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 [...]
In anticipation of next week’s BC Lieutenant Governor’s Awards for Excellence announcement, we thought we’d revisit this column about wine judging that ran in the North Shore News a while back. Some folks have moved on to other things but ... well, you’ll get the gist. Sometime this summer, when you were [...]
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 [...]
WHERE Vancouver (to whom the Hired Belly supplies considerable calorific content) yesterday unveiled the 15TH Annual Where to Dine Awards. The well attended (and well-run) event was hosted in superb fashion by Blue Water Café, who, as usual, catered to their industry peers with an array of seafood towers, sushi and more, not [...]
As far as we know, everyone seems to have survived yesterday's Vancouver Magazine Restaurant Awards relatively unscathed. It is, unquestionably, the industry insider’s event of the year. And even though we’re usually tearing our hair out by the time judging deadline rolls around, being as objective as possible, we think this year’s results [...]
And the winners are ... The moment of truth at Government House comes when the wraps are pulled off the winning wines. That’s the challenge of tasting blind: you just hope that the winners span an appropriate range of style, producer and price. It’s no small coincidence that the actual judging is run by Marjorie [...]
The Hired Belly has just finished participating in one of the more interesting competitions on the Canadian judging calendar. The Lieutenant Governor's Awards for Excellence in British Columbia Wines were introduced by former Lieutenant Governor the Honourable Iona Campagnolo in 2003. The judging is different from many for a number of reasons, none [...]