The Sipster's Podcast

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 a...

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 Chr...

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 maint...

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 l...

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...

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 r...

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 copie...

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 w...

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 w...

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 sampl...

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...

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 st...

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...

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...

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 reaso...

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...

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 cha...

Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . Jennifer and Kent Molgat from The View Winery and Vineyard and Ward’s Cider in Kelowna are on the podcast this week! If you have a copy of The Sipster's Pocket Guide to 50 Must-Try BC Wines, volume 1 – turn to page 108 (reminds me of “helm to 108!” – if you know what movie that is from, leave a com...

Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . This week I am delighted to bring you an interview with Tonia McArthur. Although Tonia is trained in with WSET, she has developed a brilliant way to help you score wines that is accessible but without pandering or dumbing anything down. She put it all in a book called “ High Five Wine Scoring System ”....

Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . If Kayla Bordignon's enthusiasm for BC wine was contagious, we would quickly have another pandemic on our hands. (Too soon?) The fact is that her love of BC wine is overflowing and it is not hard to get caught up in it when speaking with her. Kayla's website Uncork BC and the seriously epic jo...

Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . Zac Brown and Julie Powell from Alderlea Vineyard join me on the podcast this week. They are on Vancouver near Duncan and took over Alderlea from founder Roger Dosman in 2017. Since then, they have continued to build Alderlea with the same level of enthusiasm for learning and exploring the region's...

Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . It's a shorter episode today, taking a little time to answer the big questions: What is a "wine tour" exactly? What is with all of those empty bottles in my kitchen? What does it mean to be a Sipster?  Burning questions, all of them, I know. Sit back with a glass of something interesting...

Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . It's my reunion with one of my earliest wine friends, Calli Bailey. A frequent guest on my old podcast, Calli and I have seen each other infrequently in the past 6 years. This podcast is more than just reminiscing though – in the years since she and I first worked together selling wine at a wine st...

Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . There are a lot of people in this episode! It was a beautiful day at the District Wine Village in Oliver as the Okanagan Wine Festival Society launched a new event - Winterfest. Thank you to Kimberley Hundertmark for inviting me to to this great event.  In this episode, you will hear from: Heather Court...

Text us your wine questions, craziest wine experiences, or if you just have a comment for us. . This week's episode is a flashback to an event that happened almost 10 years ago! At the time, the Oyster Festival in Osoyoos was the unofficial start to the summer wine season and it was always a ton of fun. Join me for this time capsule flashback (courtesy of my old podcast, Wine Country BC) to o...