On the Road with the Grape Guy

Report from - British Columbia Day 7 & 8 Heading North ... July 28-29, 2008

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Category: On the Road with the Grape Guy

With the Naramata Bench fully completed in two days we now had a big decision ahead of us:  go North or go South. 
North seemed the most likely.  With a number of interesting and well-known wineries up that way, and having covered quite a bit of the south already, it seemed the most logical choice.  And besides, looking at the map we felt we had our work cut out for us.  BC is expanding Highway 97, the main artery to Kelowna (where most of these wineries center around) from Pentiction (where we are staying) – the road gets closed 3 times during the day between Summerland and Peachland for blasting away and the clean up of rocks.  This works out to be about the halfway point between the two cities.  We decided to do as many above the construction zone on the Monday and below the construction zone Tuesday.  We did these wineries in a “sip and leave” fashion:  you try a few wines and if nothing impresses you, leave … if you find some wines that do impress, try more of their wines.  Some winery names you’ll recognize because we have seen their names in Ontario or we have heard of them from others who visit. 

I noticed that wineries in BC are hit and miss, like they are in any region.  BC has this strong, fierce self-identity and self-awareness that all BC wines are the best … wish we had that attitude in Ontario.  But mom and I are learning that just like in any region there are good producers and fair producers.  As we learned on the Naramata Bench over the past few days, the difference between a very good winery and an average winery is passion – and you can make that distinction in the glass.  Passion shows through, and so does plain old profiteering.  On our northerly trip this topic kept coming up, and that perception really stuck with us as we continued into the south on days 9 and 10 ... (Read more - pictures, wineries visited and wines of note)

To read about more interesting adventures thru the world of wine check out the On the Road With the Grape Guy blog. 

Report from - Lake Erie North Shore Vintage Tasting … August 10, 2008

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Category: On the Road with the Grape Guy

This used be called the “New” Vintages Festival for the Lake Erie North Shore wineries, and it’s kinda true, this 14 year old event was mostly about “New” wines; but this year there was also a fair share of old favourites kicking about too.  The reason for the format change, or so I am told, by two sources (so it must be true), is that a few years back, during the bad winters and new winery emergence/growth, some of the wineries did not have new wines to pour at the festival, so then bent the rules a little to include older stuff – and well it seems the rules were never bent back.  But for the most part the majority of the wines were from newer vintages (all except for Viewpointe – who I understand is having trouble getting glassware, ie: bottles; and Alexsander, whose recently bottled wines were still in shock, so they brought some of their old favourites).  Otherwise every winery had at least 2 new wines and some, like Colio, had only new stuff... (Read more, including pictures and the best wines reviewed)

To read about more interesting adventures thru the world of wine check out the On the Road With the Grape Guy blog.