About

It All Started in France!

When she opened a bottle of French wine 25 years ago, little did wine educator, Deb Pike, know that she was opening up her future at the same time. What started with a bottle of Gevrey-Chambertin has turned into a lifelong passion for learning, and now teaching, about this ancient and still evolving spirit.

Since then, Deb has both pursued formal wine education and travelled extensively always taking along her curiosity about the wines produced wherever she is visiting. Her travels throughout such traditional wine-producing countries as France and Italy have added to her knowledge, as have trips to closer regional producers in California, Washington and BC. She continued her formal education with a course at Okanagan College and more recently, Level One and Two Wine Spirit Educational Trust (WSET London) courses, passing her Level Two exam with Distinction.

Deb now lives on Gabriola Island, close to Vancouver Island’s Cowichan Valley, where she is a frequent visitor at local wineries, artisanal cheese shops and bakeries. For the past two years, she has worked part-time at Blue Grouse Winery, a beautiful destination winery, just south of Duncan. She now combines her experience as an accomplished facilitator with her passion for wine through her business TasteBuds: Fine Wine with Friends where participants in tastings and pairings learn about the true synergy of wine and cheese, make new friends and have a lot of fun doing it!

Wine Education

Serving It Right, 2018
Level One WSET, February 2018
Level Two WSET, October 2018 – passed with distinction
Wine 21: Introduction to Grapes and Wines (Okanagan College, 2006)

What People Are Saying About TasteBuds

When I approached Deb about the possibility of facilitating an online Zoom wine tasting evening with my far flung adult children and their spouses, she enthusiastically embraced the adventure!

After researching the possibilities, she soon suggested three red wines and cheese pairings for each wine, along with tasting notes and resources. It was a bit of a challenge locating wines of the same winery, grape and vintage on the West Coast as well as Calgary and Florida, but with Deb’s expert advice and suggestions, we managed well.
Deb set up the Zoom link and invited us all to join her at the appointed time. After some questions and information, she soon had us sniffing, swirling, sipping and sharing our impressions, our observations and our laughter. It was such a wonderful way to spend quality time with my family.
Thanks so much for your guidance and expertise, Deb!

~J. Wilson

I was looking for something unique to do while visiting Gabriola. I came upon TasteBudsWine and was excited to set up a private tasting with Deb. 

Even before the tasting, Deb was extremely helpful and responsive to all our dietary needs when it came to creating the wine tastings and all the cheese and treat pairings. When she arrived at our cabin, she set up a beautiful table where we tasted delicious wines and paired them with fantastic nut-based cheeses and plant-based crackers. She was very knowledgeable about what we were tasting and on all things wine. She made her knowledge so accessible to us and was so personable and easy to chat with. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this experience if you are planning a trip to Gabriola. Thank you for such a memorable experience, Deb! 

~N.Spinola

I think you could tell that a great time was had by all; everyone has told me how much fun the wine tasting was and how much they learned (I’m blessed with great friends, I know 😊).  I’m glad with my decision to Italian, and you selected interesting wines.

~VEH

I really enjoyed our wine tasting event! Having Deb join us in our space made for a very cozy experience that I preferred over going to a winery. The selection of wines Deb chose for us exposed me to different varieties I wouldn’t have selected on my own, and she paired the wines tastefully with delicious cheeses. Deb is a fun, spirited and informative guide on your wine tasting journey! The evening with TasteBuds was so much fun, I can’t wait to do it again! This was the first experience I had that really helped me understand and distinguish between varieties. Deb’s style is relaxed, yet you can tell she’s serious about the wine tasting experience with you.

~Theresa H.

Thank YOU Deb for introducing our fun, unruly, irreverent group to three unfamiliar wines with their varied deliciousness, and in particular for introducing me to taleggio (?) cheese. Yum.
~Jenni G.

Deb made our tasting session both fun and educational. We tasted a great wine from Portugal and now I have a list of cheeses that are my new favs!

~Jacquie P.

And thanks, to you Deb, for sharing those lovely wines. In particular I am in love with the last wine and the Taleggio. Thanks, also for enduring our rambunctiousness. 

~Dyan D-F.