Vacation Summary Part 2/2

Over three or four days, we visited 22 of the over 70 wineries in the Okanagan area of British Columbia, and one in Washington State called Gold Digger who will be changing their name to Okanagan something or other. Of these wineries there were only 3 we didn’t like very much. One was Gold Digger in Washington State, the others were Inniskillin, Domaine Combrey (soon to be re-named Antelope Ridge), and we were not too impressed with Golden Beaver (this winery was formerly known as Gersighel Wineberg). All of the wine was drinkable but we felt these were sub-average relative to the other wineries. Outstanding wines came from Hester Creek Wineries (by far the best of the best), and the major wineries of Tin Horn Creek, Burrowing Owl, Mission Hill, Gray Monks, and others. Many of the wineries were small producers capable only of limited distribution within BC, but often produced superior wines. Most of them will ship internet orders within BC and Alberta (some have a one case –mixed or not– minimum). For the about $20.00 CDN min per case shipping charge to Edmonton it is not worth it to order just one bottle.

In 2003, the Western Okanagan Valley suffered a huge and devastating wild fire that wiped out many a grape crop and many winery and other buildings, vines, and orchards. It was a real economic disaster for many people. The Golden Beaver Winery had a Merlot that they produced from a smoke-damaged crop and it was smoky tasting and also too sweet. The hostess said it was her personal favorite, but in my opinion she was just trying to sell it off. It was a decent if a bit unusual tasting wine, but it was not a Merlot style even though it was made from Merlot grapes. Not something I’d want to drink a whole bottle of, but it might have made an interesting desert wine or conversation piece.

I have to say there were some embarrassing moments. At one winery I commented to one of the hostesses that Canadian wine was simply world class and in fact probably the best wine available. It turns out the hostess was Portuguese and she began to defend her native country’s wine. Enough said.

Here is a picture of part of the Burrowing Owl Vineyards estates. They had over 140 acres of vines. They said that they had lost 50 tons of grapes to Black Bears over the years, but they can live with that apparently:

And here is one of our meals that went really nice with wine and of course we did it all, never once eating in restaurants. Quite simple really, this is just asparagus, cheese, smoked salmon and a tortilla. We had to be trying Washinton State wine at this point. This one is in Libby, Montana:

This next picture is of a lunch stop at Crystal Falls, I don’t remember what state this was in, but you will see no wine here as we were still driving toward our next stop:

We tried to go back through Waterton/Glacier park roads but were turned back due to the roads being closed by snow. We had to backtrack twice trying to get through that area. Here are a four shots of Lake McDonald in Glacier Park, Montana before we were turned back:

Who has seen this sculpture just south if the Canadian Border in Montana? It is in the Blackfoot Indian Reserve and made of old junk, car parts, and barbed wire:

And in behind these noble metal Blackfeet are these mountains within sight of the Canadian and US customs crossing:

At Roosevelt Lake in Washington we had an opportunity to use the Elephant Toilet:

At Kalispell, Montana we came across the rare Blue Mountain Bunny, related to the Sasquatch I think:

And finally, here is a last picture of Marilyn and me at Mission Hill, BC. The granite lotus-shaped fountain was excavated from an old Austrian Monastery and shipped here to be used once again:

There are many more pictures and events but this summary is all I’m going to do. If anyone wants to order excellent BC wines and have them shipped here, let me know and we can combine orders to save on shipping. You can’t get these excellent wines in Alberta! If you don’t know what to order let me know and I’ll be happy to tell you.