The Okanagan wine area stretching from Kelowna, British Columbia to the Canadian – US border may have the best combination of physical beauty, reasonably priced tasting fees, and quality wines to be found anywhere in North America. That’s a pretty bold statement but let me try and back that up in words and images below.
I’m not going to try and convince anyone that the overall quality of wines in the Okanagan compares to the best wines of California, Oregon and Washington but I will venture that the quality is not that far off and has improved markedly since our previous visit 5 years earlier. But the reason the Okanagan jumps up in our estimation is the sheer physical beauty – the lakes, the mountains and the valley – coupled with stunning tasting rooms, friendly people, and the oh-so reasonably priced tasting fees.
The wineries are well marked and are generally pretty close to the main road – remember signs are in kilometers not miles.
Maybe what you have heard about Canadian wines is that they make some nice ice wines or other cold weather varietals such as Riesling and Gewurztraminer. But in the southern Okanagan, which is one of Canada’s most arid growing regions, the talk is of Chardonnay, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir and not of ice wine. However, if you are a fan of dessert wines you can still find the delicious ice wine in the northern reaches of the Okanagan Valley and in the province of Ontario.
Some of these photos are from the Northern Okanagan which features the eighty mile long, beautiful, Okanagan Lake running down the valley through the cities of Kelowna, Peachland, Summerland, and finally to Penticton.
The valley even has a couple of bubbly producers for your pleasure.
The valley continues on south from Penticton with bluffs rising on both sides and rivers and lakes running down the middle. Skaha Lake, Vaseux Lake, Tuc-El-Nuit Lake and finally Osoyoos Lake, which spans the Canadian – USA border, make for stunning vistas from the hillside wineries.
The southern Okanagan is anchored by Oliver, the self anointed “Wine Capital of Canada”.
The wine industry in the Okanagan Valley continues to grow and some of the old standby crops such as cherries and apples are being ripped out in favor of more profitable grapes. But judging by the number of fruit stands and crops we witnessed, the region is in no danger of losing its reputation as the fruit basket of British Columbia. In the 1990’s there were some twenty wineries in British Columbia and now there are over 200 – the majority of which are in the Okanagan Valley.
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And the growth continues, a new $100 million winery in Oliver is projected to open in spring of 2019. In addition, The Area 27 grand prix style racetrack recently opened and promises to bring more tourists to the area. The track was designed by Canadian driving icon Jacques Villeneuve, a Quebec-born racing driver who won the 1995 Indianapolis 500 and the 1997 Formula One World Championship.
The growers have learned which grape varietals grow best in the valley and the Okanagan has seen one highly rated vintage after another in the past decade. The area can get an occasional early spring freeze which can affect the vines and on occasion, like in 2015, the valley can fill with smoke from forest fires in the region.
The last part of the equation is the reasonable prices and the friendly wine pourers at the tasting rooms in the Okanagan. The first winery we visited asked for a $2 donation for a local charity. The next two we visited had no tasting fee at all and two others charged $5 but that was refunded with a bottle purchase. The people are so gracious and it is not unusual to have the winemaker or vineyard manager pouring wines in the tasting rooms. And with the US Dollar at a 20% premium to the Canadian Loonie everything but gas seemed to be a good deal in Canada.
Camping and RV Parks can be found throughout the valley and there are plenty of hotels in Kelowna at the north end and Osoyoos at the southern end of the valley. Many of the wineries also have highly rated restaurants on site for your dining pleasure. Our preference for big red wines means we like the warmer southern end of the valley best and have based ourselves out of the town of Oliver but if your preference is for whites you may prefer basing yourself in Kelowna.
Some of the wineries we can recommend from our last visit to the southern part of the valley include Jackson Triggs \ Inniskillin (they share a tasting facility), Fairview Cellars, River Stone, Burrowing Owl, and Hester Creek. Here is a link to a website covering the Oliver-Osoyoos Wine Country
Enjoy and as always, drink responsibly!