Good-bye social media?

I forgot for a while that I have a website. I used to spend hours and hours on this site - producing podcasts, putting up photos, writing about wine - but that has taken a back seat to other work for the past few years. Sarcastically perhaps, I used to say that blogging was what …

Many Vintages Ago

Front and back labels from Nk'Mip Cellars' 2000 (their first vintage?) of Chardonnay. A strange book appeared in my line of sight after moving some items around in my storage room. There were three books, each containing wine labels that had been soaked off their bottles. Most were labels from Italy, France, Spain, and BC …

Support “Local”

Readers (or listeners, if you go way back like that...) of Wine Country BC will know that supporting our local wine industry has been at the foundation of what I've been talking about on this blog. In the 11 years that has past since I started this site, B.C. wine has both increased in quality …

How many Gold Medals are there?

On my first wine tour in the Okanagan, the very first winery offered us a tasting of their gold medal-winning Gewurztraminer. We loved it and bought a bottle. Then, at the next winery, we were offered a tasting of their gold medal-winning Gewurztraminer. It was good too and we bought that as well. Driving away, …

Wine Reviews: To Care or Not To Care

Let me be right up front about this from the beginning. I've never liked wine reviews. When I was learning about wine, I found them a bit silly, never really useful for deciding for myself about which wines to seek out, and when I did find one and its review, was never able to really …

Why now is the best time to join a wine club

Why join a wine club? Isn't that only for the really rich people who have huge cellars and purchase wines by the case to stock for their massive house parties? I don't own a Cavavin or Eurocave, and live in a small place, so why would I ever need to puchase that much wine at …

How things have changed

As we all know, things have changed a lot in the past month. The changes that have affected the world are shaking the foundations of our cultures and civilization to such a degree that things that we once felt were extremely important are now less important than they used to be. The biggest change is …

Cider Takes Off

When exactly did cider get so popular? Why does cider occupy three whole fridge spaces at the small government liquor store in Oliver? Who saw this coming? Clearly, nobody did. The small cider producers in the Okanagan have got to be happy about it. Cider historically has always been a part of our beverage production …

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 …

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 …