Sam The Wine Teacher 
Some days serendipity is at play and something wonderful happens. For me it was at a trade tasting of products from local wine agency, Select Wines. After tasting through sparkling wines, white wines, red wines and after dinner wines – and finding several very pleasant surprises – I made a last stop to sample a … Read more
Do you have a favourite imported wine? Perhaps one from Italy, Australia or France. Have you ever wondered how it got from there to here? And why that wine and not another? After all, no wine store could ever carry every wine, no matter how big it was. Say a wine producer in Germany wants … Read more
Wine Runs Deep Patrick Ember 2018 Friesen Press 296 pages Do you remember any high school bullies? Can you remember the torment? The fear of their wrath? What if they came back into your life years later and tried to blackmail you? We all make bad decisions in life. If we are lucky, we survive … Read more
As we sat down to the table, all we knew was that it was a Bordeaux style flight. We were told that the wines were from 2010 to 2015 and ranged in price from $20 to $50. From my perspective, after tasting a few, I thought it might be a comparison of cool climates to … Read more
2014 Chardonnay vin Amité Oliver, BC $29.90 Formerly known as vin Perdue until some winery in Napa felt it might be confused with the name of one of their wines and threatened legal action. The owners felt that the most expedient and least costly option was to rebrand their wine. Lemon yellow in colour … Read more
Nestled atop a quaint knoll in the bucolic south Langley, just two stone throws from the US border is Blackwood Lane Winery. Unknown to many in the Lower Mainland, this winery opened its doors in 2007 and soon garnered critical acclaim for producing wines of the highest quality. Their 2007 Reference, a Bordeaux-styled blend has … Read more
Ever notice how many of the finer things in life just seem to go together and compliment one another? Think of art, food, music and wine. All are a reflection of culture and have a common thread – tradition. Canadians are big fans of Italian wines and represent one of their biggest export markets. For … Read more
Fifteen. That’s how many wineries make up the Okanagan Falls Wineries Association. Look at this list: Blasted Church Blue Mountain Crescent Hill Kraze Legz Liquidity Meyer Family Vineyards Nighthawk Noble Ridge Painted Rock Pentage Play Estates See Ya Later Ranch Stag’s Hollow Synchromesh Wild Goose Without doubt, there are likely several of your favourite wineries … Read more
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