Day Trips - The Okanagan

The Okanagan traces its wine-region patrimony back to a missionary named Father Pandosy, who cultivated a small vineyard in the 1860s to produce sacramental wines for his flock. Commercial cultivation began in the 1930s and grew from there, along with the region’s reputation for producing, as the critics put it, “plonk.” Cool temperatures induced growers to use hardier hybrid vines that produced, well, the kind of wine drunk from a paper sack. In one of few clear benefits, Free Trade in the 1980s forced the region to reconsider its position and take the risk of planting “vinifera” or noble vines: chardonnay, merlot, pinot noir, riesling and gewürztraminer.

The payoffs for their leap of faith are now available by the sip. The Okanagan Wine Route wends its way to over 50 wineries in the region. Wine festivals and all manner of activities are tied in with the industry, which vies for attention with the abundance of apple, peach and cherry orchards. The fun doesn’t just grow on vines and trees: houseboating on Shuswap Lake, bike trips on the Kettle Valley Railway trail, and some of the best golf in the country await your pleasure.

THE SIGHT: Ogopogo, resident water dragon of Lake Okanagan.

THE SOUND: The sigh of a pent-up and subtly floral Madeleine Angevine being uncorked from captivity, at Larch Hills Winery, Salmon Arm, 250-832-0155.

THE SOUVENIR: A case of nonviniferous Marechal Foch to alarm your winesnob friends, from Quails’ Gate Estate Winery, 3303 Boucherie Rd., Kelowna, 800-420-9463.

GETTING THERE:

All routes begin with a drive east along Highway 1 to Hope, B.C. Call Thompson Okanagan Tourism, 800-567-2275.