BC wine

Winners announced for the Lieutenant Governor’s Awards for Excellence in British Columbia Wines

July 5, 2011

VICTORIA – The winners have been chosen for the 2011 Lieutenant Governor’s Awards for Excellence in British Columbia Wines. This year 309 wines were submitted from 83 wineries across the province. The winners are: • Howling Bluff Estate Winery 2009 Pinot Noir • Laughing Stock Vineyards 2010 Pinot Gris • Mt. Lehman Winery 2009 Viognier Reserve • Quinta Ferreira [...]

Read the full article →

When the lens speaks louder

June 27, 2011

One of our few regrets, we never seem to have enough time to get the photograph we really want. Images are becoming even more crucial these days, especially in the more visually driven on-line world. We like this shot of winemakers Howard Soon and Stephanie Leinemann for any number of reasons, none the least of [...]

Read the full article →

What’s in a Name? If You’re BC’s Principal Grape Growing Region, Plenty

April 26, 2011

We’re still sorting through our notes from this year’s South Okanagan Banée. But this was the major news… Here’s our column as it appears in this weekend’s North Shore News: Over the last six months, the South Okanagan Wineries Association (SOWA) has been on the quest for a new identity. While organizations often rebrand, SOWA’s [...]

Read the full article →

What Makes the Vancouver Playhouse Wine Festival So Special, Anyway?

March 24, 2011

Here at Hired Belly’s lavish corporate headquarters, we’re resting up in preparation for the Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival (March 28-April 3)—one of the longest running and most successful wine events on the continent. If you live in Vancouver and drink wine but have never been (for shame!), there’s no time like the present. While [...]

Read the full article →

B.C. Wines: Unsung Players in Rise of Vancouver’s Culinary Scene

January 9, 2011

As you can see from elsewhere here, and from the crescendo this week of the on-line buzz surrounding the live launch of this year’s 200 plus menus, Dine Out Vancouver has more than earned its place as the country’s biggest restaurant promo of its kind. Now while you will hear plenty about deals on meals, [...]

Read the full article →

A Tasty Makeover: Dine Out Vancouver Gets Some Fresh New Legs

January 6, 2011

It’s fair to say that in laid-back Vancouver we have a tendency to let things ride. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” as the saying goes.  In other words, if you can effectively put bums in seats—and in Dine Out Vancouver’s case, more bums every year—then why worry? No argument. Dine Out Vancouver (Jan [...]

Read the full article →

Looking Back at 20 Years with Okanagan’s Blue Mountain Vineyards

September 16, 2010

This fall sees numerous events to mark the 20th anniversary of Vintners Quality Alliance (VQA)—BC’s AOC-styled origin system. Along with the 1988 US-Canada Free Trade Agreement, it was, arguably, the turning point for an industry far too long dependent on bulk wine imports and labeling mis-truths—even if those not so little annoyances still persist in [...]

Read the full article →

Canadian Wine Marketer Christine Coletta Unveils her Own Wine

August 16, 2010

Coletta goes haywire. Not! BC’s newest wine, for this week at least, is Haywire—which just also happens to be the latest brainchild of Christine Coletta, the long-time (and arguably most savvy) Canadian wine marketer. It was her efforts, way back in the early ‘90s, that contributed greatly to putting BC wines on the world map, [...]

Read the full article →

Red Wine and Fish? It All Depends …

August 15, 2010

This week we managed to get our hands on a sizeable, freshly caught Robson Bight Sockeye, which has already served us deliciously well. As we were busy butchering and deboning we found ourselves wondering about wine. Again. It must be a couple of decades since Joshua Wesson’s ground-breaking book Red Wine with Fish: the new [...]

Read the full article →

Tantalus Vineyards’ Unveils BC’s First LEED Winery in Okanagan Valley

May 21, 2010

Clean and Lean, New Winery is Really           ‘Very Riesling’ Tantalus Vineyards has emerged as the Okanagan’s de facto flagship Riesling producer—and rightly so. For the last few years the winery operated out of the former Pinot Reach facility—a delightful, if somewhat rustic arrangement not entirely conducive to the task at [...]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries