About

Published over 500 articles on BC Wineries, Wine Industry Trends and Wine Economics. Visited wineries on 3 continents. Your guide to the best value BC Wines.

BC Vineyard scene

It is great to be living in the Okanagan Valley, close to so many first-class wineries and enthusiastic winemakers.  Before starting the BC Wine Trends blog in 2015, we had the opportunity to visit wineries on three continents.

Australia

Born in Melbourne, I spent time in Margaret River, Barossa Valley, Coonawarra, McLaren Vale, Hunter Valley, Yarra Valley, Mornington Peninsula and Gippsland, the home of my favourite Pinot “Bass Phillip”. I was fortunate to go to school with Phil Jones and remember helping him out with some early ’70s plantings in his Leongatha vineyard. Best Aussie Wine 2013

Rockford Winery Barossa Valley
Rockford Winery Barossa Valley

The other Aussie wine I love is Rockford’s Black Shiraz, the quintessential smooth sparkling red!

USA

Melville Winery
Melville Winery Santa Ynez Valley

Living in Phoenix for 15 years gave us the opportunity for multiple trips to the California wineries in Napa, Sonoma, Lodi, Paso Robles, Temecula and my favourite Santa Barbara. Hard to beat the Lodi Zins and Santa Barbara Pinots for value!  Another favourite west coast destination was Seattle with easy access to the Woodinville wineries, love those Cabs and Syrahs.

Europe

Castello Banfi in Montalcino Tuscany
Castello Banfi in Montalcino Tuscany

Our vacations took us to some exciting winery locations in Italy (Tuscany and Veneto where we fell in love with Amarone). In Spain the sparkling wines of Cava outside of Barcelona and the great reds of Roja.

This gives you a feel for my background. The objective of this wine blog is to cut through the Marketing hype and deliver information of value to BC Wine enthusiasts.

Cheers,

Julian

Julian at Ex Nihilo Winery