Champagne

8 Tasting Tips (and more) for the Vancouver International Wine Festival

vancouver International Wine Festival flutes

Next week’s Vancouver International Wine Festival will be one of the most well attended  in the festival’s 36 years. How come it’s so popular? There are a couple of key reasons: Arguably North America’s most important combined consumer and trade wine gathering, it’s a great opportunity for wineries to meet their customers face to face—in […]

Read more February 20, 2014 Hired Belly's Best Wines

Vancouver International Wine Festival 2014 #VIWF – Headed for a Sell-Out

In recent years, the array of food and wine events have become a big draw for VIWF (David Niddrie photo)

The Vancouver International Wine Festival is already on the horizon (Feb 24th to March 2nd).  Hard to believe! This is by way of a heads-up that tickets are going fast! As of now, a dozen events are sold out and about another dozen are already headed that way. It should be a good one, highlighted by […]

Read more January 13, 2014 Wine

Toasting the New Year in The Right (Riedel) Glass

de Sacy Grand Soir Champagne and Waterford flute

Does the right glass really matter? You bet it does! Because we have a such a busy holiday season and Christmas, over the years, a restful, decidedly lazy New Year’s Day has become our tradition. Often we move little more than from the couch to the fridge—to extract more smoked salmon and refresh the champagne, […]

Read more January 4, 2014 Top Drops

10 Fizzy Faves for the Holidays: Hired Belly’s Best Bubbles

Champagne flutes, copyright Tim Pawsey

Champagne flutes await at Cornucopia © Tim Pawsey photo  Over here at HB’s swank, granite and glass adorned, soaring corporate HQ, we’ve been busy popping a few corks, drafting our list of go-to holiday bubbles. Sparkling wines (and Champagne for some a few  most occasions) are a must-have this time of year. The question is: Are you […]

Read more December 14, 2013 Hired Belly's Best Wines

The Champagne Charlie Chronicles: Riding the Rails Around North America

The roof, Hotel Vancouver

The best laid plans … My good intentions to document a few memories of In the Footsteps of Champagne Charlie have been derailed by a trip to London last week. But never fear, we’re back with Charles Heidsieck in hand to regale you. First, a little more background. The challenge was to race around the […]

Read more September 23, 2013 Uncategorized

In the Footsteps of Champagne Charlie: 20 Years On

The Night They Invented Champagne! Tim & Heather toast the next 100 days on the roof of Hotel Vancouver - Jack Wong photo

In the Footsteps … the night before Hard to believe, but exactly 20 years ago today, on September 1, 1993, my wife, Heather, and I embarked on “In the Footsteps of Champagne Charlie” —in what turned out to be, truly, the adventure of a lifetime. “In the Footsteps…” was a 100 day race around the world, […]

Read more September 1, 2013 Uncategorized

Be Careful Opening that Bubble—Even More So with a Sabre!

Harry McWatters Sabres sparkling wine

(Updated Dec 14, 2013) Last year the New York Times ran an interesting piece that explored the history of the Champagne cork. It wound up with a quick lesson on how to sabre. The only problem is, the instructions were a little light on detail. You really need to know how to do things right […]

Read more December 28, 2012 Uncategorized

No Champagne Discounts Please: We’re Canadian!

It’s a question guaranteed to pop up at this time of year. Where can I buy Champagne, (as in true, French Champagne) for a song? The short answer is “You can’t.”  At least not here in BC. Want to buy Big C Champagne at sparkling wine prices? Your best bet is to move to the […]

Read more December 7, 2012 Hired Belly's Best Wines

BC Sparkling Meets French Champagne—But It’s Not a Battle of the Bubbles

Champagne and sparkling wine producers enjoy a well earned rep for coming up with some pretty clever promos. We can certainly attest to that … However, we were still intrigued, a few weeks back, when Summerhill’s Ezra Cipes invited us to taste his 1998 vintage Ariel Brut beside nothing less than non-vintage—or more correctly multi-vintage—Krug […]

Read more November 3, 2012 Hired Belly's Best Wines