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 …

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.

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 …

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 …

Mullings Over Wine Pretentiousness in the Digital World

Here is what I hear when I read reviews or listen to someone criticize wine shops, wine shop staff, or even sommeliers as being "pretentious". I hear this: "Everything I need to know, I already know. Anything that someone tells me that may differ from that is wrong, must be false, and is therefore completely fabricated …

A Finished Product

When is a wine truly finished? These are the crazy things that I think about while I'm driving along highway 97. It's amazing I haven't had a serious accident lately. What I mean is this: When a car rolls off the assembly line at Toyota, it's finished and ready to be used. It's the same …

On Subtlety

Subtlety is like a complex joke. You either get it or you don't. Some people are incredibly perceptive of minute variations and changes of colours, textures, timing, or some other quality while other people can't see the difference. If you drive a car going to work, do you think about the weight transfer to your …

Hints of Gooseberries and Baloney

There's an old Celtic proverb that goes, "We don't see things as they are. We see them as we are." I'm about as Celtic as won-ton soup but I've always found that proverb appealing for some reason. Growing up English-speaking in a French-speaking province meant that I probably had different, minority cultural views than the rest …

What do you mean “blended”?

Another question that has been inspired by the many wine tourist friends that I've met over the years is about blended wines. I worked at a winery that offered a beautifully constructed premium blended wine that a customer vocally poo-pooed before even tasting it. "None for me! I don't like blended wines at all. I …