Sam The Wine Teacher I began this event with an informal session on terroir. We were presented with four wines made from four Naramata Bench winemakers – Val Tait from Bench 1775, Gavin Miller from Upper Bench, Stefan Arnason from Poplar Grove and Elephant Island’s Del Halladay. The task was to match each wine to the description given by … Read more
The Broadway Wine Shop was the venue for a surprise birthday gathering for Blue Grouse winemaker, Bailey Williamson. Leeann Froese, from Town Hall Brands took care of the arrangements and the AmoVino girls, Jessica Luongo and Marisa Varas kept Bailey busy telling him he had a busy day of wine shop meetings. After a surprising … Read more
2014 Riesling 8th Generation Summerland, BC $20.90 The grapes for this wine come from 29-year-old vines. The result is a wine with depth and concentration. Lemon yellow with medium intensity. Classic varietal character on the nose – mineral, stone fruit, citrus and a hint of petrol. Slightly off dry, but well balanced with good mouth … Read more
2014 Chardonnay Blackwood Lane Langley, BC $29.00 This wine is lemon yellow in colour with medium-light intensity. The nose is well-integrated oak and fruit with aromas of lemon, ripe apple, honey, butter, toast and vanilla. Very well balanced. The flavours follow the nose leading to a medium-plus finish. Serve this with pan seared prawns and … Read more
Wine agent Richard Massey organized this event at Granville Island’s Edible Canada to showcase Vancouver Island wine and spirits. I began at Unsworth Vineyards, which is located in Mill Bay, between Victoria and Duncan where I chatted with Sommelier Chris Turyk. I first became aware of Unsworth when I visited the winery two years ago … Read more
The APVSA is a Montreal based company, which helps European wine producers find new markets in Canada and the United States. Their most recent tour was titled ‘Once Upon a Wine’ and featured affordable wines from France and Spain, many of which were organic and vegan wines. Producers included Arriezu Vineyards and Etedaria from Spain … Read more
It’s a Tuesday afternoon and I am sitting in a tenth floor Kerrisdale apartment beside a large window with a panoramic view of Vancouver and the fog shrouded north shore mountains in the distance. I’ve been lucky enough to be invited to be a guest at a private tasting group that meets with the expressed … Read more
Chaberton-2015 ReserveChardonnay 2015 Chardonnay (Reserve) Chaberton Langley, BC $19.95 The winery may be in Langley, but the grapes for this wine come from Oliver. The wine is golden yellow in colour with medium intensity. The nose shows aromas of lemon, butter, vanilla and toast with hints of pineapple. Good balance. The flavours follow the nose. … Read more
One of our original tasting group members, Wayne Meadows, who tends to plan his annual tasting several years in advance (he has just compiled his 2025 tasting) spent a lot of time putting together his 2018 tasting titled, “The Rarest BC Grown Grapes That You May Have Never Tasted! What he did was to research … Read more
2015 Chardonnay (Reserve) Chaberton Langley, BC $19.95 The winery may be in Langley, but the grapes for this wine come from Oliver. The wine is golden yellow in colour with medium intensity. The nose shows aromas of lemon, butter, vanilla and toast with hints of pineapple. Good balance. The flavours follow the nose. A … Read more