Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . Christopher Mark from Vintality Tech Inc. joins me on the podcast this week. We talk about all things vineyards in this one, which is a hot topic among more than just wine enthusiasts these days. Everyone seems to have heard that BC's interior has had it bad over the past few years. Chris is literally at ground zero for around the Okanagan and Similkameen Valleys with his company as he monitors and an...
May 22, 2024•56 min•Season 2Ep. 53
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . This week on the podcast, Jessie Hopwood returns for a visit to catch up and talk about the state of BC’s wine industry after a crazy winter. We'll catch up with why there haven't been any podcasts lately, how to get into the wine industry, and why you should never ferment raspberry wine in a condo unless you have home insurance. It’s a fun and casual conversation over glasses of Oak Estate Winery Che...
May 08, 2024•47 min•Season 2Ep. 52
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . It’s the first annual SIPPIE AWARDS and here are the WINNERS! Modelled after the BC LG awards, the Sippies are my way of telling you about all kinds of Canadian wines. I’ve written about some of them but there are often others that I can’t include in my books for various reasons (they might be too expensive or limited to one single vintage). I still think you should know about these wines because they...
Feb 07, 2024•32 min•Season 2Ep. 51
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . Here's a little bit of fun to start off the podcast in 2024. It's the first annual SIPPIE AWARDS!! Modelled after the BC LG awards, the Sippies are my way of telling you about all kinds of Canadian wines. I've written about some of them but there are often others that I can't include in my books for various reasons (they might be too expensive or limited to one single vintage). I still think you shoul...
Jan 31, 2024•35 min•Season 2Ep. 50
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . This week’s podcast features Ann Sperling, a legendary wine maker from BC who has been in Ontario now for many years. She has a long family history in BC and is the great-granddaughter of Giovanni Casorso, who is (if we need one) the real father of BC’s wine industry. She spent her first years as a winemaker at André’s Wines in Port Moody in the 1980s before taking on winemaking at the early years of ...
Dec 23, 2023•1 hr 12 min•Season 2Ep. 49
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . You will hear 2 other voices on this week’s podcast and those will be of Graham Rennie and Matt Loney. Graham is the found of The Niagara Custom Crush Studio in Vineland, Ontario and Matt Loney is the General Manager. They are innovative and pushing the envelope for a new style of custom crush facility. They are just getting started now but they are on track to become a focal point in Niagara’s wine i...
Dec 14, 2023•1 hr 3 min•Season 2Ep. 48
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . Want some history? How about finding out what American outlaw Jesse James did to leave his mark on the Staff family property. This is part 2 of my conversation with Sue-Ann Staff of Sue-Ann Staff Estate Winery in Jordan, Ontario. Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Support the show Purchase copies of “The Sipsters Pocket Gui...
Dec 06, 2023•35 min•Season 2Ep. 47
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . This is the second podcast that I recorded while travelling in Ontario. The voice you heard at the beginning belongs to Sue-Ann Staff, from Sue-Ann Staff Estate Winery located south of Jordan, Ontario on the top of the escarpment. Sue-Ann was such a bundle of joy to chat with. She had prepared a wonderful tasting through some of the key wines in her portfolio and chatted about the long and storied his...
Nov 29, 2023•56 min•Season 2Ep. 46
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . Vittorio de Stafano from On Seven Estate Winery joins me in this conversation about starting a super-premium winery with a focused portfolio build on Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. His Chardonnay left me utterly speechless when tasting it for the first time last winter when I was writing the first volume of the Sipster's Pocket Guide to 50 Must-Try Ontario Wines. On Seven was high on my list of Must-Visit...
Nov 22, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Season 2Ep. 45
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . Noelle Starzynski, wine marketer extraordinaire, joins me on the podcast this week. She is perhaps best known for her work with Lakeside Cellars in Osoyoos, BC where she has been working for the past 5 years helping to build their brand and hospitality program. I first met Noelle in the middle of the last decade and we have been running into each other at various events and stores ever since. We didn’...
Nov 15, 2023•1 hr•Season 2Ep. 44
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . This is the defacto Part 2 of my previous episode with Jess Hopwood from Farm to Glass Wine Tours . In this podcast, you will hear the voices of Jody and Costa Gavaris from Rigour and Whimsy Winery in Okanagan Falls, along with Jess and I as we taste through a few wines from their portfolio. You'll hear the ambience from the cellar as well as the humour and fun (or is that whimsy?) of time well spent ...
Oct 25, 2023•59 min•Season 2Ep. 43
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . This might be get loud. Do not adjust your devices. This is what real enthusiasm for wine sounds like. Carl and his wife Mira are partnered in running Carl's Wine Club. Carl joined me recently in the Sipster's studio for a chat about Canadian wine. He's got an amazing perspective on it and tastes so much wine over the course of his working year! Nobody in this country has the unique perspective that h...
Oct 18, 2023•1 hr 11 min•Season 2Ep. 42
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . The fall is always a busy time in the industry and even though I no longer work in the cellars as part of the harvest, I am still busy busy busy. I'm kicking off the second season of The Sipster's Wine Podcast with tons of announcements! PLUS! You will get to hear excerpts from the Sipster's Pocket Guides - BC Volumes 1 and 2 as well as a sneak preview of a chapter from the soon-to-be-released Sipster...
Oct 11, 2023•30 min•Season 2Ep. 41
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . You never know who you're going to meet when you work at a winery. This is a recent conversation with Kaila Kliewer, formerly a wine sales professional on the coast with a background in hospitality, who I actually met 10 years ago! (That's a good story too...) We share a similar interest and appreciation in wine but also a similar point of view over the industry from the perspective of working at VQA ...
Aug 30, 2023•38 min•Season 1Ep. 40
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . This is a different episode, recorded within the smoke-filled Okanagan Valley. It has not been an easy time here lately and this podcast is a little window into that time when smoke clogs the valley and fires dominate the news. Some of the links mentioned in this episode: CBC Kelowna - Daybreak with Chris Walker Castanet News BC Wildfire Service Map JancisRobinson.com article by Arnica Rowan Niche Win...
Aug 23, 2023•12 min
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . If it’s one thing I’ve learned from my years of producing a podcast, it’s that I can plan anything I want to, with as much detail and precision as I am capable of, but in the end the results are usually out of my control. I don’t have a journalism background and therefore, no training about how to maintain perspective or ask the tough questions or anything like that. Sometimes, I just have to go along...
Aug 16, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 38
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . *If you haven't yet, you should probably listen to Part 1 of this conversation first.* I first met Laura in early 2018, I believe through social media (although it was a bit of a blurry time in my life at that point so I might be wrong). In any case, we spent the afternoon chatting about wine and looking at the lake in the warm spring sun. Laura was not like other people that I had talked to about win...
Aug 09, 2023•44 min•Season 1Ep. 37
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . I first met Laura in early 2018, I believe through social media (although it was a bit of a blurry time in my life at that point so I might be wrong). In any case, we spent the afternoon chatting about wine and looking at the lake in the warm spring sun. Laura was not like other people that I had talked to about wine. Her questions to me where very different and I liked that immediately. We stayed in ...
Aug 02, 2023•37 min•Season 1Ep. 36
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . It's another flashback episode this week featuring Steve Venables from Forbidden Fruit Winery in the Similkameen Valley. This is a slightly ASMR interview since it was recorded outside in February on a beautiful day while sitting near the banks of the mighty Similkameen River. This was originally recorded February 2012. During the pandemic, I had to really temper my habit of stopping in to places to s...
Jul 26, 2023•41 min•Season 1Ep. 35
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . So where the heck have I been? Lots of places. Listen to this podcast to hear about where I was and what's I've got planned for the future. Welcome to the Sipsters Podcast! Thank you for listening to the Sipster's Podcast. Find us online at sipsters.ca. Support the show Purchase copies of “The Sipsters Pocket Guides” here ! Support Sipsters by subscribing ! Contact me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com!...
Jul 21, 2023•21 min•Season 1Ep. 34
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . If you think you know something about BC Wine but you don't know who John Schreiner is, then you still have a lot to learn about wine in this province. Wine in BC (and Canada) has not always been as good as it is now. At least a generation of wine drinkers now does not remember when Canadian wine was the butt of jokes and probably shouldn't have been consumed by humans before 1994. John saw the potent...
Jun 07, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Season 1Ep. 33
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . If you think you know something about BC Wine but you don't know who John Schreiner is, then you still have a lot to learn about wine in this province. Wine in BC (and Canada) has not always been as good as it is now. At least a generation of wine drinkers now does not remember when Canadian wine was the butt of jokes and probably shouldn't have been consumed by humans before 1994. John saw the potent...
May 31, 2023•50 min•Season 1Ep. 32
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . This week I chat with Charlotte Messines, who works at Thompson and Scott who produce the Noughty Wines in London, England. Never heard of that winery? Well, they produce a whole line of no-alcohol wines that are really taking off right now. They’ve been on my radar for over a year when I was sent samples while writing The Sipster’s Pocket Guide, volume 2 (which is out now). I was really intrigued by ...
May 24, 2023•32 min•Season 1Ep. 31
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . Part 2 of my conversation with Natalie MacLean, one of Canada’s most recognizable wine personalities. She has appeared regularly on television, newspaper and magazine columns, as well as online through her website at Nataliemaclean.com . She is the author of two previous books that I know you’ve seen in the wine sections of book stores before - Red, White and Drunk All Over: A Wine-Soaked Journey from...
May 17, 2023•48 min•Season 1Ep. 30
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . Natalie MacLean is one of Canada’s most recognizable wine personalities. She has appeared regularly on television, newspaper and magazine columns, as well as online through her website at Nataliemaclean.com . She is the author of two previous books that I know you’ve seen in the wine sections of book stores before - Red, White and Drunk All Over: A Wine-Soaked Journey from Grape to Glass and Unquencha...
May 10, 2023•44 min•Season 1Ep. 29
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . Yvonne Turgeon is the founder and editor of Thompson Okanagan Trends Magazine . We met for the first time last week at an industry function and we recorded this podcast yesterday (if you are listening to it the day that it is released). You might remember Okanagan Life magazine and the wine competition that they did in the spring. Trends magazine is bringing that back in a big way this month and Yvonn...
May 03, 2023•52 min•Season 1Ep. 28
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . What's here? The Sipster's Pocket Guide to 50 Must-Try BC Wines, Volume 2 is now out! Buy it at Mosaic Books in Kelowna ! Buy it at Munro Books in Victoria ! You can buy it here ! You can buy it there ! You can buy it everywhere! You can also buy it directly from me by sending me an email. Let me know how many you'd like, if you'd like them signed and personalized, and where they are shipping to and w...
Apr 26, 2023•38 min•Season 1Ep. 27
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . DJ Lady of the Mist, aka my friend and occasional musical partner Misty Rose joins me on this week's podcast. I’ve known Misty for about 7 or 8 years now and together we form the guitar and flute duet called Pairing Notes . Sadly, it took a long time for us to come up with that name. For some reason, she didn’t like Flutar, which was one of my suggestions – don’t know why. Anyways, Misty and I talk ab...
Apr 19, 2023•48 min•Season 1Ep. 26
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . Blair Gillingham joins me on the podcast this week. He is the winemaker at Howling Bluff Estate Winery in Naramata but has been in the wine business since he was a teenager. He's experienced a lot of vintages in many countries around the world, which he’ll be talking about. Blair is super down to earth about wine and winemaking. He was a hard-core listener to my old podcast, Wine Country BC back in th...
Apr 12, 2023•56 min•Season 1Ep. 25
Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . Wine and social media used to be a classic pairing. Wine enthusiasts found an outlet for their passion and generously shared their experiences on social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram to share with their friends and learn about others' experiences at the same time. But something has changed. Is social media still the place for wine lovers to congregate? Is it a constructive and beneficial ...
Apr 05, 2023•32 min•Season 1Ep. 24
