Tag Archives: Canada

Sauvignette Eh!? Wine Review of Unsworth Vineyard Vancouver Island BC

Posted on September 20, 2018 by waywardwine

Ok! Vancouver Island wines have given us challenging results. Maybe, the standard grapes Chardonnay (review here), Gamay (here), even Sparkling pinot (here) provide little more than acidity, edge, reflecting regional limits. Maybe a more climate-friendly hybrid grape might work.

Sauvignette. Continue reading →

Posted in Vancouver Island, White wine | Tagged Cabernet Sauvignon, Canada, drink, grapes, lees, Oak, Sauvignette, Sauvignon blanc, travel, Vancouver Island, wine | 2 Comments

Canadian Bubbly Eh? Averill Creek Vancouver Island Sparkling Wine Review #3

Posted on September 7, 2018 by waywardwine

OK! Ok! So our venture into wines from Vancouver Island VQA’s has drawn up bracingly tart Chardonnay (read here) and wild Gamay (read here). They have been real, reflective, but not great.

Maybe cool climate Burgundy and Beaujolais are not harsh enough models. Let us look to Champagne, to bubbly, to where fizz makes high acid wine magical. Continue reading →

Posted in Sparkling, Uncategorized | Tagged Averill Creek, bubbly, Canada, Champagne, drinks, Pinot Gris, pinot noir, Sparkling wine, Vancouver BC, Vancouver Island | 5 Comments

Canadian Chardonnay Eh!? Vancouver Island Wine Tour #1

Posted on August 26, 2018 by waywardwine

Check here over the next few weeks, I am touring Vancouver Island’s wines, ciders, and beer.

Wife, kid, and I (sounds like a musical) have driven a day to Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. And yes, they grow enough grapes here to claim a Vancouver Island appellation or VQA. Sure, vines only started in 1992, today boasting 432 planted acres and 32 wineries (even Oregon’s tiny Willamette Valley claims 19,000 acres and over 500 wineries). But what that youth and extremely small scale means, however, is focus: most wineries are estate only, often organic, and handled by families from vineyard to bottle. Continue reading →

Posted in Chardonnay, Uncategorized | Tagged Canada, chardonnay, Cheese, Food, grapes, travel, trips, Vancouver, Vancouver Island, wine, Wolff Estate | 6 Comments

Goodbye BC: Chamberton Winery, Fraser Valley, Canada

Posted on January 29, 2015 by waywardwine

Wayward Wine ends eleven days in Canada, with British Columbia’s oldest winery: Chamberton Estate. Now oldest around here is 1991. But that gets near to 24 years old. Claude and Inge Violet left their vineyards in France to plant in BC. Only recently did they hand the winery to Eugene Kwan and Anthony Cheng, who are thoroughly involved. Let’s see how they fair. Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Bacchus grape, british columbia, Canada, chamberton, Fraser Valley, Grape, siegerrebe, VQA, wine, Winery | Leave a comment

Township 7: Fraser Valley and Okanagan Wines in Canada

Posted on January 29, 2015 by waywardwine

We leave Backyard Vineyards, and grab lunch at a deli with more German imports than we saw in Germany. Satiated, we drive to Township 7.

Empty fields lead to vineyards. A yellow building sits above the vines. A pleased couple ambles out, glasses in hand, to a bench flanked by vineyards. We head in… Continue reading →