Sam The Wine Teacher 
2014 Voulez View Rouge The View Kelowna, BC $19.90 Voulez View uses a touch (15%) of Merlot to add some elegance to the Pinotage base. Sweet spice, cherries, plum, dark berries and a hint of chocolate on the nose. Well balanced with silky smooth ripe tannins. Velvety on the palate with flavours that echo the … Read more
2013 Pinot Noir (Optimum) Gehringer Brothers Oliver, BC $20.99 I wasn’t impressed when I first opened this wine. I was quite surprised that I purchased it, if it hadn’t been very good at least. Then after it had some time to breathe and open up, wow. Garnet red with medium-deep intensity. The nose is layered … Read more
Niche Winery One of the ‘small guys’, or garagistes, Niche Winery is a small family run operation set well off the main highway in West Kelowna. Opened in 2011 by James and Joanna Schlosser, they indeed have ‘found their Niche’. This small ten-acre, ‘Hugh and Mary’ vineyard, owned by James’ parents, Kathleen and Jerry Schlosser, … Read more
What better way to say good-bye to 2016 and welcome in 2017, that with a delicious glass of BC bubbly. We are so lucky to have so many top quality, locally made sparkling wines to choose from in our province. One of the very first was Stellar’s Jay, which captured a lot of attention … Read more
Another evening with the tasting group. The tasting this evening featured eight Chardonnay wines from eight different countries. Quick, can you think of eight different countries that make Chardonnay? This was a blind tasting and all the wines were wrapped in brown paper bags. The group, for the most part, found all the wines to … Read more
I recently presented a tasting for a group I have been fortunate enough to sit in on many times in the past. This was my ‘pay back’. I had many Rieslings sitting in my cellar and I’ve often thought about getting a group together to try them, but it never quite seemed to materialize, … Read more
I recently sat down with friend and fellow wine judge Roger Ford to taste through a flight of wines from Evolve, Time and HMC. The task before us, six wines – two sparkling, one white and three reds. Let the tasting begin! We began with their Effervescent bubbly, a blend of Pinot Blanc and Chardonnay. … Read more
In late September I was fortunate to be invited to a tasting of the Mark Anthony portfolio held high above the city on the 24th floor of the Telus Gardens (more about that in another article). The best part of the afternoon for me was a guided tasting of CheckMate Chardonnay. These are exclusive wines; … Read more
Kurtis Kolt, Owen Knowlton, Terry Threlfall, Samantha Rahn and Mike Bernardo. If you enjoy dining out and are a fan of BC wines, you likely recognize a few of these names, but do you know what they have in common? Yes, they are all involved in the hospitality world, but more than that, they … Read more
From the sundrenched rolling hills and narrow valleys of Veneto in northern Italy to Vancouver. . . . . . . To properly explore the wine regions of Italy, the world’s largest wine producer, would likely take a person a lifetime. There are so many regions and unfamiliar indigenous grapes. There is so … Read more