Wine Tasting and Culture in the Okanagan.

Being a planner and organiser, I’d mapped out an optimum route for the next part of our trip over the Canadian Rockies to Edmonton, booked some cute places to stay, and most importantly researched the best wineries to try in the beautiful Okanagan Valley.

Our first stop out of Vancouver was Bridal Veil Falls Provincial Park – it’s an easy short walk along a forest path to see this gorgeous waterfall. Such a beautiful sight to see these gradually widening cascades tumble to the mossy forest floor- very much like the white veil of a bride’s ensemble.

This small provincial park sits on a tributary beside the Fraser River which flowing down from the far north of Canada, opens onto the wide valley leading down to Vancouver and the Pacific Ocean. The damp and cool forested areas of Canada are magnificent and so vastly different to Australian forests. The highway meanders east through the cascade mountains via Hope and Princeton to our first nights stop – Osooyos, a town deriving its name from the native Okanagan language word for ‘narrowing of the waters’.

Our hosts (Dianne and Lewis at the time) at The Whitehorse B&B run a quaint 4 room home overlooking Osooyos Lake at the southern end of the gorgeous Okanagan valley. New hosts Ron & Darlene will welcome you and provide information on things to do and see in the region. During our stay we shared a bottle and a chat in the common area with two couples from Calgary who visit this area every year to stock up their cellars from wineries in the area. These types of interactions make for great discourse at the time and a way to connect with other people from across the globe.

The Okanagan Valley in British Columbia sits in a unique climate pocket which makes it ideal for fruit production & wineries. With a dry sunny climate and mulitple lakes from Osooyos in the south to Vernon at its northern end, this region is a summer playground for Canadians, with mountain ranges flanking the valley, and many small towns along the lakes’ edges providing a range of options for water based, adventure and outdoor activities.

The Osooyos Indian Band of the Okanagan Nation Alliance run multiple financially viable operations on the land they own in the valley. One of them is Nk’Mip Desert and Cultural Centre, which incorporates Nk’Mip Cellars (pronounced in-ka-meep). Our B&B hostess worked in the cellar door here so we took the opportunity to do a tasting and purchase a few bottles towards our permitted allowance – really unique styles and very delicious wines which we enjoyed on our return to Australia.

This incredible winery is the first Indigenous-owned-and-operated vineyard in North America, and their boutique wines are sensational! Many of the wineries in the Valley are world class operations producing small batch vintages.

I was particularly taken with this amazing sculpture of an Indigenous Chief which greets visitors at the entrance to the Desert Cultural Centre, a fascinating place to learn about the history & culture of the local First Nations peoples, and wander through the scrubland which was their home. Metal sculptures and replica shelters represent life for these proud people before the arrival of European settlers, and wildlife abounds in the area – a pretty butterfly and a juvenile osprey were among the local residents. Thankfully we didn’t come across more sinister slithering locals…..

We continued our journey north up the valley on western side, before crossing back to the east where just north of Oliver we paid a visit to Jackson-Triggs Okanagen Estate. Tasting some of their offerings led us to purchase a bottle of their excellent white Meritage. The Okanagan highway criss-crosses the lakes and canals of the valley, and a side trip up a hillside led us to discover See Ya Later Ranch where we stopped for lunch and a drink with gorgeous views north over the valley and Skaha Lake. Another bottle (this time Shiraz) for our allowance and we kept motoring north through Penticton, Kelowna and to the northern end of the valley at Vernon.
More time in this area would have enabled us to visit some of the many wineries along this valley – I guess we’ll just have to go back and take it more slowly next time. Who’s with me??!

Have you travelled along the Okanagan Valley? Are you inspired to take this road now?
Let me know your thoughts below