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Reading Time: 3 minutes There are impressive inaugural releases, and then there are wines that immediately announce a winery has arrived. Seven Directions Wine’s 2025 Estate Grenache Rosé belongs firmly in the latter category. Produced entirely from estate-grown Grenache at Solum Rosa Estate Vineyard in British Columbia’s Similkameen Valley, this is the winery’s first estate…

Kim Uncorked: Welcome to my weekly wine recommendation. Hi, I’m Kim, a passionate lover of wine, food, and any experience that brings the two together! In this weekly blog post, I share my thoughts on a wine that I’ve recently purchased from one of our local independent wine merchants. If you’d like to know more…

Reading Time: 3 minutes Hester Creek’s 2024 Petit Verdot Malbec with BBQ Ribs and Cowboy Beans When British Columbia’s devastating January 2024 freeze forced many wineries to look beyond provincial borders for fruit, Hester Creek Estate Winery responded with a clear philosophy: source grapes from vineyards that closely mirror the South Okanagan’s climate and terroir…

Photo: Hester Creek president Mark Sheridan The release of these wines – all 2025 VQA wines except one 2024 Washington red – has almost been overshadowed by the announcement that Mark Sheridan, the winery’s president, will retire at the end of this year. An Australian-born and trained viticulturist, he was recruited to the Okanagan in…

Check out the new 100% Champagne summer activity book ! This summer, we invite you to explore Champagne in an engaging and playful way with our new activity book. Designed to combine learning and enjoyment, this resource helps you deepen your knowledge of Champagne through a variety of interactive content: • educational games and quizzes…

After a couple of years, we have a new edition of the Southeast Regional Bunch Grape Integrated Management Guide! You can find the updated guide at: https://fieldreport.caes.uga.edu/publications/AP131-2/2026-southeast-regional-bunch-grape-integrated-management-guide/. This is a new annual guide for managing diseases, insects, weeds, and wildlife in bunch grapes in the Southeast. Additionally, cultural practices were added to this edition of…

Science continues to reveal just how sophisticated the relationship is between plant roots and the soil microbiome. We’ve written before about plants acting as miniature solar panels, using photosynthesis to produce sugars that are released into the soil as root exudates. These exudates feed soil microbes, creating a symbiotic partnership between plants and the organisms…

Reading Time: 3 minutes The devastating January 2024 cold event dramatically reduced British Columbia’s grape crop, leaving many wineries without enough fruit to produce some of their most cherished wines. Pinot Noir was among the hardest-hit varieties, making exceptional examples from the vintage especially rare. One of those rare success stories is Bottega’s 2024 Pinot…

Photo: Blue Mountain winemaker Matt Mavety The trio of 2025 whites released earlier this month by Blue Mountain Vineyard & Cellars show once again what a fine vintage 2025 is proving to be. The previous two vintages suffered seriously from winter damage. The Okanagan Valley’s vineyards produced just five per cent of their normal quantity…

Wine Production in Fuissé: A History The village of Fuissé sits near the southern end of Burgundy’s limestone belt, where the vineyard land of the Côte d’Or and Côte Chalonnaise gives way, a few kilometers to the south, to the granitic terrain of Beaujolais. It is a small commune in the department of Saône-et-Loire, and…