Sideways, the movie, has come and gone from the big screen but not without having a significant impact on North American pinot noir sales. Almost overnight, the grape that was barely known outside the inner circle of wine-dom, has arrived in the glare
Since the beginning of the year I have been busy exploring the growing global sauvignon blanc market. To be more precise I've tasted 107 examples of the cool white grape that in the 1970s was best known as chardonnay's poor cousin. How far sauvignon has
When it takes a minimum three to four years to plant a vineyard, grow grapes and make your first wine, fashion is not a word wine growers throw about too freely. So while the nation may be dumping its sleek shades for this season's giant-sized sunglasses
In 2003, B.C. Lt.-Gov. Iona Campagnolo consulted with the province's wine industry to establish an awards program that would honour excellence in wines made from 100-per-cent B.C.-grown grapes. The annual competition, supported and primarily administered
The practice of laying away wines to age in a cellar is a non-starter for most people today. Few, if any, have a suitable space to keep wine for any length of time and, more important, most reportedly consume more than 90 per cent of the wine they buy
Summer is here, even if the weather has yet to cooperate, and that means a shift to lighter, brighter whites. In my estimation, white wine has never tasted better and I for one will spend this summer much the same as the last, trying to convince friends
Today we continue our quest for quality, fun-to-drink shiraz/syrah from around the world only this time most sell for over $20. You would think that any wine selling for more than $20 would fit at least the quality part of our quest but similar
There is a scene in the recent hit movie Sideways where Miles and Jack are about to enter a restaurant and Miles shouts: "If anyone orders a freaking merlot, I'm out of there." The point, in a movie that's all about pinot noir, is that merlot, once the
Is pinot gris the great white hope of B.C. vintners? Does it make our best white, or in some cases, copper-coloured wine? I used to think so, but I'm no longer convinced it will make the very finest white wine in B.C. That title will likely go to a blend
They say that when it comes to identifying grapes, gewurztraminer and perhaps sauvignon blanc are the easiest for a newcomer to recognize. Clearly the aromatics grab your attention and in the case of one of today's featured grapes -- gewurztraminer --
Spain is the current darling of the international food and wine stage and as the anti-globalization forces gather strength, the country with culinary diversity to spare could be in for a long run as a preferred producer of both food and wine. I've always
Wednesday the New Zealand Consul General and a group of New Zealand winegrowers will hold the largest ever tasting of screw cap finished wines in Vancouver. Although it's fun to mention, be assured no one is pitching the screw cap closures to attract
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled this week that American consumers may purchase wine direct from out-of-state wineries, striking down laws banning the practice. The five to four decision strikes down laws in the lucrative New York and Michigan markets that
If there is a single, noble, grape variety that spells Spain most would agree it's tempranillo even if most Spaniards can not agree on a single name to refer to the country's most famous red grape. Unlike most classic grapes, think riesling,
If there is one country that's been spinning its wine wheels in Canada for most of the last decade, it has to be Chile. A decade of promise has come and gone for the long, thin country that looked so ready to jump to a new level in the 1990s. Today,
California wine producers, still reeling from the unanticipated demand for pinot noir generated by the hit movie Sideways, are bracing for another wave of buyers with the release of the wine-country comedy in video stores. Sideways follows unrecovered
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