Wine, food and great friends to share it with and a little marathon

Okanagan Trip
May 24-27, 2012

I booked this trip for the Half Corked Marathon in Oliver.  Our first plan was to take the boys with us but later decided to ditch them.  (They have school and really not much for them to do)  We decided to invite D and B to go with us.

We left Thursday morning.  D and B left earlier and we met up with them in Kelowna.  The drive was really good with little delays for construction.  Not always the case.  LOL  We returned on Monday.  D and B came back on Sunday.

The Okanagan is one of our happy places.  The lake, the views, the SUN.  We love it.

This was truly a great trip filled with the good things in life.  Wine and food and great friends to share it with.  A great 17k walk though the vineyards with a little wine tasking.  How perfect. 

The Okanagan Valley has some of the most beautiful scenery in the world and is home to our Happy Place.  There is a widely diverse selection of fantastic wines.  With their white being our favorite. Spending an afternoon wine tasting in the Okanagan is one of the greatest pleasures especially when done with friends.  Finding those special bottles of wine to drink or lay down in my collection, truly is a great pleasure for me.  I find myself attached to each bottle and each adds to my memories.  I really love the whites of the Okanagan and find myself hunting down the best.  Which is pretty easy to find.  I love so many of them.

There are a few wine regions in the Okanagan to tour.  One of our favorites is Naramata Bench which we hope to make our home one day.  What makes Naramata Bench unique in the Okanagan is it's geography.  It is a strip of vineyard land, with fairly complex soil.  Most of the bench is a gentle slope facing the west.  The vineyards benefit form long days of sunlight, with the lake moderating summer heat spikes as well as unseasonable winter cold.

The Okanagan Valley supports many different micro-climates, due to its complex geography. Each varietal performs differently in each of the six region

•     Osoyoos
•     Oliver (Black Sage Bench / Golden Mile)
•     Okanagan Falls (Corkscrew Drive / Skaha Lake / Kaleden)
•     Naramata Bench
•     Summerland (Bottleneck Drive)
•     Peachland
•     West Kelowna
•     Kelowna (The Mission / East Kelowna)

Kelowna (East) and North Okanagan have a variety of soil types and a long frost-free growing season due to the sloped sites and good air drainage. Predominantly white varietal are planted here, along with some Pinot Noir.

Kelowna (West) and Peachland soils are primarily clay-rich with excellent water and nutrient storage. Aromatic whites such as Gewürztraminer and Riesling grow well here, as well as Chardonnay and Pinot Noir

Okanagan Falls is made up of vineyards between Skaha Lake and Oliver. The soils are mainly sandy or very coarse gravel and the landscape is full of deep circular depressions caused melted glacial ice blocks buried beneath sediment. Vineyards are located primarily at higher elevations and are planted with Pinot Noir, Merlot, Riesling and Gewürztraminer.

Osoyoos Lake/ Black Sage Bench. These soils are pure sand with very few stones or gravel, providing excellent drainage for the vines. The warm climate and the sandy soils produce Syrah and the Bordeaux red varietals.