“Shimmering Chenins” Complementary Tasting at #BIBWC May 19

Saturday May  19: 1-5pm

at

Bowen Island beer and Wine Cellar, 103-996 Dorman Road (under the Ruddy Potato)

Chenin Blanc is one of the under-appreciated white grapes. It can be made into stellar dry white table wines, delectable sweet wines and smashing sparklers. Its spiritual roots are in France’s Loire Valley where it has been grown for nearly a 1,000 years.

This tasting will focus on table wines suitable for a long and, hopefully, hot weekend on the patio or deck. Expect a line up of quality wines, including a couple of Chenin blends, from BC, France, California, and South Africa.  Working on adding a sparkling Chenin into the set as well.

Bowen Children’s Centre fundraiser Wine Tasting May 3, 2012

Bowen Children’s Centre (BCC) is holding a wine tasting at Artisan Eats cafe Thursday May 3, 2012 from 7-9pm.

The event features a guided tasting by BC`s 8th Generation winery. A flight of 7 wines from their selection will be served along with cheeses provided by Artisan Eats.

8th Generation are one my favourite BC wineries so this is an event well worth attending. You will also be able to order the wines at winery price at the event and pick them up from us later.

Cabernet Day Tasting 5pm+ Thursday 1 September

Thursday 1 September is International Cabernet Day. Around the world, people will be opening up Cabernet based wines (Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and blends with Cabernet grapes like Bordeaux) in celebration and comparing notes over different social media platforms.

We are going to open two Cabernet Sauvignons for an EVENING tasting starting at 5pm until late so drop in on the way home from work to join in the celebration. We’ll be live tweeting from the store with a screen up for you to see what the rest of the world is tasting too.

Cab 1 will be the best selling Cabernet in BC – J. Lohr 7 Hills from California

Cab 2 will be a new import from Chile from Vina Arboleda. This is a new winery owned by Eduardo Chadwick, the master winemaker behind the very well regarded Errazuriz winery.

Look forward to seeing you all

 

 

4th Annual BC Wine Fest free tasting at Bowen Beer & Wine

Please join us this #BowFEAST weekend to celebrate eating and drinking locally. This is our 4th annual BC wine fest featuring FREE samples of great BC wines. Wines will be poured over 3 days starting Friday at 2pm.

Tasting session times:

Friday 2pm-6pm

Saturday 1pm – 5pm

Sunday 1pm to 5pm

On Saturday shop the #BowFEAST Farmers market from 9am to Noon. Have a nice lunch in the Cove, then mosey up to our new store on Dorman Road under the Ruddy Potato and taste some great BC wines to go with your fresh, local food for dinner.

While we end formal tasting at 6pm, if we have wine left you are welcome to come in later and try what’s still open

Big line up this year with totally different wines each day:

Participating Wineries and wines. Tasting order is yet to be determined but over the 3 days we’ll be opening wines from among the following:

The View - Frizzante, Gewurztraminer, Pinotage

Quails Gate - Rosé, Chenin Blanc

Tinhorn Creek - Cabernet Franc, Chardonnay

Stoneboat – Pinotage, Pinot Gris

Ganton & Larsen Prospect winery – Sauvignon Blanc, Unoaked Chardonnay

Lake Breeze - Pinot Blanc, Meritage

Dirty Laundry – Gewurztraminer, Merlot

Hester Creek – Cabernet/Merlot blend

Black Cloud – Pinot Noir

Tantalus – Riesling

8th Generation – Sauvignon Blanc

Blasted Church – Hatfields Fuse (white blend)

Fairview Cellars - 2 Hoots

Plus on Saturday ONLY – Red Roof Okanagan cider

Grand Opening Celebration – Canada Day 1-5pm

It’s time to celebrate. We’ve been open in the new premises since June 8 and worked out the kinks (we hope!) so time to raise a glass to welcome you to our new store. On Canada Day (July , 2011), we cordially invite you to drop in and be our guest at a wine and cheese tasting between 1-5pm. 

The new store is light, airy and spacious and we”ve had fantastic feedback on it from customers so far. If you have not been in please take the opportunity to take a peek at Bowen’s new retail experience.

Our featured winery for the tasting  is the Neck of the Woods. This is an local winery based in Langley, BC. Their wines are made from grapes grown in the Fraser Valley and the Okanagan. On deck will be their Blanc de Noir sparkling which has just won a Silver medal at the 2011 NW Wine Summit – Pacific Rim Wine Competition and a selection of their red wines.

There will be a selection of cheeses to taste alongside the wines and, of course, Canada Day cookies.

At 5pm we will draw the winners for the Grand Prize Granville Island Experience competition (see here for details)  plus some other surprise prizes.

We will be opening at at 10am on Friday, and everyday for July & August, with regular close at 11pm.

On behalf of Scott, Paul, David, Cordell and Maureen we look forward to seeing you on Friday.

Bubbles on Bowen – Saturday June 11, 1-5.30pm – Free

To celebrate our new location, please join us on Saturday June 11 between 1pm and 5:30pm to sample sparkling wine from BC, Spain and Italy.

With our expanded store opening we will have:

• Much larger selection of beers, ciders and coolers including Budweiser 8 pack cans on special at LDB price (while stocks last), upgraded selection of BC craft beers and ciders
• New wines from BC and around the world plus wine specials at $9.47, $19.47 and $29.47
• Expanded spirits section with all the necessaries for the “Cocktail Cabinet”

Lots of events being scheduled too in over the summer including:

• Wine and Indian Food with Qui Café
• Sherry tasting
• Port & Chocolate with Cocoa West
• Riedel glassware – taste the difference between Riedel and other glassware
• BC wine fest (August in conjunction with BowFeast)
• Unusual Grapes #3
• Howe Sound Brewing beer tasting
• … and more

Hope we’ll see all our regulars and lots of new friends too.

New Store Opens June 8

We’re finally ready to move! We’ll be closed from 7pm Sunday June 5 through Tuesday June 7. Doors open at new store 11am June 8.

It’s easy to find us – just look right from old store and we’re opposite next to Qui Café and under the Ruddy Potato, facing onto Dorman Road. Parking is available outside or feel free to use the pub car park opposite.

First event is Saturday June 11, “Bubbles on Bowen” (see next post)

New product arrivals

In preparation for the new store opening I’ve been adding a bunch of new products in all categories. Here’s a brief summary and there are lots more to come after we get into our new digs.

Wine

Opera Prima – ultra cheap and surprisingly good Spanish sparkling wine. Great for Mimosas, Buck’s Fizz etc.

Lavit Rosado – agents unearthed a cache of this no-longer-available-in-BC Spanish sparkling rosé. One of my very long-time favourites (see the Desert Island video). Back for a very short time.

Cantavida Riesling –  super value Chilean dry riesling

Doma Chardonnay & Merlot – 2 big bargains from Chile

Backyard Vineyards Zweigelt & Riesling - good red from the local Fraser Valley. Riesling is very fruity.

Dirty Laundry Hush (rosé), Pinot Gris and Gewurztraminer – New 2010 vintage. Hush is fabulous this year, 50% cab. Franc, deep pink and solid dark red fruit taste.

Cedar Creek Rosé – first time for a rosé from this significant BC winery. Think strawberries…

8th Generation – Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Gris and Merlot. The sparkling chardonnay has sold out completely.

Lake Breeze Pinot Blanc – simply the best PB in BC

Stoneboat Pinotage & Chorus – back for the summer season again

Cassini Maximus – BC produces some great Bordeaux style blends. This one has extra heft too.

Fairview Bear – Big Cabernet Sauvignon from BC, will reward cellaring. Coming soon: Two Hoots, Cab Franc and Sauvignon Blanc too

Blandy`s Madeira – the brown wine of the Azores

& a new selection of draft Sake

Spirits:

Pyrat rum 750ml

Courvoisier VS cognac 375ml

Remy Martin VSOP cognac 750ml

Van Gogh Duble Espresso vodka 750ml

Red Breast pot-still Irish whisky 750ml

Bell’s Scotch whisky 750ml

Dewar’s White Label Scotch whisky 750ml

Jack Daniel’s bourbon 375ml

For the Cocktail Cabinet

Akvavit

Kirsch

Alizé Blue and Red

Créme de Cassis

Galliano

Coolers

El Jimador pre-mixed Margaritas

Beer

Ayinger Dunkel – German dark lager

Cooper’s Australian pale ale

Cider

Sea Cider – Victoria, BC’s great cider maker. Kings & Spies and Pippins are back in stock

World Malbec Day tasting – Sunday April 17

1pm-5pm

Malbec is the HOT varietal in red wine. Taste Malbecs from Argentina, Australia and Chile.

Last year’s Malbec tasting was a blind tasting of two Argentinian and one French, we all had a great time and the Argentinian’s came out on top – so let’s see if Australia or Chile can take the crown this year.

Riesling tasting Friday April 8 3-6pm

If you follow me on twitter you’ll know that I’ve been having fun voting for Riesling in the great #marcmad wine vote-off. Riesling emerged as the winner of the white wine category and is in the final today against Pinot Noir. To celebrate (and to compensate you for the volume of tweets) I’ll open a bottle of Riesling for tasting Friday 8th April between 3 and 6pm and all Rieslings are 10% off all day.