Grape Squeeze

The biggest and most ambitious wine festival in the province takes place in the Okanagan Valley every fall, beginning the weekend before Thanksgiving and ending on the Monday of the long weekend. There are hundreds of special events, tastings, concerts, and wine-soaked fancy dinners to choose from, all up and down the valley. Approximately twenty [...]

September 24th 2011 marked the Third Annual Rainbow International Wine Festival in Chilliwack B.C., and after being coaxed, teased, and lured for the two prior years I realized that the third time was lucky and decided to attend. The event is organized by Deanna Wardell who is the manager of the private liquor store at [...]

I would say that I’m about half recovered now. This is a good place to be when reminiscing about a truly great experience: I’m still glowing but not tipsy anymore, and the memories are still relatively fresh despite the wine-induced amnesia.   If you have been paying any sort of attention you already know that [...]

I’m not the kind of girl who likes to stop when I’m onto or into something good.   I wouldn’t say that my life has been characterized by excess per se… in fact, as a child our mother severely limited our access to good things. Treats were generally reserved for the times when we had [...]

Happy New Year!  I have a special treat for you this month:  I am defining the food and wine trends for 2011 so that we can all start the year on the right track and with the inside scoop.  This took some careful research, just so you know, because every so-called expert had a differing [...]

So, we did it.  We swirled.  First we did it clockwise and then we did it counterclockwise… just to honour those who like it that way (and you know who you are).  It was FABULOUS! Okay, I’ll stop it before you begin to suspect I’m slightly off because truly, that would be an entirely different [...]

  Once the stage has been set and after all of the key players have arrived, you can finally stop holding your breath and begin to smile.  Once the first glass of wine is in your hand and you look around to see the eager happy faces of your friends and the assembled guests, the [...]

So Mr. Sweeting came back from the Okanagan one day and said to his son Paul, ‘You guys should see if you can do a Winemaker’s Dinner with these guys’ and handed him a business card for the Enotecca Winery Group.  Paul in turn handed the card to me and when I flipped it over [...]

One of our team members suggested a great concept for a Thursday Night Swirl wine tasting that was perfect during the Winter Olympics weeks:  several of our staff would choose a wine they liked to present to the Swirl participants, the participants would then evaluate and rate the wines, and a winner would be named.  [...]

I like my job.  Yes, there are many ordinary moments at work, but then there are the things that make me look around and muse ‘do I really get paid to do this?’ One of the best work-things that I get to do is organize wine tastings for Whatcom Wine & Spirits’ Wine Club.  I, [...]