Mohan Gill and his family opened Bordertown Winery in May 2015. But before then they were grape growers for over 20 years selling to select wineries. Their wines are produced from 100% estate fruit. They employ consulting winemaker Daniel Bontorin, who is helping them develop the Bordertown…

One of my goals for the Fall is to visit a winery and see part of their harvest operation, talk to the winemaker, and taste some of their wines.  I accomplished all three of these goals through a visit to Moon Curser Vineyards in Osoyoos, BC.  Today I will tell you about my wine tasting with Stephanie at the winery…