The next chapter: Sipsters

Sipsters represents a new way to communicate about wine that is freed of the limited and technical vocabulary of wine education ("medium acid", "aromas of berries and tar"), the cliches of wine sales ("patio sipper", "pizza wine"), or the manipulative spin of marketers.

Apples to apples, must to must…

The Okanagan Valley (and yes, the Similkameen too...) are what most people think about when they think about B.C. wine (or #BCwine, if you prefer). Most of the grape production happens in these regions and it far and away the dominant presence in the province's wine industry. What does that do to the other regions …

A Sip of History: BC’s First Winery

One of the first questions that I am asked when talking about the history of British Columbia's wine industry is, "Which winery was the first?" I can think of at least 3 wine shops that I've been to where they claim to be the first winery, oldest vineyard, or the first to use this or …

Why aged wines are awesome

Aged wines take courage. Aged wines take patience. Aged wines take discipline. All three of those things take a little work and some effort on the part of the wine collector, which may be why most wines are generally consumed young. In practical purposes, it is also expensive to keep wines in a cellar for …

The 2017 LG Awards Results

The results of the 2017 Lieutenant Governor's Awards for Excellence in British Columbia Wine are now in! Congratulations to all of this year's winners: Cassini Cellars The Aristocrat Cabernet Sauvignon 2013 Cassini Cellars Nobilus Merlot 2013 Castoro de Oro Estate Winery Crimson Rhapsody 2014 Gray Monk Estate Winery Odyssey White Brut 2014 The Hatch Crown …

The Forgotten Hill Wine Company

There is something immensely satisfying watching friends realize a dream. My friend Maya was instrumental in helping me move from the coast to the Okanagan in 2007. She was a friend of the family and we bonded instantly over wine. We toured wineries together, critiqued wines, wine shops, and wine labels together, and gossiped non-stop …

Back at it

  Hi BC wine folks, It has been too long since I've posted anything even somewhat resembling a blog post. There are many, many reasons for that but the big one is that I was working on the book about the history of the wine industry is this province. I can say that the manuscript is now …

Progress

Ok folks, this big news in wine country this morning. The BC Wine Appellation Taskgroup has released their final report. This is the media release that just showed up in my inbox. I will be commenting on this further because, well, there is a lot to comment on and frankly I really never like to …

This year’s BC book harvest

I originally started this post back in early August because it was the first time that I could actually sit down and do some proper writing here. Jobs and other large projects had occupied my time up until that point.  And then the fires started and priorities changed pretty quick. Since then of course, more books …

Wine Shops: Why do some wineries get it so wrong?

Wine shops are weird places. There aren't a lot of other businesses where you can go, consume some of the product for free (or nearly free), and buy (or not buy) some of said product. Test driving cars or trying on clothes are both perhaps the closest, except that in both cases the product doesn't …