Poplar Grove Penticton Gets Lt. Gov. Award + Naramata TailGate

Poplar Grove Cabernet Franc 2009  We are excited to announce that we won the Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Excellence in BC Wines for our Cabernet Franc 2009!  On July 26, 2012, the honourable Steven Point and 35 members of the Vancouver Consul Corps visited Poplar Grove to present us with this esteemed award. A big congratulations to Ian Sutherland, Stefan Arnason & Nadine Allander, our winemaking dream team! The Cabernet Franc was set be released on September 1, 2012… but due to popular demand we have released it a little early. The wine is now available in the tasting room or order here online.  Dropping Our Tailgates Once Again The Naramata Bench Wineriesare dropping their tailgates on Saturday, September 8th for the Okanagan wine party of the season. It’s our let-your-hair down, pop-some-corks and have a lot of fun event.  This year will be a bigger and better event than ever before. That’s right, in additionto 21 wineries pouring their wines, there will be great food; live music by Shane Philips; dancing; and a Salmon Showdown featuring some of the Okanagan’s best chefs.   And if that is not enough, there is also an after party, the Super Gate, which picks up where Tailgate leaves off, but only 100 tickets are available. Think of it as a VIP after-party with our winemakers, winery owners and guest chefs. There will be an oyster bar, exclusive and elusive wines to taste, and more food and music. Tickets Main Event Tickets: 5:30 – 8:00 PM  ~ $89. Super Gate Tickets: 5:30 – 10 PM  ~  $155. includes After Party. For more info and tickets:www.naramatabench.com / 1-800-663-1900 Would the biggest wine bottle in the cellar please step forward? The Poplar Grove wine making team is going to test the age-old adage that bigger is always better! A limited number of magnums and 3 litre bottles are being made for wine lovers who are looking for celebration wines or special additions to their cellars. The magnums of Poplar Grove Merlot and Poplar Grove Legacy will be available in time for this holiday season.    Wine Club members will find these party size bottles in the online Wine Club cellar, right next to the other bottles of back vintage, sold out and limited release wines! Tomatoes from our vineyard garden are on the menu This year Vanilla Pod’s Chef Bruno Terroso and Poplar Grove’s Viticulturist, Valeria Tait teamed up to plant heirloom tomatoes in the garden just behind the winery.  Valeria was excited about this joint project saying, “we are using the garden as an indicator of what kind of farming year it will be for the estate vineyards.  If it is a great year for tomato vines then it will generally be a great year for grape vines”. Valeria planted a total of 80 heirloom tomato cultivars and though we lost a few with two unexpected cold snaps, we still have 53 gorgeous plants to harvest from in the coming month. Chef Bruno is looking forward to working with fresh out of the garden tomatoes as these are one of his favorite foods to play with “just add a little extra virgin olive oil, basil and a sprinkling of sea salt and you have a dish that tastes like more”. For reservations at the Vanilla Pod Restaurant at Poplar Grove call 250 494 8222 or email vanillapod@shaw.ca Copyright © 2012 Poplar Grove Winery, All rights reserved.  Our mailing address is: Poplar Grove Winery 425 Middle Bench Road N Penticton, BC V2A8S5 Canada @LocalFoodWine

 

 

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The Wine Yacht

“We wanted to put our own unique spin on traditional food and wine pairing concepts” says Chef Natasha Harris.“Clients who book the yacht will be able to show their guests Vancouver from a new perspective, while learning about interesting wine and food combinations using local ingredients. It’s a great opportunity to showcase our city and what we are privileged to have  here.”

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Created by Sunset Bay’s ISG accredited Executive Chef Natasha Harris, The Wine Yacht’s interactive group tasting sessions are designed to provide clients with an informative and unique custom tasting event while on board the “Sunset Bay II” private yacht. Each tasting station features premium wine varietals from BC and around the world, paired with small plates inspired by the corresponding wine’s region.

Contact Local Food And Wine for custom Wine Travel Itineraries

Okanagan Wineries’ WineTripper App for the iPhone

by Jeff Pennal

Every year my wife and I take a tour through the Okanagan hitting many of our favourite wineries, tasting and purchasing many bottles of wine, and basking in the glory of the majestic interior, with its breath-taking scenery and lovely lakes.

Last Spring, we decided to take an early trip through the Okanagan to pick up some more wine and enjoy the beautiful spring blossoms in the orchards – we had stopped at the local tourist info centre and grabbed a handful of winery brochures and maps of the wineries and we were off.  We discovered that there were some downfalls to using the maps – the hours were not listed nor their open season.  We were there early in the spring and some of our favourite wineries were not open!  This is when we decided to create an iPhone App that would eliminate the need to stop for maps and brochures altogether.

Wine Tripper has a great map of the wineries in BC, a comprehensive list of those wineries including their address and hours of operation, and a place where you can make notes on the wines you have tasted and your opinions.  My wife’s favourite aspect of the Wine Tripper app is that when you pull up the map of the area the red dots indicate wineries that are closed and the green ones are open – this eliminates the extra time and disappointment of driving by a winery that is closed for the off-season.  I like that you can easily get a listing of the wineries that are closest to you based on proximity.  You will like that the Wine Tripper BC iPhone app costs only $2.99 to buy and will save you time and make your wine touring much more enjoyable!

Check it out at http://www.bennalsoft.com/winetripper

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