Casual tasting and wines by the glass at the market wine shop Travel, they say, broadens the mind. It also sharpens your perspective at home. A recent tasting in France found me thinking, once again, despite some progress, just how outdated BC’s liquor laws really still are, outdated—and ridiculous. We were in the Victor Hugo [...]
A spectacular vista of Rias Baixas Val do Salnés coastline Bodegas Vionta (Rias Baixas) sports an impressive view (above). You can see that most of the vineyards in Val do Salnés are quite small, in fact the average size for all of Rias Baixas is .59 ha. There are 4,759 growers in this [...]
(oops) wine label documents in detail the improbable but true story of how most of what used to pass for Merlot in Chile was actually Carmenère.
Izele Van Blerk One thing about the wine biz: it’s always changing—and usually for the better. It’s been a few years since I was in South Africa. But I vividly recall a visit to KWV’s hallowed Cathedral Cellar, for so many years the heart of the ‘old’ South African wine industry. At the [...]
Portugal's stunning Douro Valley. These days, though, there's a whole lot more to Portugal than Port. Portugal is back in the table wine game with a vengeance. No better proof of that than a recent Vancouver visit by a couple of score of key producers. Judging by the excitement in the room the [...]
The View's Hail Mary white blend. More than just a wing and a prayer Yesterday’s BC Bloom spring release tasting yielded up a wealth of wines, especially in the category of decent white blends, which I’m gearing up for summer. (We also judged a whole bunch of them at the All Canadian Wine [...]
One of my most memorable moments in New Zealand came when Peter Yealands proudly assured me there were now more vines than sheep, which seemed a good thing. Peter knows a thing or two about sheep: he brought in the first Baby Dolls—Australian miniatures that offer a truly sustainable answer to weed control in [...]
I remember quite vividly the first time I tasted Synchromesh. It was at Okanagan Falls Wineries Association’s (OFWA) inaugural Vancouver tasting.
The last time I met Brent Marris—the man behind Marlborough’s The Ned, The Kings series, and a whole lot more—was almost exactly 20 years ago. He was part of a New Zealand trade mission that came to Vancouver. At the time, Kiwi Sauvignon Blanc was in the early stages of its remarkable ascent and the [...]
Waterford's pretty but ... Does the right glass really matter? You bet it does! Because we have a such a busy holiday season and Christmas, over the years, a restful, decidedly lazy New Year’s Day has become our tradition. Often we move little more than from the couch to the fridge—to extract more [...]
