Day Trips - Tofino & The Cowichan

What’s a “scrumpy” made of Tremlett’s Bitters and Chisel Jerseys? Should a porcini be prepared the same way as a lobster mushroom? What’s the best wine pairing for hard goat’s cheddar? You can eat and drink your way through such questions on a tour through the Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island, Canada’s answer to Provence.

One meaning of “Cowichan” in the Coast Salish language is “the warm land” and the name fits: residents have to cope with the highest mean temperature in Canada. Over the past twenty years, an impressive mix of organic farmers, slow-food visionaries, microbrewers and estate vintners have gathered to take advantage of the region’s rich soil. Their gourmet talents have spawned a thriving foodie culture. You can take a leisurely cycling tour of local wineries like Vigneti Zanatta, learn to forage and cook with wild mushrooms at The Aerie resort’s annual Great Fall Mushroom Hunt or sample Trappist-style artisan cheeses at Hilary’s Cheeses (available at the downtown Duncan Farmer’s Market or right from the source at Cheese Pointe Farm).

Lush valleys like the Cowichan can lull one for days, but while you’re on Vancouver Island you should buckle in for the three-hour drive to Tofino on the western coast. Rugged and wild (“storm watching” is a local pastime), Tofino is Canada’s surfing capital and home to both the newly inaugurated Tofino Food and Wine Festival and the elegant Wickaninnish Inn, aka “the Wick.” Spend your day hiking the beach trails or trying to paddle your board past the breakers; at night rest your muscles and trade stories over roasted Clayoquot oysters and lemongrass halibut at the Wick’s exceptional Pointe Restaurant. Ruggedness never tasted so good.

THE SIGHT: Your surfboard being tossed like a rubber ducky by a Cox Bay wave.

THE SOUND: Silence, in particular the preternatural quiet surrounding the lofty Aerie Resort in Malahat (broken only by the cries of resident eagles) (800-518-1933).

THE SOUVENIR: A bottle of Black Muscat, a Dionysian elixir redolent of lychee and currants, from Blue Grouse Vineyards (4365 Blue Grouse Road, Duncan, 250-743-3834).

GETTING THERE:

For ferry information, call BC Ferries at 888-223-3779. Sonicblue Airways (800-228-6608) offers daily flights to Tofino for winter storm-watching season, with frequency increasing in April. Contact Tourism Vancouver Island, 250-754-3500, for more info.

Merridale Estate Cidery, 1230 Merridale Road, Cobble Hill, 800-998-9908.
Vigneti Zanatta, 5039 Marshall Rd., Duncan, 250-748-2338.
Cheese Pointe Farm, 1282 Cherry Point Rd., Cowichan Bay, 250-715-0563.
The Aerie Resort, Malahat, 800-518-1933.
Wickaninnish Inn, the Pointe Restaurant, Osprey Lane, Tofino, 800-333-4604.
Tofino Food and Wine Festival, June 3-5 2005, 250-266-0076, tofinofoodandwinefestival.com