A Wine Soaked Weekend……
Well, the Okanagan Fall Wine Festival is upon us! Hundreds of events celebrating everything red, white, pink and in a bottle!
On Friday, my husband and I spent the day touring the spectacularly beautiful Naramata Bench. Naramata has some of my favourite Okanagan wineries. We stopped and sampled at La Frenz, Laughing Stock, and Marichel Vineyards. Then we enjoyed a relaxing lunch of fresh baked hearth bread, cheese and pate, on the patio of the Naramata Heritage Inn. It was an idyllic way to spend the day!
Saturday afternoon saw us attending Tinhorn Creek’s Crush Club Release party. Just down the street from our house, Tinhorn sports a spectacular view, and some very nice wines! They served up hamburgers and their newly released red vintages to over 500 Crush Club members.
AND! On Sunday, my favourite event of the festival: Festival of the Grape. This outdoor event hosts over 3000 people from near and far. The wine tents have 40 or so local wineries sampling their newest releases; there was a plethora of food vendors to suit even the wildest tastes from Greek to home made fries to ice-cream; a whack of crafters and vendors of other fine stuff, and an art show to boot! The kids were all kept busy with various games, face painting and entertainment, while the adults enjoyed watching the grape stomp and the great music of The Powder Blues Band (as well as the wine 
I love this event partly because it allows me to compare the wines of many different wineries against each other. Where else can you have the opportunity to taste 8 different Pinot Gris side-by-side? Since this is my new “fav” varietal, that’s exactly what I did! And, I found some very juicy ones!!
After my palate tired of Pinot Gris, I switched to big reds and discovered a few new favourites! I loved the Seven Stones Meritage. And, for $32, I think it’s a steal. I must go to Cawston to visit the winery and get me some! The other big red I was really impressed by was a Pinotage by Stoneboat Vineyards. This is an uncommon varietal for our area, but I loved big smoky, fruit flavours! This will be one for my winter drinking list.
Whew! And this is only the first weekend of the Festival! Just think how the winery operators feel when they have to put the whole thing on right in the middle of crush? Thanks, guys!
