Thoughts From My Belly

My wife and I went to the Westjet Wine Tastings @ The Delta Grand last night and both really enjoyed ourselves. I have to admit up front that I’m positive my taste buds weren’t functioning properly last night when it came to the white wines. Nothing was tasting outstanding, despite me trying a few “benchmarks” [...]

The Rotten Grape has been hosting a series of events that they’re calling “Wino Wednesdays” in their restaurant on Bernard (near The Sails). Basically they invite a winemaker/winery owner to the restaurant from 5pm and 8pm. Anyone who drops in during that time gets a flight of three 1.5oz glasses of wine from that winery, [...]

Wow!!! That’s the best way I can describe my day in the Similkameen Valley tasting wine. I was blown away by the consistently high quality of the wines we experienced. If you didn’t follow my tweets throughout the day, I’ve made a brief summary below. Robin Ridge – Our first stop of the day was [...]

A friend of mine from out of town had a job interview up at Summerhill over the weekend. I offered to give him a ride up there and decided to stick around a do some wine tasting while I waited for him. For those that have read my column from day 1, you will know [...]

The Spring Wine Festival is fast approaching so I thought I would share a few tidbits from the local wine scene. 8th Generation Vineyards has a number of Wine Festival events coming up. I’m hoping to catch them at Vintages in the Park at The Father Pandosy Mission on May 1st or the following weekend [...]

There are lots of great food related events coming up in Kelowna. Here is a spotlight on a few of the highlights: 7th Annual International Wine Exhibition – March 12th 7pm – 10pm @ The Capri Hotel – I’ve never been able to attend this event in the past, but have heard nothing but positive [...]

Here are some last minute ideas for Valentine’s for a few different groups out there: Guys looking for a restaurant – If you’re still looking for a good restaurant to dine out at this Sunday night a lot of the usual spots are already booked up. If you’re looking for a small intimate place like [...]

I recently had the chance to not only visit Mission Hill, but to have a private tasting guided by sommelier and Mission Hill Wine Education Ambassador Jesse Harnden. They had just finished an internal tasting in order to decide which wines to enter into the various competitions that they’ll be competing in, so I was [...]

For those that don’t know, Wine and Dine Okanagan is a great event where local restaurants put together 3 course set menus for $15, $25, or $35. I love this event, because it let’s you try three different dishes (usually, but not always, an appetizer, main, and dessert) for an affordable price. If you go with a friend and the restaurant has options on their Wine and Dine menu, then you can share and try six different dishes!

This year the event starts today (Jan 13th) and runs through the end of the month. Wine and Dine is a great reason to visit your old favourites or some new flavours during what is typically a slow season for the foodservice industry. With over 50 BCRFA member restaurants participating there is something out there for everyone.

I was lucky enough to be able to attend the media launch and sneak preview yesterday afternoon and I have to say that there is lots to be excited about. Here are a few of the highlights:

It was late June and another day of wine touring was definitely in the cards. We decided to head down South of Oliver and visit some wineries that none of us had ever been to before. We started out with a list of about five wineries and where we planned to go for lunch, but [...]