In our glass: past and present wine picks
Pastis pot au feu—one of many reasons to lunch here... The Hired Belly is a push-over for hearty, winter dishes, such as the pot au feu at Bistro Pastis, (2153 West 4th Ave., 604-731-5020) which we more than did justice to last week, when the winter rains were sluicing through Vancouver; and flu was [...]
TFP mussels and clams – the perfect wet weather foil One spot that’s an easy lure for lunch—particularly when it’s raining cats and dogs—is Yaletown’s The Flying Pig (1168 Hamilton St, 604-568-1344). There’s just something about this place, from its easy going ways and cosy room with a great buzz to the quality [...]
A comprehensive organic-biodynamic program from vineyard to bottle, Tim Pawsey photo Last week’s column for the North Shore News was a quick recap of our visit to Emiliana Los Robles Organic Biodynamic Vineyards. It was one of the more impressive but—more to the point— profound experiences of my week in Chile. A [...]
Cipes Arial beside Krug Grande Cuvée: More of a love-in than a smackdown, TP photo Champagne and sparkling wine producers enjoy a well earned rep for coming up with some pretty clever promos. We can certainly attest to that ... However, we were still intrigued, a few weeks back, when Summerhill’s Ezra Cipes [...]
With the apparently unstoppable success of Malbec, Argentina is in the enviable position of having almost too big a hit on its hands. Almost, but not quite.
Quails Gate Estate, on the site of the Allison homestead, overlooks Lake Okanagan (photo Brian Sprout) UPDATED: The Lake opens tonight—and is sold out. The good news is there are still tix for tomorrow night (November 15). And the better news is that all audience members have a chance to enter a draw [...]
LittleFarm's Rhys Pender and Alishan Driediger Planting your own vineyard requires healthy doses of optimism, a ton of knowledge, unbridled passion and not a little cash, regardless of how big—or small—the project. Making your own wine, even more. This week we got to taste the first release from Similkameen’s aptly named Little Farm [...]
Heidi Noble and Michael Dinn ... to the next level, TP photo Time to catch up on some housekeeping. Here's our column from the North Shore News a couple of weeks ago. As you can tell, we're a big fan of Joie Farm (and—full disclosure—a longtime friend of Heidi and Michael.) The piece [...]
Gold medal weather accompanied our judging at Manteo Resort If you’re a BC wine lover, the line-up of the 24 gold medal winners of this year's British Columbia Wine Awards (a key part of the Okanagan Fall Wine Festival) adds up to a pretty serious shopping list. (Most of these wines should still be [...]
Terravista Vineyards Figaro label portrays a dancing, glass art figurine—and captures the essence of these vibrant blends One of the more intriguing winners in this year’s Lieutenant Governor Awards line-up is the well crafted, southern Rhone inspired Road 13 Jackpot White 2011, which artfully blends Viognier, Roussanne and Marsanne (mainly from Similkameen) for [...]