Every place has its 'thing', a natural danger to inhabitants that occasionally make life a little more uncertain. Visiting grandparents and uncles in Florida, I was surprised to find a channel on the television that was dedicated entirely to hurricane warnings. Living in Montreal, massive snow storms that would cripple most cities or have them …
Continue reading Oliver Fires 2015
Regional associations of wineries (sometimes blandly referred to as "generic marketing bodies" in the wine industry) are not a new phenomena in B.C. They lurk in the background of tastings and marketing campaigns in the Okanagan, Vancouver, and other key markets. I'm not even sure that many consumers are all that familiar with them specifically …
Continue reading Regional Marketing in BC
A new series for Wine Country BC - "You've Gotta Visit..." where I will feature new, exciting, and interesting wineries that you absolutely should not miss on your travels through wine country. I get asked a lot where to go for unique experiences and this series will focus on some of the new ones that …
Continue reading You’ve gotta visit: vinPerdu
There is a lot of information on wine labels. Sometimes deciphering them can be a bit of a challenge. There are strange words that don't look like they're in English and it's probably because they aren't. I vividly remember walking down the aisles of my local liquor store trying to figure out which wine to …
Continue reading Wine Labels in BC: How Wines are Named
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 …
Continue reading What do you mean “blended”?
Thomas Jefferson created lists of his top wines from different regions throughout France and Europe. Many wine lovers of his time did and continued to do well into the 19th century. The fact that one of those lists of Bordeaux chateaux was written into law in 1855 is both the bane of Bordeaux and the reason …
Continue reading The Grand Crus of BC
If you have a winery in BC, there is still time to be a part of this year's Festival of the Grape! I am the Wine Chair for this year's Festival of the Grape Committee and have noticed that there are still a few spaces left in the tasting tents. So I thought I'd put …
Continue reading Festival of the Grape – Still Room for wineries
Ok, there's been a lot of articles lately so let's get back to the podcasts. Anyone who has toured the Naramata Bench in the summertime will recognize the name Top Cat Tours. Their buses are almost synonymous with wine touring in Penticton. As one of the oldest wine touring companies in the Okanagan starting in …
Continue reading Podcast 146 – Wine Tour Companies Part 3
For those that don't live here in wine country, you might be surprised to find out that there are other things that happen here that don't involve wine. Shocking as that is, there are lots of fun local events that aren't based on wine at all. Penticton has a Peach Festival and where I live …
Continue reading Sunshine Parade 2014
** Update July 2015 - Food trucks are sometimes transient and their locations can change often. Some changes have happened to the food trucks in this article since it was written. The Beach Bums have "upgraded" to an actual location but in Osoyoos at the Petro Canada on Route 3 heading east out of town. Hammer's has …
Continue reading Let’s go food truckin’ – The Food Trucks of Oliver
Wine Country BC 