Posts tagged as:

wine touring

Sun Peaks Winter Wine Festival: The Skiing Senator, Snowshoes and Syrah

January 30, 2012

How much fun can you have at an award-winning ski resort with a couple of dozen BC wineries in tow, more than a few good meals—and even some healthy outdoor exercise? Plenty! Last week’s whirlwind trip to Sun Peaks Resort for the 14th Annual Winter Okanagan Wine Festival yielded more material than we could squeeze into [...]

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Zagat Releases 2012 Vancouver (plus Victoria, Whistler & Okanagan) Survey

January 12, 2012

As some folks may know, in our role as the local editor for Zagat, (backed by a great team in New York) we’ve been working for the last few months on the latest Zagat Survey, that encompasses key players in Vancouver, Victoria, Vancouver Island, Whistler and the Okanagan Valley. Well, here’s an exclusive look at the [...]

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Skaha Meets Sidecut: Painted Rock Rules at Four Seasons Whistler

November 15, 2011

It’s entirely possible that the impressive Sidecut / Painted Rock 4 x 5 course winemaker dinner (that’ll be four courses each of five plates or accompaniments) that we enjoyed at just concluded Cornucopia entailed the most food we’ve seen at one sitting! Much like the winery with whom they partnered, it’s apparent that Sidecut, the Four [...]

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Summerhill Winery: Boxed in by Slow Moving BC VQA Regulations

August 15, 2011

Is it just a storm in a wine glass? Or is there more to this than meets the eye? Summerhill Winery (besides being infatuated with shapes Cheopic) is well known for its penchant for all things organic and environmental, so it came as no surprise to hear that the view-kissed East Kelowna winery, that greets [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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Miradoro at Tinhorn Creek Winery: Raising the Bar on Okanagan Dining

April 18, 2011

We finally made it to recently unveiled Miradoro, the new restaurant at Tinhorn Creek Vineyards, in Oliver, BC. We’ve been watching the progress (admittedly, slow at times) of this latest South Okanagan addition with interest, in part because it’s a collaboration between our long-time friends Manuel Ferreira (who owns Vancouver’s Le Gavroche) and Ken and Sandra [...]

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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 [...]

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Quails Gate Winemaker Grant Stanley Brings His Wines to Sutton Place Hotel

February 16, 2011

A reality of the explosion of Okanagan wineries (now 200 plus) is that more than a few rely on consulting winemakers, which means you likely won’t find them or their winemakers putting on dinners. Not so in the case of Quails Gate, which was one of the first wineries in the valley to identify specific [...]

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Of Tiles, Tunas and Touriga Naçional

November 18, 2010

Just back from Portugal, and we’re playing serious catch-up! After a week of tasting a wide variety of sometimes unfamiliar table wine varieties—from Siria and Encruzada (whites) to Baga and Afrocheiro, in Beira, Dao and Bairrada, we’ve come to a few conclusions. Portugal has been long known for its value wines. Entry level reds from [...]

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