Are we too cavalier about alcohol?

Drinking alcohol is everywhere in our media landscape and especially on social media, upon which wine in BC has been latched for a fair number of years. Photos of wine bottles in exotic places with amazing food and lovely people are all over the internet on Facebook and Instagram accounts. Add in the trending craft …

John Peller at Wine Talks – Preparing for Battle

The BC wine industry will be facing some battles over the coming years. The renegotiations of NAFTA  and the Comeau case, that is set to be heard in the Supreme Court of Canada this December, are just two of the things that the industry will have to fight for. So says John Peller, CEO of …

Smoke on the water

I noticed lately that there hasn't been a whole lot of action on social media this summer regarding #bcwine. A quick scan of that hashtag on Twitter reveals that very few people are posting anything that involves scenery in any way, even from accounts that are normally filled with beautiful wine country views. This also …

Andrew Peller Goes Shopping

Well, that was an interesting day in wine country. Today's announcement by Andrew Peller Ltd. that the company has inked deals to acquire Black Hills Estate Winery and Gray Monk Estate Winery and has written a "letter of intent" to acquire Tinhorn Creek was indeed a shocking read in my email's inbox this morning. Not …

BC Wine Culture 2017 – THANKS MILLENNIALS!

I was pouring wine samples at a liquor store recently and perusing the shelves during the lulls between customers when something occurred to me. Wine and craft beer cultures have both made a serious change to liquor stores in under a decade. The store I was in was the average run of the mill private …

The 2016 LG Award Winners

It's that time of year again when I get distracted by stats relating to the Lieutenant Governor's Award for Excellence in BC Wine. You can find my "analysis" of the winners from 2014 and 2015. This year's winners are a very interesting collection of wineries. Here is the complete list: Bordertown Vineyards & Estate Winery 2013 Living …

Slow going

Hey folks, it's been a while. And there's reasons for it. Not that I feel that I have to explain or rationalize anything to anyone - I don't - but sometimes when I follow a blog or a website and nothing happens for a while without any explaination, I like to know what happened. Many …

Why the Garagistes are so important in BC

When the Garagiste North Small Guys Wine Festival first took place in 2014 at an event hosted by Meyer Family Vineyards in Okanagan Falls, I was thrilled. Super excited. And I didn't even really know why. I went, I tasted, I interviewed (badly, as it turned out that all of the audio was unusable to …

Cool new wine tech in the Okanagan

This just in folks, a very interesting to development in winemaking. It's been tested on whites and rose so far, but it could be interesting for reds as well. Essentially, it looks like a way to keep a lot of the aromas in fermenting wines from escaping during fermentation. Anyone who has been around wineries …

VQA Store Model is Changing

On Tuesday, November 17th, the BC Wine Institute (BCWI) issued a press release that took many in the wine industry by surprise. But it really shouldn't have been a surprise. The real surprise might be coming later. The new rules on alcohol in BC that were implemented in April 2015 allow wine to be sold in …