As Anthony mentioned in his National Wine Awards of Canada article, and as the detailed coverage on WineAlign reveals, competition at the Nationals was tight this year, with the quality of the wines higher than ever before. BC did incredibly well in 2015,
When I have been lucky enough to go to France in the past, one of the first things I look for in cheese stores is Saint-Marcellin. This is a delicate, rather fragile cheese and we only receive it periodically in Canada, so buying it at the source is a
Earlier this summer I filmed a six part BC winegrowers series in the Okanagan Valley for the The Vancouver Sun. BC Winegrowers takes viewers on a ride while we visit with six wineries in this travelogue of one of North America’s premium wine regions,
The countdown is on to Top Drop Vancouver, the city's two-day celebration of craft. The independent event, now in its second year, brings together international terroir-focused wineries, craft breweries, cideries and foodstuffs with the people that
Jimmy McEwan began his career at the illustrious Bowmore Distillery on the island of Islay, the southwesternmost part of Scotland, in 1963. He was an apprentice cooper. An aptitude for all things single malt whisky was one thing; a gift for communicating
At the age of ten, some 80 kilometers southwest of Pézenas, Gérard Bertrand’s father, Georges Bertrand, invited his son to work the harvest in his cellars at Domaine de Villemajou at Boutenac in Corbières in the Aude. The idea
On May 24, 1976, a youthful Steven Spurrier held a seminal tasting of French and American wine known as The Judgment of Paris. On August 25, 2015, Mr. Spurrier, now a consulting editor at Decanter Magazine and Chair of the Decanter World Wine Awards,
We are going to Australia this fall and there are a few seats left. Take advantage of this incredible opportunity that has just been extended. If you’ve never been to Australia or you need an excuse to go back, this food and wine tour is truly the
How many times can you write about a competition? I ask myself this loaded question as I pore over the results of the 2015 WineAlign National Wine Awards. Now fifteen years after David Lawrason and I began the awards, it would appear the
He finds it impossible to contain his delight in pouring wines from his home region, the Lirac, near the right banks of the Rhone River. Rodoplhe de Pins made his first wines here in 1995, after spending years at Henschke in Australia, and at the illustrious
First off let’s discuss sheep’s milk. Delicious and rich, cheese made from sheep’s milk can be mild and fruity, aged and sharp and even a little bit gamey and salty sometimes. French, Basque and Spanish sheep’s milk cheese tend
There’s a place where all devout pinot-philes go. No – it’s not heaven (the golden slopes of Burgundy) or hell (where MegaPurple flows from the faucets). It’s the International Pinot Noir Celebration, colloquially IPNC, and widely
On July 1st, 2015 CedarCreek’s 2012 Platinum Block 2 Pinot Noir was awarded the Trophy for ‘Best Red Wine in Canada’ at the prestigious Decanter World Wine Awards, in London, UK. That same day, the winery also announced the appointment
A case-full of years have passed since Allen Shoup launched a highly ambitious Walla Walla project designed to catch the wine world’s imagination. Preposterous is one way to describe the idea: seven acclaimed winemakers, who didn’t need any
Canada Day is upon us and as we reflect on our 148th birthday, it only seems fair we reflect on the current state of the British Columbia and Canadian wine industry. While the modern birth of local wine came only seven years after the first official
When it comes to cheese I’m a bit of a purist. I love traditional cheese from their traditional homes. There is nothing like a taste of Beaufort to imagine the alpine meadows in the mountains of the Savoie. Enjoying the grassy, earthy taste of St