Welcome to "Wine Rack Grape Vine"
Our goal here at "Wine Rack Grape Vine" is to educate, inform and hopefully amuse while discussing wine, wine regions, wineries, food and wine, wine products, wine education and anything else that we feel is remotely entertaining (possibly controversial) and relevant to the wine industry.
The "we" that I speak of is ChrisandMona. No, that is not a grammatical error; anyone who has been with someone for any length of time will understand why this is. After a period (20 years in our case), you tend to morph into a single entity. This became very apparent to us when our friends' children continually addressed us individually as ChrisandMona. That is not to say we do not have our own identities but for the sake of this blog I will go back and forth between "I" and "we" and usually mean it as the same thing. The main reason for this is our wine history and education is the same. Believe me when I say though, our opinions, preferences, and overall take on each wine experience can vary greatly.
We have both completed the "wine fundamentals level 1" through the "International Sommelier Guild" followed by the first two levels with the "Wine and spirit education trust" (WSET). More importantly, we have been able to put our education to task in places like Tuscany, Napa/Sonoma, Oregon, and the Okanagan Valley, to name a few of our favorites. My former position in the sports industry allowed us the fortunate luxury of fine dining (and of course fine wine) combined with extensive travel. Having recently retired from that industry I am happy to pursue the things that I am truly passionate about - wine and all aspects of the wine industry are at the top of the list.
At the risk of sounding redundant, I am Chris and my wife is Mona. We live in the beautiful Okanagan valley (Kelowna BC Canada) in the heart of wine country. For those of you who are not familiar with our area I hope to entice you with in-depth information about the wineries, wines and evolving culture from a local’s perspective. Having been to many established wine areas (and loved every one of them) I hope that this brings a level of credibility to our opinions and we very much look forward to all future feed back. We do have some education and a lot of experience but are far from going pro on the wine scene; I hope you find value in what we have to say.
Please remember, "Friends don't let friends drink and dine.....alone"
Chris and Mona
Unfortunately Mona and I were unable to attend last years event so with friend and fellow wine consumer (Dustin) in tow the three of us headed off to the affair. It was a short journey from Kelowna to Brock farm in beautiful Okanagan Falls and certainly worth the $85 per person entry fee. We strolled for hours from one tent to the next sampling food with the suggested wine pairings (sometimes more than once). All totaled there were 25 of the valley's top chefs teamed with local farmers and wineries (and one brewery). In addition there were artisans, musicians and educational participants. 
