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Blue Mountain Winery: 2020 vintage wines review and food pairing ideas
Are you a wine enthusiast and have “seeking out affordable and quality wines” listed as your favourite sport? If you are located in the New World, you probably know that anything that makes it across the proverbial pond is way overpriced and hardly combines “affordable and quality” in one description. Common sense told us to… [Read more]
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Tantalus Winery visit: What to expect & is it worth your time.
When someone names a business venture after God, more likely than not, they want to signal that the business possesses differentiating qualities of a particular deity. But what if the deity in question has more than one “thing” going for them? Take, for example, Tantalus, a Greek Demigod. It is said that Tantalus stole the… [Read more]
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Tasting of the very rare and special 1976 Henriques & Henriques Terrantez Madeira wine
Have you ever heard of the Terrantez grape varietal? It is special and rare and almost extinct. “Terrantez grapes, not for eating, nor giving away. God made them for wine!” reads an inscription on the wall of Blendy’s wine museum in Madeira, Portugal. But what does the wine made of Terrantez taste like? We had… [Read more]
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Sandhill Wines winery visit: is it worth your time?
We have opined in the past on how difficult it can be to find honest feedback about the BC wineries from either the wine writers or industry insiders. It seems that if the winery is no good, they would rather say nothing about it. On occasion, you may find a review so divorced from reality… [Read more]
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Michel Arnould Verzenay Rosé Brut Champagne
Not your typical rosé picnic wine! Michel Arnould Rosé Champagne bears a Grand Cru label for a reason. Despite its unknown but suspected great age, this wine shows quite well. More importantly, it does, what any wine, in our opinion, should do, pairs well with food. [Read more]
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Stumbling upon the Elephant: Elephant Island Winery of Naramata Bench
Let’s spice things up a bit. Shall we? Let’s start with a riddle. What do Agatha Christie’s fictional but famed detective Hercule Poirot and an elephant have in common? Don’t know? Here’s a hint. It is related to an alcoholic beverage. Still not sure? Okay… All right… We’ll tell you. The answer is… Cassis! Cassis,… [Read more]
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Madeira Island Winery Spotlight: Madeira Vintners and their Fenix
Winemaking has traditionally been a male-dominated profession. Winery ownership by females, either on their own, or together with their family members, is not that uncommon. A woman in a position of a professional winemaker is far more scarce. If you encounter an all-female winemaking team, you may want to pinch yourself to check if you… [Read more]
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Culmina Family Estate wines review: Merlot, Dilemma and Hypothesis
“Why can’t Canada produce a good Chardonnay?” This used to be our “go-to” icebreaker when sitting down for wine tasting at California wineries we frequented over the past decade. The question never failed to steer a passionate conversation among the winery guests and sommeliers. The consensus among our Californian friends has always been that Canada… [Read more]
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Phantom Creek Rosé & Pinot Gris wines review
As with any winery in Okanagan, Phantom Creek Estates turns out an array of wines at various price points and quality levels. We visited Phantom Creek winery in the spring of 2022. All the wines we tasted at the winery were premium-priced quality wines. When we returned home, we sought out the Phantom Creek wines… [Read more]
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Schramsberg old sparkling wines review
Undoubtedly you’ve heard the saying, fine wine tastes better with age. But is it true? Question of spoilage aside, what makes a bottle of wine you are tasting now a far cry from the identical bottle of wine, vintage and all, that you tasted some five years ago? In this piece, we talk about the… [Read more]