13
Aug
2008
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Category: On the Road with the Grape Guy
For my mother's 70th birthday she wanted to travel the Okanagan tasting wine ... I being the curious wine writer that I am decided that sounded like a really good idea ...
We took to the South of the Okanagan as we took to the north, deviding up the region from the furthest to the closest.
We began the day by moving as far south as we could – which we had been told was Nk’Mip, but there is one that is just a hair further south these days, Twisted Tree. It’s interesting to note that we began and ended day 9 without a drop of wine.
We had been told by fellow wine writer Michael Vaughan, to visit the Nk’Mip Cultural Center; so we popped in to see what the big deal was about. The sign said that it was a good idea to have a hat, water and sunblock for the 1.5km walk – I had no hat so instead of doing it “tomorrow”, as mom and I debated, I bought a hat, that either made me look local or yokel, still not sure (you decide – see right). Between mom and myself we also bought about $100 worth of souvenirs (making sure they were all made in Canada). We ended the day back at Golden Mile Cellars, where Mick took us on a 45-minute vineyard tour. This man is passionate about his vines, his fruit, his workers, everything to make better wine. From thinning and pruning to paying his workers top dollar to get a better days work … you get what you pay for is one of Mick’s many philosophies. Mick is doing wine on his terms (this from a 5 year farmer) and it shows in the glass that is presented to you at the tasting bar. I was very impressed by what I saw. I’m sure that Mick would like me to mention his good looks, smarts and humility, but I have never lied to my readers and I won’t start now (see day 4).
As for the wines ... (Read more - with pictures, wineries visited and wines of note)
To read about more interesting adventures thru the world of wine check out the On the Road With the Grape Guy blog.
13
Aug
2008
- Details
-
Category: On the Road with the Grape Guy
With the Naramata Bench fully completed in two days we now had a big decision ahead of us: go North or go South.
North seemed the most likely. With a number of interesting and well-known wineries up that way, and having covered quite a bit of the south already, it seemed the most logical choice. And besides, looking at the map we felt we had our work cut out for us. BC is expanding Highway 97, the main artery to Kelowna (where most of these wineries center around) from Pentiction (where we are staying) – the road gets closed 3 times during the day between Summerland and Peachland for blasting away and the clean up of rocks. This works out to be about the halfway point between the two cities. We decided to do as many above the construction zone on the Monday and below the construction zone Tuesday. We did these wineries in a “sip and leave” fashion: you try a few wines and if nothing impresses you, leave … if you find some wines that do impress, try more of their wines. Some winery names you’ll recognize because we have seen their names in Ontario or we have heard of them from others who visit.
I noticed that wineries in BC are hit and miss, like they are in any region. BC has this strong, fierce self-identity and self-awareness that all BC wines are the best … wish we had that attitude in Ontario. But mom and I are learning that just like in any region there are good producers and fair producers. As we learned on the Naramata Bench over the past few days, the difference between a very good winery and an average winery is passion – and you can make that distinction in the glass. Passion shows through, and so does plain old profiteering. On our northerly trip this topic kept coming up, and that perception really stuck with us as we continued into the south on days 9 and 10 ... (Read more - pictures, wineries visited and wines of note)
To read about more interesting adventures thru the world of wine check out the On the Road With the Grape Guy blog.
