Time slips away more easily the older one gets. I don’t know if anyone has said this before but if I search for a similar quote online, I’m sure someone will have said something like that.

I could do the hip thing and just ask some AI bot to make me a quote with the same effect. But then I’d be left with some shitty emotionless schmeng of words that causes people to think for a bare minimum amount of time and has the profundity of a sponge. It feels like my brain doesn’t brain as well if I use AI to start doing things. I prefer NI. (Natural Intelligence of course, but could also harken back to the thing that certain knights say. IYKYK)

For the record, nobody has ever accused me of using AI to write anything. I like to think that it’s because I write with a skilled and unique voice, but I know it has more to do with the number of typos that I miss before hitting the publish button. I know you’ll find one in this article if you keep readying. (Seriously, you don’t even have to look that hard - they are usually really obvious.)

So where have I been and why haven’t I published anything here or a podcast since January? And why do I feel like I owe you an explanation?

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In this series of articles, I’m going to explore truly Canadian wine and food pairings. Wine pairing books are loaded with great pairing combinations. Oysters and Muscadet. Port and Stilton. Champagne and Pringles (don’t knock it ‘till you’ve tried it…).

Canadian foods are never part of that conversation and neither are Canadian wines. Yet, it is not difficult to find great pairings when using basic food and wine pairings techniques.

Let’s see if we can find some new Canadian classic pairings!

Patriotic Pairing #4

The pairing celebrates one area of the country with a lot of history, although not a lot of wine history. Though on the surface they might seem like an unlikely pairing, there are many good reasons why these two go together.

This month’s Patriotic Pairing is…

Hawkin’s Cheezies with Closson Chase Chardonnay

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Confession time. As a kid, I hated cheezies of any kind. I didn’t like cheese at all. Don’t tell my wine friends, but they just never appealed to me. I ate plain potato chips and burgers without anything on them, even ketchup.

Hawkins Cheezies were a later addition to my diet, arriving long after wine had become a passion and career. An ex-girlfriend of mine loved them and brought them over for a movie night. They had me at the first skull-rattling crunch.

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Part 1

This book is a book about wine.

The cover makes it look like it’s a kids book, but it is not.

It has lots of images in it to make things easy to understand.

The images help demonstrate the things in the text.

There isn’t a lot of text, but what is there is important, easy to read and understand without sounding dumb.

Wine is not a simple topic, which makes it a challenge to explain it in a way that is simple.

If you, or someone you know, is interested in learning about wine from scratch, there isn’t a better autodidactic wine book out there.

Part 2

This book tackles a lot of things about wine appreciation, which is its main focus. It’s a bit of a weird shape and the pages are not loaded with information in the first section, which is also the longest by actual page numbers but not necessarily by how much you actually learn.

That is the way that it is structured. A little bit of information presented in a clear and simple methodical way at first, then more information added slowly afterwards, which builds on the concepts at the beginning.

The text is simple at first and there are always illustrations or photographs to help visualize the concepts in the text. These aren’t basic line drawings either. There are real photos to help drive home points that are necessary to grasp before moving on.

The concepts start simple and slowly gain complexity as you read through the pages. What I find really interesting is that no new concepts come out of nowhere. Everything has a context that has been set up. The first page doesn’t even talk about wine but rather how humans may have discovered alcohol in nature. Before the first bottle is even opened, the book has given the most basic (and necessary) context for why wine exists in the first place.

The complexities of wine make it an easy target for people who do not (or do not care) to use their senses, so explaining everything within a context is important. Nobody wants to read a book that just spouts random facts that seemingly have nothing to do with anything else. Rote memorization is what was expected when I was in high school, not reading about something fun.

This book will appeal instantly to anyone who is interested in wine but has been too overwhelmed to get started with learning about it. Search engines were around when I started learning about wine, but they did not return as much information as they do now. Information overload (from all sources) may be a part of the problem that makes learning about things more challenging since it takes more energy (in my opinion) to wade through the deluge of useless crap and algorithm-baiting than it does to thumb through an offline source like a book.

Part 3

If you’ve read this far, and you are still interested in what this book is about, you can be sure that you probably already know from the first two parts that you’ve already read. Everything I write about from now on is just the same thing with a little more complexity. It’s the same way that WSET structures it’s curriculum. Levels 1, 2, 3, and 4 all cover similar territory in the wine world but it’s the level of detail that changes, drastically in the case of level 4. Level 1 is “This is Chardonnay.” Level 2 is “This is Chardonnay from France, this is Chardonnay from California, etc”. Level 3 is “This is Chardonnay from Burgundy, this is Chardonnay from Napa Valley, etc”. Level 4 is “This is Chardonnay from Chablis and these are the laws that govern its production. This is Chardonnay from Macon and these are the laws…” etc. to include every Chardonnay production of note throughout the world.

This is how Stikky Wine presents wine - a complex subject - as something very approachable. It does it very well and the structure makes it all flow very easily from one concept to the next. It is deceptively simple. Initially, almost everything about it from the writeup to the cover put me off. Here we go again. Another book trying to make wine appear simple. At least the title of the book doesn’t call me a dummy like another strangely popular series released a few decades ago.

Wine appeals to me because it can be enjoyed on many levels. I like it and enjoy it more because it can be complex. When I don’t want to think about a wine, I don’t have to because I can enjoy it for whatever it is at the moment. If it’s just something to go with dinner and I don’t have to think about it, that’s cool too.

Compare that to enjoying cola. It is not likely that anyone will appreciate the levels of guaiacol-y goodness in the bouquet. Nor will taste variations between sips be significant enough to notice. Doing comparative tasting notes on colas (or creating a book called Skikky Cola) is to miss the whole point of the drink’s raison d’être. They are sugary glasses of refreshment that has captured multiple generations of us. I was more an Orange Crush kid though so perhaps my life truly went off the rails when I opted for that instead of a cola with my first fast-food burger.

Such was my first impression of Stikky Wine, which was only reinforced when I saw the monochrome cover. Adorned with a caricature of a male’s head, large nose in a glass of wine, eyes closed, hand gripping the upper stem of a wine glass, pinky finger extended, the cover almost reinforces the image of wines’ culturally elite snobbish past. This copy was sent to me to evaluate and maybe post a review. What had I gotten myself into?

Sticky Wine is part of a series of Stikky books on various topics, wine being the fifth in the series that also covers a rando mixture of subjects like stock charts, stars, and survival. When I started to dig into where this book originated, this diversity started to make more sense.

Though there is no author listed on the cover (or spine, or back, or inside the covers…), the copyright notice indicates that the holder is Laurence Holt Books, Inc. and owned by one Laurence Holt himself. A software engineer based out of New York, according to his LinkedIn profile, Holt has been in the industry since the mid-1980s working with a special interest in “knowledge acquisition and learning processes”. Stikky Wine, and the Stikky books series, may all be part of a proving ground for the methods he’s worked on over the years.

If so, it is done really, really well. I’m impressed. The ease at which this book presents a complex subject is admirable. Clearly, after 20 years in the wine industry, 16 years in wine media, and 7 published books about wine, I am no longer a wine neophyte. But I still love to learn and have never assumed that I know everything about wine. I still cringe when people call me a ‘wine expert’. Thumbing through the pages of Stikky Wine even taught me a few new things about the potential origins of some of the grape names. For example, most of the wine books that I’ve read have never bothered to mention anything about the origin of the names of some grape varieties, with the exception of Pinot Noir (‘pinot’ meaning ‘pine’ in French, a descriptive reference to the pinecone shape of Pinot Noir’s grape clusters). Stikky Wine brings in definitions about grape names whenever possible, which was not only interesting but I now see would have made it a lot easier to learn and recall the names of these grape varieties when I was learning them years ago. A quick glance through standard wine reference books on my shelves reveal no mention of this kind of information. Why haven’t other wine books mentioned such basic things before?

Sometimes an outsider’s perspective can be refreshing. Holt is clearly an outsider in the wine world, although he may have fostered his own interests in wine privately over the years. I’ve never met him so I can’t assume anything about his own level of wine knowledge. What he does bring is a simplicity of approach to a complex subject and the results, at least in Stikky Wine, is a refreshing take on wine. In addressing things that most wine books overlook, it’s a welcome entrance to a very large world all thanks to its outsider perspective.

The conciseness of its approach is highly refined, almost to the point of focus-group banality with all of the unique rough edges ground to a polished sheen. So while it has that simplicity of style, the core elements and methods remain intact, which is great because the book really does what it purports to do - teach people about wine. I’m not expert in teaching methods but the frequent repetitions and parallels to non-wine things (milk, beer, pop culture) surely help readers recall important facts. There are excellent photos and illustrations throughout and the pace increases as the book progresses through the approximately 240 pages. There are extensive references at the back, including a short list of books, apps, podcasts, and websites so that readers can continue their journey if they desire.

The elephant in the room with books like this today is how much of it was actually created by a person, and does it really matter? All of the hands in the photos have the correct number of fingers so it is unlikely AI generated images were used. The text could have been generated but, with such a consistent approach and style throughout, seems doubtful to me at this point, although I’m no expert on that either. If there are AI elements, it is still an impressive book with the educational elements properly in place. As we get into 2026, it seems that less and less people really care where it comes from. Again, I’m no AI expert, but I do know how long it takes to get a book into print and I assume that technology is supposed to produce things more quickly and easily. Holt could presumably have ramped up production of these things a lot faster in recent years. With only five books in the series so far, that doesn’t seem to be the case.

In summary, this is a great book for the uninitiated. AI or not, it will do what it says it will using its educational elements and structure that progresses from simple to complex. It’s a fun read that will become a handy reference to keep on the shelf for years after. Sip, read, enjoy!

Thank you for reading Sipster’s Icons. If you also listen to the podcasts, then you’ll be reading something very close to the recently released podcast.

I did not produce as many podcasts as I’d hoped in 2025 and I was really hoping to be more consistent with my articles on Substack as well. Changes in my personal and professional life this year made things a little unpredictable, especially in the back half of the year. Thankfully, things have settled down and I can get on with a more stable routine in my life.

Thank you for being Sipsters, appreciating your senses, and taking the time to appreciate those little things that make life cool. It’s not always easy to recognize, but if you don’t try, you’ll miss out on a lot of amazing things.

I am very thankful for your continued support over the past year. Because of my change in attitude towards social media (i.e. not using it anymore) it has become more challenging to publicize articles and podcasts. If you’ve been listening and reading long enough, you’ll know that I’ve been critical of social media for many years now and have removed myself from most of the platforms. Where I used to be on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, and Facebook, I have removed myself from most of those platforms. Facebook has been more challenging to eradicate. Although I’ve deleted most of my previous personal content, and most of Sipster’s / Wine Country BC going back a few years, I’ve kept Facebook around for the marketplace and messenger services mostly.

For context (in case you haven’t been listening or reading to my previous rants about it), the reason I’ve been leaving social media boils down to ethics. Social media does not align with my morals. I’ve always been bothered by this but it’s taken me a little while to really start to see practical examples of how this difference is manifesting itself in real life.

Being more on the outside of it now, I’ve noticed how it affects people. Is it social engineering? I’ve had two recent examples in my own life where close friends of mine have gotten so worked up about an event (a topic, issue, or whatever - it doesn’t seem to matter) that they stop thinking clearly about it. Everything becomes black and white. There are no shades of meaning anymore. It’s all about one way or the other.

Both times, I did what I could to get the conversation about it had to stop. In one case, I had to distance myself from this friend whom I have known for over 35 years. This was shocking and heartbreaking. In both instances, whenever the conversation changed to something else, everything went back to normal, almost instantly.

It was fucking weird.

What I noticed was that they lose their senses about something, which contravenes the Sipster philosophy that I’ve been cultivating over the past four years. Being a sipster is about appreciating subtlety, nuance, and inflections in everything, whatever it is. It could be wine, tea, paintings, sport, driving, walking through the woods, or even conflict. These are all things that happen in real life.

Subtle, nuanced things cannot happen over social media. There is no room for it in the shallow world of Instagram photos or TikTok videos. I would be a hypocrite to espouse this philosophy about nuance and subtlety through a medium like social media. It would be like trying to taste wine in the partially filled dumpster of a seafood restaurant. Try all you want, you’ll never smell the wine in that situation.

I can’t and won’t do it. I do not want to willingly contribute to the potential social engineering of other people (whether I know them or not) just to sell my books or ideas.

So, what can I do now that I’m out in the non-social media wilderness?

That’s where I run into problems. Publishers require all authors to have a strong social media presence and probably won’t sign anyone who doesn’t have an established network of followers in place to be their starting point. No social media means they don’t understand how to publicize you.

The best that I can do right now is reply on my books selling from the shelves of book stores through word of mouth from people who read and listen to what I produce. The ratings and comments from you on Substack or on my podcast are extremely important and I’ve chosen them for many reasons. They are less prone to the Algorithm Almighty and therefore, you the reader and listener still have the agency to choose what you want to consume. You have chosen to read this far of your own free will, not because I dangled something in front of you that the Algorithm thinks you will click on and consume in five seconds. You have chosen to read it. Thank you.

If you haven’t already, please leave a rating or a comment on this article or on my podcast. I recommend Apple Podcasts (even if you don’t have an apple product). Please stay away from Spotify if you can - they are not interested in humans, musicians, or podcasters at all. They don’t pay musicians (the primary resource for music) at all anymore. It’s a resource that can now be sourced my more cheaply through AI. In a few years, I predict that Spotify will be using AI-generated content for 99% of the music on the platform that isn’t produced by huge hitmakers like Taylor Swift or Ed Sheeran.

My podcasts are still available on Spotify but I think I might pull them from that platform. What do you think? Do you listen to podcasts on Spotify? Let me know in the comments.

Looking ahead to 2026, there are going to be no more Sipsters book on the horizon. (Sorry, spoiler alert.) I am still writing - researching a book about Canadian cider, which has been enthralling me for a while. I’m still searching for a publisher for that one. Let me know if you know anyone. Most of my Sipster-style writing is going to be here on my Substack. Please share this with someone you might think will enjoy it.

Also, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. You should know that if you do decide to pay for a subscription, most of the money goes to me. The company has fees, but they are very reasonable. When I am making a purchase, I want to know the producer actually gets the money that I paid them. This is why I love farmer’s markets and shopping locally at smaller retailers in general.

What do you get as a paid subscriber? More stuff!

The free subscribers get the goofier fun stuff, like the podcast release articles, book reviews, and the occasional rant. Paid subscribers get more in-depth articles that feature events and experiences, tasting notes, and commentary such as the Patriotic Pairings. The paid articles will also only be released to paying members. Sometimes writers will release the paid articles at a later time for free to everyone. I don’t do that. In my mind, you paid for it so it should still be yours.

If you have any questions about my articles, or the way that Substack works, please drop me a line. I’m happy to help.

For 2026, I will be continuing to live in the moment, enjoying as many of the little things as I can, and wishing you all a great new year!

Thank you for reading.

Luke

We are only beginning to see how stupid that statement is.

Clickbait? Maybe. Bullshit? Not really. For many years, Canadian wines were never expected to age. The producers behind them (largely huge commercial wineries until the 1990s) did not even pretend to create a high-quality product that could be saved in peoples’ wine cellars. Rare was the person at that time who even bothered to keep wine for longer than the weekend.

Time is the only real way to add cellaring credibility to any wine region. Age-worthiness demonstrates longevity, otherwise it’s just normal food product that costs too much. We know that Bordeaux and Burgundy can age because bottles were saved in cellars for many years. Restaurants, private collectors, investors, and sometimes the wineries themselves all assemble wines into a collection of some kind. They won’t take chances on unproven wine regions unless they are willing to risk it.

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The Canadian wine industry is still so young that we haven’t had the years to be able to save wines long enough to know if it is even possible. There have been people who have taken that risk and cellared Canadian wine. I’ve been lucky enough to experience aged wines from Ontario and BC one the years. After a decade and a half, an Ontario Riesling (can’t recall whose) was like a beautiful bouquet of flowers and apples gently floating on a sea of kerosene. It was unbelievably beautiful. BC meritage can do the same thing. I’ve done it myself but also attended enough other tastings to know that the finest examples are ready to go at the 10 year mark.

It is really only in the past 10 years that there have been solid examples of wines that can hold up, and benefit, from aging. Black Hills used to hold ticketed vertical tastings annually for their club members of all of the vintages they had (or could get their hands on) going back to the 1999 vintage. At the time, they were a small, independent producer. Clos du Soleil, in the Similkameen Valley, started doing the same thing in 2012. The oldest wine in their first event was only five years old but the more recent pre-Covid events were demonstrating that even their Capella (a white meritage) was still developing at 12+ years old.

Now, here we are at the beginning of 2026. Some of us have a lot of wine in our cellars that we purchased when we joined too many wine clubs during the pandemic. Are all of those wines going to last?

It’s totally possible. Although most wines are not really meant for long-term aging, it is fun to see what happens to a wine when it is forgotten about after being accidentally ignored for five years too many on the bottom rack. There will certainly be some surprises, like there was during a late summer tasting at River Stone in Oliver. Owner and winemaker Ted Kane invited a group to taste through some older vintages of his wines. The oldest was 12 years old and, in my opinion at the time of its release, was probably an unlikely candidate for any significant cellaring at all. Yet here we all were, discussing and admiring a wine for going the distance.

For my paid subscribers, here are my full notes and thoughts on each of the wines from this amazing tasting:

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It’s been ten years since my brother in wine passed into the realm where he can now enjoy wines via the angels’ share. I was no longer producing podcasts in 2015 but since I am now, I thought I would mark this occasion with a special episode about my brother in wine. The road I’m on now - beginning with podcasting, which led to meeting more wine industry people, which led to writing, which led to publishing books - started at the intersection with Aaron when I worked with him in 2009.

Cheers to you my friend.

Listen to the episode here or on your favourite podcast player.

Thank you.

This is the third in a series of articles exploring truly Canadian wine and food pairings. Wine pairing books are loaded with great pairing combinations. Oysters and Muscadet. Port and Stilton. Champagne and Pringles (don’t knock it ‘till you’ve tried it…). Canadian foods are never part of that conversation and neither are Canadian wines. Yet, it is not difficult to find great pairings when using basic food and wine pairings techniques.

Let’s see if we can find some new Canadian classic pairings!

Patriotic Pairing #3

The pairing this month celebrates two things that are decidedly regional and that both inspire a great deal of passion from the regions where they are produced. It is an ode to central Canadian community, conviction, and continuity. It also brings together two linguistic cultures, which is, like so Canadian eh?

This month’s Patriotic Pairing is…

Ice Cider with Butter Tarts

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Alison Moyes loves Pinot Noir and it’s clear that it’s mutual. Working with this grape for the past 15 years, she has met the challenges of the most finicky of grapes variety in three different wineries in three different sub-regions with apparent ease. She’s curious, thoughtful, and well-spoken, all of which you will hear in this candid conversation that took place near the end of her 5th vintage with Solvero Wines.

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Turns out we had a lot in common, growing up in central Canada, going to university on the east coast, and then coming to BC. It was fun to finally be able to sit down and chat with her about wine, the university, and everything.

Disclaimer: When I have winemakers on this podcast, it tends to get a little geeky. We don’t really stop to explain some of the more technical things that we talk about but please search for anything that you don’t understand. Learning is fun!

Find the podcast on Apple Podcasts, by clicking here, or search for it on your favourite podcast player.

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I love books. I have shelves loaded with them and a bedside table filled with the ones that I haven’t read yet. I am completely aware that going to a bookstore unsupervised is not in the best interest of my finances. Yes, I could just go to the library, but I can’t read very quickly so my preference is to purchase them. I am not afraid to admit I have a problem. I know I’ve had that problem for many years and I know others who have the same problem.

Even though I’m completely aware of it, I know that there are other things that are less easy to spot. People can have problems with other things like smoking or drinking alcohol. While it might be easy to think that it’s as obvious as buying too many books, I don’t believe that it is. Reading books is a hobby whereas drinking alcohol is a lifestyle choice, a much more difficult thing to notice or to change.

Veronica Woodruff’s Blind Drunk: A Sober Look at our Boozy Culture examines this is fine detail. It is exactly the commentary on the culture of alcohol we need right now. I’ve written about cavalier attitudes towards alcohol before in blogs and even in parts of my Sipster’s books but I was thrilled to see a full-length book about it.

Blind Drunk is 3 parts memoir and 1 part academic research. Written from a place of serious authority by the right person at the right time, Veronica has asked tough questions without judgement or an agenda. Agree or disagree, she provides a safe space to challenge what the role of alcohol is in modern society. The answers are on a spectrum rather than being clear-cut black and white. This should be essential reading for anyone who drinks anything.

I sat down with Veronica last summer when her book tour brought her to the Okanagan. She was engaging and spoke candidly about the things that she went through in her life that led her to writing her book.

Find Blind Drunk on Veronica’s website.

Click on the image below (my swanky new branding for season 4 of the Sipster’s Podcast, which I now see doesn’t have an apostrophe where it needs it - oh well) to listen to the podcast or search for Sipster’s on your favourite podcast player.

I’m back! Change has been in the air for me this summer. I started a new job in August and have been adjusting to new living situations in my personal life as well in September. As things have finally started to settle, I have felt that desire to return to writing and podcasting with full force.

Thankfully, when that started the amazing Jesse was in town. Always the instigator, she brought along a wine that I was helpless to resist, a wine that has captured my imagination for years, and literally started me on this Sipster’s journey as one of the two sample chapters that I wrote for the first volume of The Sipster’s Pocket Guides.

Hear about it all on the first episode of season 4 of The Sipster’s Podcast here, or on your favourite podcast app.

Thank you for listening!

You wanted more behind the scene’s backstories for these podcasts, so here you go! Click the photos to listen.

The View Winery History Lesson

My first interaction with The View Winery happened while I was working at a VQA wine store. As staff, we were always interested in new wines from new wineries that came to the store. One day, two new cases of wine arrived from one of these new wineries. It was a Gewurztraminer with a painting of a red shoe on the label. The woman on the staff loved the look of the bottle and at least one of them brought home a bottle that day.

Apparently, it didn’t thrill me the same way that it did for them because I didn’t bother to taste it for at least a couple of months when we poured it at the store’s tasting bar. Clearly, I was not the market they were looking for.

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Fast forward a year or so and I am writing for a local wine publication. The editor tasks me with writing the article for The View - the winery with the red shoe on the label. Well, ok then, guess I’m going to learn about shoes.

Instead, my world opened up. Not just to wines that I never would have considered before but also to history: of the owner, the property, Kelowna, and ultimately the wine industry in BC at large. In my rush to judgement about the provenance of this ‘shoe wine’, I nearly missed getting this first taste of history. Meeting with and interviewing Jennifer Molgat was a life-changing event because it started me down the path that lead me to writing my first book about the history of the wine industry in BC.

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The interview for this podcast was actually recorded later than that first meeting with Jennifer. I had a deadline for the article and that took priority. But we got along great and she was interested in being on the podcast, so I returned a few months later. WE recorded it in the barrel cellar at The View Winery in Kelowna just a few years after they had opened their wine shop.

Jennifer has stayed in touch and was a guest on the Sipster’s Podcast, along with her husband Kent Molgat, last season. Today also happens to be her birthday. Happy birthday Jennifer!

Clos du Soleil 5-year Vertical

Any winery that seeks respect from the traditional wine lover will tout that their wines can age, even though they have only release a couple of vintages and the oldest one is only two years old. There is just no way for any new winery to prove that their wines can age and, even if they could, would they even benefit from aging?

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If you haven’t been following the podcasts that I produce, now is a good time to start. I have been releasing podcasts this summer featuring some true blasts from the past.

If we have just met, I produced a podcast about BC wine from 2009 to 2014 called Wine Country BC. This was back in the ‘olden days’ of podcasting, when feeds had to be hand-coded and most people didn’t even know what a podcast was.

It’s not like that anymore! I’ve found some great interviews from people in the wine industry, some of whom were at the very beginning stages of their careers. Below, you will find the behind the scenes story of what went on to make these podcasts special.

Please consider becoming a subscriber to the Sipster’s Podcast on your favourite podcast player and look for these great Flashback episodes!

Painted Rock’s John Skinner

I mentioned my first experience with Painted Rock a little bit in this podcast. It was one of the first times I’d ever been completely speechless after tasting a wine. My late

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As we hit the year 2050, it is with fondness that I look back as an old man on my experiences with the wineries in British Columbia over the past 50 years. I recall meeting industry pioneer Harry McWatters at the Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival (as it used to be called) in 2001. Then moving to the Okanagan Valley in 2007 to start my career working in a wine cellar. Publishing my first book in 2019 about the history of the wine industry prior to its major rearrangement due to a succession of frigid winters. I’ve had so many memories in this wonderful industry.

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Every winery has their own significant milestones which has lead them to wherever they are in their own story. For me personally, staying at the Emandare Vineyards guest house in 2025 was one of those milestones in my own appreciation of their wines. They were barely 10 years old at the time! They had just stopped selling their wines at farmers markets, if you can believe it!

Yes, you read that correctly. I did stay in their guest house. No, I was never a Silk-Road nobleman from a distant land nor was I a wealthy trillionaire of any sort. This was back in the more democratic times when one could simply book a time online using a website called AirBnB (which many of my fellow elder readers may recall from their adult years). This website allowed you to book rooms, just as hotels have done for years, but at very unique places. Some of these AirBnB’s were in separate sections of private residences while others were in secondary homes or cottages (back when owning multiple dwellings was still permissible). It was in this time that I was able to spend two glorious days in Emandare’s guest house.

Emandare had not yet become the widely acknowledged Grand Cru that is so well-known today. It was just one of a small number of wineries on Vancouver Island that were fighting for recognition and respect in the BC wine industry at the time. At the time, the Okanagan Valley in BC’s interior region had been the province’s largest and most widely-known wine region, known around the world only amongst a small niche of extremely knowledgeable wine collectors and elite sommeliers. They certainly do not need to worry about being niche anymore!

I was recently able to visit with the founders of Emandare, Mike and Robyn Nierychlo, at their home in Duncan where they have recently retired. Their eldest daughter has taken over the management of Emandare and now lives on the property with her own family. Mike tells me that the estate has changed little in the 25 years since my visit, although it is clear to me when I drove past it that the surrounding area is quite different than I remember from my photos. The encirclement of large mansions in the neighbourhood have given it a more crowded feeling. Also gone are the days when the tiny Lake Somenos was visible from the guest house deck, now obscured by the corpulent monstrosity of a ‘home’ by some braggadocios nuvo-riche trillionaire who purchased the lot across the street. No doubt, they were attracted to the neighbourhood because of the proximity of the vineyards but were now ambivalent to Emandare’s existence, totally ignorant of the status of the wines produced there.

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Of course, Emandare’s wines tasted like grand crus when I was staying at the guest house in 2025, but were still accessible and available for the general public to purchase. Today of course, purchasing their wines by the bottle is unheard of. Only collectors with means are able to approach bottles at auction or on the lists of well-appointed restaurants around the world. Their place at the top of the pyramid of wines on Vancouver Island is assured. Being ranked in the top 10 of Pinot Noirs from around the world is always up for debate, but, by near consensus of the current wine media, their inclusion in that realm is not. Ever since Burgundy became too warm for Pinot Noir in the 2030’s and the market shifted to Asian countries from the former American states (when they were still united), the world’s top Pinot Noir comes partly from Vancouver Island. Emandare was there right at the beginning of it too!

And a quarter-century ago in 2025, so was I. Fond memories indeed. Wish I could go back in time to appreciate their wines even more.

Patriotic Pairings #2

This month’s Patriotic Pairing is:

Canadian Whisky with Canada Day.

Whisky (or ‘whiskey’, or ‘whiskaaay’ for the Chris Stapleton fans out there) has a more significant roll in our history than wine or beer. We’ve been collecting taxes on it since 1794. By 1800, there were 51 production licenses for a population of 15,000 people. In the past two and a quarter centuries, long-standing Canadian empires have been built using whisky.

But, to answer the questions that I’m sure are going through your head right now;

• No, obviously whisky wasn’t invented in Canada.

• Yes, other countries like Scotland and the USA are well-known large producers.

• Yes, Canada is widely respected for its whisky.

Oh, you mean you didn’t know that? How Canadian of you.

Consider the experts.

In the book “Whiskey: The Definitive World Guide” by Michael Jackson (probably the world’s most respected whisky writer), Canada is “the secret giant of American whiskeys”. It is also worth noting that the section on Canada appears before the section on American bourbon. After years of reading wine books where Canada is generally included as a footnote to a paragraph in the American section, this is a big win.

David Broom’s second edition of “The World Atlas of Whisky” echoes Jackson’s appraisal of Canada’s friendly giant status, and wondered why Canadian whisky hasn’t been taken as seriously as other regions. Noting that Canadians make a lot of it (second only to Scotland in total production), he said that perhaps “the relentless commoditization has made it difficult for distillers to believe that people will take them seriously…” Yes, we make a lot of it. We can grow more grain.

I would suggest that perhaps one of the reasons that Canadian whisky hasn’t been taken so seriously is because there was no reason to do so. Much of the current industry’s largest producers were built on the backs of smuggling into the United States during their little fling with prohibition a hundred years ago. The whisky didn’t need to be good, it just needed to get there. People weren’t picky. The US is still a huge market for Canadian whisky, although of course now through legal exports.

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As Canadians, we generally don’t know how good we have it. Canadian whisky is like the rock band Rush. They were more popular outside of Canada than in. We know that they were a great Canadian band, but outside of Canada, they are legendary and hugely influential on generations of huge-selling rock musicians from Metallica, Nine Inch Nails, Foo Fighters, and Rage Against the Machine among others. When I went on a high school band exchange to a town near Boston in 1991, I was billeted with the family of one of the drummers. The first question he wanted to know was, “Do you know Rush?”

Canadians wouldn’t call it Canadian Whisky either. It’s just rye to us, or maybe rye whisky. Even though rye is only a flavouring component, it is synonymous with whisky made in Canada.

It is the history and the quality that I think of when I sip a little whisky at the end of a good day. I love anything that makes me think and whisky does this for me. The catchword for it now is ‘mindfulness’. My kids were taught about it in school. It is something that I know (or have been told by… someone, or maybe I read online somewhere so it must be true) that it is important to be mindful to be healthy. Most of the time, I’ve put that into the junk health bin along with all of the other online media ads featuring ‘experts’ talking about how bad oatmeal is and other irritating click-bait that isn’t worth the electrons it takes to power our screens.

That said, it is never a bad idea to take the time and remember how important things are. For one thing, being Canadian right now is a very good thing. We are very lucky to be living in this country.

I don’t like writing about politics because it is so divisive and the whole point of Sipster's is to bring people together over the enjoyment of things we sense. Sadly, we are at a time now where online media is distorting reality so much that knowing the truth is becoming more difficult. On one side, we have the right-wing ‘Silent majority’ rhetoric (I call them “imaginary friends”) used since President Nixon while on the other, we have the left-wine political correct absurdities enforced by the Alphabet Mafia, where getting pronouns wrong has publicly humiliating consequences. Somehow the reasonable middle has been forgotten. Normal, rational, centrist ideas don’t make you click and are therefore useless in today’s rage economy.

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To me, whisky is time-out. It’ the normal. It’s the only drink that can pull my consciousness out, slap it around a bit, and say, “Hey! Pay attention!” Wine can do that too, but it’s more subtle and more easy to ignore, especially if food is involved in the experience. Whisky travels best solo, or with other whiskies. It is possible that beer, cider, and RTDs can do it, but they don’t have the same complexity (sorry craft brew bros) and for me, do nothing but bring back memories of university.

Whisky is the origin point on the Cartesian plane of consciousness. You don’t even have to drink it to understand that. Smelling works just as well. Whiskey reminds me to be mindful. Whiskey is a library of thoughts in every sip and it reminds us about where we started. There is a middle ground. It is good to be Canadian. It is something we as Canadians can be proud of. And when consumed responsibly (meaning that you don’t have to get shitfaced drunk to enjoy it), it is the perfect drink with which to slow down at the end of the day.

It is the perfect sip to celebrate our country. Happy Canada Day, eh?

Canadian foods are never part of that conversation and, of course, neither are Canadian wines. Wine education and training, which always trends towards the ‘classic’ wine regions of Europe or the occasional lucky New World region, rarely focuses with any seriousness on domestic pairings.

Yet, it is not difficult to find great pairings when using basic food and wine pairings techniques. Right now, more than ever, I think that we are (FINALLY) starting to see the value in our own unique national culture.

To be clear, the pairings that I’m going to present are not necessarily tried-and-true. My goal is to at least offer a starting point, a place to encourage you to think about what is grown or made locally to wherever you are. Perhaps someday, the best pairings will endure and become true classic pairings of their own.

Let’s see if we can find some new Canadian classic pairings in this fun series.

Patriotic Pairings #1

The principle of my kids’ elementary school used to have an email signature that said something like, “Life is short. Eat dessert first.” When I got the idea for this article, this was what I thought of when I decided on the first pairing.

Not only is this a Canadian pairing but it’s also a British Columbian pairing too. This comes from the food and wine pairing maxim “What grows together goes together.” Might as well start with a bang. This month’s Patriotic Pairing is…

The View Winery Sticky Boots 2022 fortified wine paired with Nanaimo bars

Granted, Nanaimo bars don’t grow on trees, or anywhere for that matter, so that food pairing maxim doesn’t really apply here.

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But, it is a fantastic pairing combination and here is why: The chocolate and custard combination in Nanaimo bars won’t be easy to pair with most wines. Big boozy reds with tannins will suddenly taste bitter from the Nanaimo bar’s sweetness and a lighter style of wine like Pinot Noir or Gamay could get overpowered by the creamy and intense chocolate flavours. White wines won’t work either. Even if the sugars line up properly (such as with a medium-sweet Riesling that is only slightly sweeter than the Nanaimo bar), the flavours won’t be complementary. How about a Granny Smith apple with that chocolate bar? Mmm, no - hard pass.

This is where The View’s Sticky Boots works so well. It has the right amount of sweetness, a small dose of tannins, and a razor edge of acid to balance the creaminess of the custard. Game. Set. Perfect match.

The View Winery is a small winery in Kelowna, BC. Finding a bottle of Sticky Boots might not be the easiest thing to do. Thankfully, ordering online is always an option. If you are ever in the Okanagan, they offer a wonderful experience packaged in a truly historic property on Kelowna’s south slopes.

Nanaimo bars are in most grocery stores and bakeries, and were in the news recently. Students at Vancouver Island University in Nanaimo, BC crafted a Nanaimo bar that was just over 21 meters long and weighed half a metric tonne. Good on them for bringing that kind of honour home for the west coast’s contribution to sweet treats.

Just in case my nerd credentials were ever questioned, I will end this with a photo of me and my friend Kelly eating Nanaimo bars IN Nanaimo in 2001.

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Sometimes, life presents you with unexpected opportunities. For me, getting to talk to Dr. Don Livermore, Master Blender at J.P. Wiser’s was one of them.

Hold on - Isn’t Wiser’s a whisky brand? I thought you only wrote about wine?

Well, my books have been all about wine - so far. My Sipster’s Guides have all focused on wine, but I’ve also slipped in the odd cider or no-alc wine now and then. The whole Sipster philosophy is about sensory experiences, which are not limited to wine. You can apply it to cheese or tea or flower arranging. Ultimately, being a Sipster is about paying attention to the world around you through your senses.

Whisky was on my radar long before wine ever was. In university, I always had a small bottle of whisky around. It was what I went for on special occasions. It was mostly Canadian whisky and Scotch when I could afford it. Those were my first forays into learning about flavour complexity and style.

Ok, but isn’t Wiser’s part of some big multi-national corporation? I thought you only liked smaller producers.

I do. I like the unexpectedness and challenge that comes from tasting small batch products, not just drinks. I also prefer to support smaller producers with my purchases.

But I’d be fooling myself (or worse, lying) if I said that I didn’t enjoy the nuances of Scotch whiskies and the bold flavours of bourbons. Most of those are made by large distilleries, some of which are owned by large multinationals as well.

Plus, Wiser’s has something else that I really love - history. They have a lot of it.

History?? Like what, is from the ‘80s or something?

No - the 50s. The 1850s.

John Philip Wiser opened his distillery in 1857, 10 years before Canada became a country and 36 years before the Stanley Cup was first awarded in 1893. Wiser’s is now the official whisky of the NHL, which might be more closely associated with beer than whisky. Dr. Don has some very interesting things to say about that in this podcast. Wiser’s has recently released a couple of Stanley Cup limited edition bottles of their whiskies, which are available now.

Oh, ok. I’ll listen to it. How do I do that?

Listen on your favourite podcast player or use this link.

Sometimes the right people show up and say the right things.

I have extremely efficient work habits but writing and audio editing take up a lot of time. I wouldn’t get to sleep, see my family, or have any kind of social life if I actually tried to do all of the things that I want to do. If it were up to me (and it is, so there's really no excuse), I would spend my days doing nothing but writing and podcasting. Unless I get a whole lot more paid subscribers and sell a ton more books, that won’t really be an option for me for a long time.

That’s when people show up with encouragement that generates a little boost of energy to help get things going. Such is the case with the glorious team that you see above, taken after recording a podcast featuring a beautiful wine in a bling tasting. You can listen to this podcast on your favourite podcast player if you search for the Sipster’s Wine Podcast. Or just click here to listen online. I have a lot more podcasts in the pipe at the moment so these will be ready for you to listen on those long road trips to wine country.

Book signing

If you are planning to be in the Okanagan for the long weekend coming up, I will be at the Coles Cherry Lane (2111 Main Street, Penticton) on Friday, May 16th signing Sipster’s Books from 11am to 3pm (or longer). Come visit and explore one of the Sipster books if you haven’t already.

I might even bring my podcast recorder along…

The results of BC’s climate-induced grape growing predicament has only really been theoretical to this point. How will wineries fare with making wine using grapes from another place? Will they taste like wines made in BC? How different will the style of these wines even be? Or is that even the point? There’s no way to agree or disagree about the weather - shit happens. But it is certainly valid to have points of contention over how the industry handled it in the aftermath. Whatever you believe was the right thing to do (“BC wineries should use only BC grapes” vs. “BC wineries should be able to do what they can to stay in business”), I am of the opinion that what’s in the glass is ultimately the most important thing.

That said, this might be the biggest and most sudden challenge to a market’s collective palate that a wine industry anywhere has ever faced.

For me, the “what’s in the glass” element was challenged recently when I got to taste through 30-ish wines at a gathering at Carl and Mira Boucher’s during their recent live-streamed tasting event. This tasting featured as many of the newly (or not yet) released “Crafted in BC” wines made by BC wineries using grapes grown elsewhere.

I have included a selection of tasting notes at the end of this article. I’m not a fan of tasting notes or scores (spoiler alert - I don’t score wines) but because the circumstances of this tasting are unusual, I thought it might be helpful. Keep reading to the end to learn about the Iconic wine of the tasting.

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Expectations

If you are expecting these wines to taste like the BC wines that you have come to love in the past couple of decades, you will be disappointed. These are not going to be like that. However, there are going to be fantastic wines. There were many at this tasting and surely more to come.

Expectations play a huge roll in how we as consumers perceive foods. Marketers, whoever invented Crystal Pepsi, and anyone who has worked in a wine shop will all tell you that expectations matter. If I buy a Snickers bar and it tastes like a Crunchy, I’m not going to be happy about it because my expectations for the product that I paid for won’t be met.

This could be where wineries that hide the origin of the grapes on the label (or obscured it by burying it deep in the back label text) are not setting themselves up for success in my opinion. It shows that they are embarrassed by the grape origins, or worse, that they have something to hide. What else are they not saying? Even if logistic problems from unclear regulations and deadlines for getting labels printed on time before bottling made it difficult, being forthright about the grapes’ origins is important for setting up the customer’s expectations for the wine.

Wines labels that clearly state that this is a wine made from Washington (or wherever) grapes on the front have a much better chance. They have established the expectations clearly and decisively. And they have nothing to hide. Customers know what they are getting and won’t expect them to taste exactly like a BC wine. They will be ready and much more open to accepting something different.

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The Big Orange Elephant in the Room

Might as well get this out of the way now. I understand why not having an overt reference to anything American on the label is appealing given the current political climate. If politics are going to influence your decision as a customer to not purchase these wines, I totally understand. The current political times are an unfortunate storm that nobody expected and Brand America is no longer the valuable commodity that it once was, which I’ve written about previously.

But here’s the thing; If you think that by NOT purchasing these wines out of political protest, you will be making a statement that absolutely nobody will hear. You will also be directly harming Canadian wineries, some of which are very small, independent family-run businesses. These grapes were contracted, bought, and paid for well before any of this recent political crap happened. Your punishment will only harm Canadians, many of whom I can introduce to you personally if you really want to know how much harm you will be causing.

Just in case you were wondering where I stood on that...

In/Consistencies

As I said before, I believe the quality of the wine in the bottle matters the most. Based on the tasting at Carl and Mira’s, BC wine lovers will be in for a treat. Knowing what to expect is a big part of it. If you are expecting your favourite wine to taste exactly the same, or even just similar, you could be in for a surprise.

As a category, I think Pinot Gris is the clearest example of what failed expectations can do. BC has a clearly defined style for this grape variety, and indeed all white wines, can do. Yes, Pinot Gris is arguably all over the map stylistically; Will it be a light and crisp Grigio or will it be a richer, spicier Gris? To me, the pointy end of BC Pinot Gris has always been a spicy / herbal edge that jumps out at you when you first taste it. My benchmark classics for this style are certainly Hester Creek’s and Lake Breeze’s Pinot Gris. This edge was lacking in all of these wines. Even the hallmark aromas of Tinhorn’s Pinot Gris (which I’ve always called “Beer-no Gris”) wasn’t quite as beer-like as it usually is.

One exciting development that I noticed from the tasting is that Sauvignon Blanc is suddenly interesting again. I’ve never been enamoured with this variety in BC. It’s always been boring to me. Nothing special about it. This is why I went a little goo-goo over Sauvignon Blanc in Ontario when I wrote the two Ontario volumes of Sipster’s pocket guides. Those wines were interesting - complex, nuanced, and fun to taste. My experience with BC Sauvignon Blanc has never been like that.

I know that I’m not alone. Steven Spurrier bemoaned this variety quite publicly when he was speaking at Okanagan College in late 2019. Awkwardly sitting on the stage were more than a few winery owners, some of whom had invested a lot into Sauvignon Blanc over the years. I don’t recall his exact words but it was something like, “why bother?” and he is right. With exceptions that I can count on one hand and still have fingers left over, I can recall no more than a few BC wines made from Sauvignon Blanc that show anything near as interesting as wines produced in other parts of the world. It’s not that winemakers here don’t know what to do with it (they do), it’s just that these grapes don’t do anything special here. Sauvignon Blanc will never be a great wine in BC because the raw materials aren’t there.

The treat now is that there were some fabulous Sauvignon Blancs here. If anything comes from this importation of foreign grapes for use in BC, I hope it is that we get to learn and appreciate what works best in our own growing regions. Sauvignon Blanc is nothing special in BC so we should enjoy these great wines while they are here. Standouts include Clos du Soleil’s Washington Series Sauvignon Blanc 2024 and River Stone’s Good Neighbours Series Sauvignon Blanc 20024.1

Conclusion - What to expect

Here are a few things that I noticed from doing this tasting.

Good winemaking is good winemaking. If a winery has a track record for good winemaking, and you like a particular winery’s style, it will still show in the wines no matter where the grapes came from.

However, Washington grapes are different from BC grapes. Yes, the soils might be similar but the latitude isn’t and that makes a difference for things like acidity. BC winemakers are not scared by a little acidity. In the past, I think they didn’t know what to do with the sometimes-pronounced acidity from BC grapes nor did wine enthusiasts. The wine critics of the day often wrote off BC wines because of it and used veiled derogatory terms like “bright” or “food-friendly” (the ultimate dig) to describe wines of any colour that tasted more sour than what they were used to with their benchmark wines.

That can go the other way too. No doubt that working in this industry as I have for 20 years, my palate might be used to certain endemic characteristics of wine in BC. I know that I’ve always had trouble finding white wines from Washington State that I enjoy, finding them too flabby and lacking acidity. Looking back, I think this set up my own expectations for what these wines were going to taste like. I fully acknowledge that I may have approached these Crafted in BC wines with more suspicion because of that.

Surely, I won’t be the only one but I’m certain that I will be in the minority. I really don’t think that the average wine consumer will really care all that much about where the grapes come from, if they are even aware that wineries had to bring in grapes from elsewhere.

Bottom line - Sipters and wine enthusiasts are in a for a treat for a couple of years as these wines are released. The white wines I tasted were all solid because the BC industry knows what to do with white grapes. We’ll see how the reds stack up when they start to be released over the next year. For the moment, I’m expecting good things.

Selected Tasting Notes

Red Rooster Outbound Series Pinot Gris 2024

• Light aromas, ripe stone fruits, a bit grassy, simple palate

• Easy to drink but not super-inspiring

Tinhorn Creek Pinot Gris 2024

• Light aromas, more grapefruit and a little herbal aromas, simple, more texture than the Red Rooster

• Not like their BC Gris’s at all

Moraine Pinot Gris 2024

• Medium stone fruit, pink berries, floral, and herbal aromas.

• Beautiful pinky colour

• Palate has same flavours as aromas but a slight bitterness

Tightrope Slackline Pinot Gris 2024

• Medium stone fruit, ripe pears, soft acid, round texture, med. finish

• Best feeling wine so far

Fort Berens Here and There Pinot Gris 2024

• Light on the nose, super-elegant and clean, complex aromas - stone, light pears, a bit of spice - feels like a Pinot Blanc

• Very refreshing - acidity more obvious than other wines so far but perfectly balanced.

Mayhem Columbia River Plateau Pinot Gris 2024

• Medium aromas - spice, stonefruit, and flowers - lovely

• Medium acid, complex palate and beautiful silky texture

Noble Ridge Vilicus Pinot Gris 2024

• Spicy nose, red apples, and flowers - lovely

• Palate is a bit of a shock - very steely, mineral, and slightly medicinal

Hester Creek Pinot Gris 2024

• Light flowers, stone fruit, acid feels solidly medium+

• Most stylistically similar to their previous versions

Iconic Wine of the Tasting

Code Wines Grower Series Chardonnay 2024

There was a tank sample and a bottled sample of this wine available at the tasting. Both were excellent and showed the potential of what this wine is and will become over the next few years. This wine had a depth and richness to it that will likely evolve over time. There is oak but it is floating above all of the fruit flavours at the moment (especially in the barrel sample) and may require a few years to integrate properly, but it will. It’s a stunner.

Drink this:

Stonehouse Vineyards Frontenac Noir 2018

Oh no! It’s COLD CLIMATE from an unrecognized wine region!

Oh no! It’s a HYRBID! This can’t be a good wine.

Ewe - it’s so old!

If any of those are you first thoughts, keep believing it and go back to your predictable mass-produced consistency that maintains your mental health. I’m not judging. This wine is not for you.

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However, because you are reading about it here on Sipster’s Icons, this wine probably is for you. It IS for people who are adventurous with their tastes, and love to challenge themselves with different flavours, textures, and pairings. This is clearly a bonafide Sipster wine.

Describing this wine in words might be a challenge. If you didn’t hear it featured on my recent Sipster’s Wine podcast, perhaps listening to that will be better than reading words about it.

This wine is a bottle of wooly and fruity loveliness. The wild element made it pair extremely well with sausages and I could see it being great with game meats. There aren’t enough tannins to stand up to a pepper steak or lamb, but the flavour is pushy enough that it could probably punch above its weight.

The fruitiness comes out even more when pairing with something chocolatey, which was the most revealing pairing I attempted.

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If you haven’t listened to my podcast with Stonehouse Vineyards owners Joanne and Craig, add that to your listening queue as well.

But first, you should check this out…

Barrel Samples is a podcast from Ontario that started releasing episodes in early 2024.

I am always excited when I hear about new podcasts about wine, but particularly ones that are produced in Canada. Yes, it’s nerdy. Yes, there is some wine-speak. But NO, it is not pretentious holier-than-thou douche-baggery that plague most online (and print) wine publications and podcasts.

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This is the real deal. They do what I love most about podcasting - I get to hear their real conversation. It’s not a journalist’s interview or some true crime wank podcast. It’s real people in the wine industry talking about wine in a way that actually happens in real life, without the prepared performances of a winemaker’s dinner or a wine sales person’s marketing spew laden with proscribed hit-points. Julie, Mitchell, and Marc work at Marynissen Estates in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario and they chat about wine with guests in every podcast. They taste wines from all over the place and they clearly enjoy doing what they do, which makes listening fun.

I didn’t get to Marynissen on my last trip but they are on my list. If you didn’t know, they have a wine and book club - how amazing is that?? Just take my money now…

More recommendations like this are forthcoming. Paid subscribers get more of them of course so if you like them, please consider joining on that level.

That’s it. I’m tapping out. Social media is dead to me. It’s not that I spend a lot of time doing it, but I am tired of feeling guilty for NOT doing enough with it. I am shutting down my Instagram and turning off Facebook for my Sipster’s profile stages, as I’ve learned from listening to a great podcast called Off the Grid. Based on how much I’ve used the platform lately, and the responses that I’ve receive, it doesn’t seem like I will be all that missed. And that’s ok. These platforms no longer fit with my moral compass so I’m not going to miss them either.

How did it come to this?

Social media has become equated with marketing, as if the two are now inseparable. Job postings for marketing positions always include social media as the main focus on the list of duties. It’s like the cheapest and most lazy companies out there (which I would argue is the majority of them) are pinning their marketing hopes entirely on social media. Young, dynamic, and (sometimes) creative talent are the key to manifesting their hopes to go viral. It’s all about feeding the machine and throwing enough shit at the wall hoping something will stick. They also hope that there will be enough people interested in staring at shit. This seems to be what a lot of social media products (i.e. you, the people who watch social media)1 love to do right now. It doesn’t seem to be letting up either.

It’s been a long time coming. I’ve been on FB since 2007, Twitter since ‘09 (which I got rid of when they changed to their stupid letter), and reluctantly got into Instagram late to the game around 2015, when it became clear that it wasn’t going to be going away. I was still engaged with social media at this point, and did my best to post as much as I thought was worth posting. I’ve met a lot of really interesting people through social media too. Interestingly, I noticed that the vast majority of people I met was prior to 2016, which is when things started to shift.

But it was a year earlier when things changed for me when I posted the above photo on Twitter. It was a photo that I’d taken about a block from my house during the final days of a huge fire.

I received blowback in the form of curt DMs from at least one local winery owner and a group that marketed wines in the area. Why? Because it conflicted with their marketing message to consumers that the Okanagan was not on fire, safe to travel, and that they should still come and visit the wineries in Oliver. They were adamant that I remove it from my social media.

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