Five couples descended upon the Okanagan the week after Labour Day and returned with cars weighted down by cases of the best that we sampled.
We stayed at Spirit Ridge Resort in Osoyoos and booked a 14 person OK Wine Tours van to take us around to seven wineries our first full day in the region (after some enjoyed 9-holes at Sonora Dunes). The extra seats in the van managed to hold all the wine that we purchased along the way. Lunch at Hester Creek Winery’s Terrafina Restaurant was a welcome break from the rigour of tasting! Silver Sage Winery was lauded by all as the day’s most entertaining presentation and the winery with the most interesting (and flavourful) wines.
The next day, following 9-holes on the beautiful Park Meadows Course at the Osoyoos Golf Club, we lunched in the Miradoro Restaurant overlooking the valley and lake. Satiated, we took a short tour of Tinhorn Creek Winery and then went on to the highlight of the day – the old log cabin tasting room of Fairview Cellars.
Fires, which appeared to be very close to vineyards on the west side of the lake, were described to us as “controlled burns” and, for the most part, the smoke blew to the west, leaving beautiful blue skies above us.
Next year? Perhaps Tuscany!
