Enthusiasm is an essential part of quality service, and it’s impossible to fake convincingly. An unenthusiastic server can do a perfectly fine job, but for a truly great dining experience, enthusiasm is a must. On a recent visit to Waterfront Wines in Kelowna, British...
No one has much sympathy when I tell them that my job can be hard. “Oh, poor guy, having to drink wine for a living,” they might exclaim. By and large, they’re right: I’m pretty happy with it all. That said, the two days of the year I spend as a judge for the Sip...
After a long day of wine tasting, sometimes the most appealing dinner is one with the right balance between creativity and comfort. On a recent visit to Kelowna, I had just such a meal at RauDZ (yes, that’s how they spell it), right on the waterfront. The menu...
Two weeks ago, I wrote about British Columbia’s Similkameen Valley, a picturesque and quiet wine region. The Okanagan Valley is equally picturesque, but far less quiet, especially in and around Kelowna, a city that was described to me as “the Jersey Shore of Canada.”...
Trying to get your head around the British Columbia wine scene can be a bit tricky from within the United States, because so little of the wine is exported outside the province. In hopes of clearing up some of my confusion, and to hopefully find some great wine that’s...
There are plenty of over-used phrases in wine: “bold yet balanced” and “terroir-driven” come to mind right away. There are others like “wet slate” and “subtle barnyard” that are perhaps hard to understand. Yet one phrase is both over-used and poorly understood, and...
I was having a conversation with a colleague the other day, and we started talking about cult wines. You know the type: small production, staggering price, years spent on a waiting list just to get one measly bottle. Certain wines have always been exalted, but...
It’s not all that often that I get to write a Tasting Notes column that is, in fact, a bunch of tasting notes. The Monday after Taste Washington is one of those rare days, though. As it is every year, Taste is a chance to take stock of what’s happening in the state,...
I’m an avowed fan of Washington Syrah. As such, I was excited to see last week that New York Times wine critic Eric Asimov had turned his attention to our forgotten corner of the country. Yet unfortunately, I couldn’t help but feel that the resultant write-up was at...
Reputations are hard to change. That goes for wineries as much as for people, and for the ones in the Northwest who might not be happy with how they’re viewed, figuring out a way to change people’s previously held notions can be a bit difficult. Sometimes it takes...
