“The bears must think we are an obliging lot,” chuckles winemaker Marcus Ansems as he stands among the vines at his Therapy Vineyards in Naramata, British Columbia. “Lining up their food in neat rows and at arms’ length.”
Bears are not a problem in Burgundy and Bordeaux. And when Hollywood spotlighted the Californian wine country in last year’s Oscar nominated “Sideways,” the biggest danger came from the protagonists’ own libidos. But in British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley, bears occasionally lumber into the vineyard. This is Canada, after all. But it’s not the western Canada that most of us know – that macho man’s man of a landscape with its spiky summits and brooding forests that surrounds Vancouver, Whistler and Banff .When I drove the four hours from Vancouver to the Okanagan Valley one October weekend recently, I found the Venus to the rest of the region’s Mars - a gentle land of vine-covered hills running down to a deep blue lake. The most grandiose feature in the landscape was the quasi-Tuscan architecture of Mission Hills – probably the most famous of the Okanagan wineries and whose award-winning wines are sold in the UK.
Mission Hills is situated on Lake Okanagan just minutes from the city of Kelowna. The bell tower, loggia, formal rose gardens and Chagall tapestry all testify to the ambition and vision of owner Vancouver-born, European-raised, Anthony von Mandl.
Missionaries first planted vineyards in the Okanagan Valley in the 1860s. For years the region produced basic plonk. Cheap and sweet tended to be the criteria. Canadian wines had names like Fuddle Duck and Gimli Goose. All that changed with the 1988 Free Trade Agreement between Canada and the US when local wines lost their trade advantage and had to compete with the blossoming Californian wine industry. The inferior vines were ripped out and the Okanagan wine industry started from scratch. By 1994 a Mission Hills Chardonnay had been voted best Chardonnay in the world in a blind tasting at London’s International Wines and Spirits Competition. When the panel heard of the winner’s obscure origins, they demanded a re-tasting. The results were unchanged and many of the seventy vineyards throughout the region have gone on to win awards throughout the world.
I took three days to amble along the lake shores, following the burgundy and white “wine route” signs and dropping in to any winery that took my fancy. With so many of the wineries opening restaurants or even the occasional B&B on their properties, I could have wandered happily for at least a week. A mile down the slope from Mission Hill at the Quails’ Gate Estate Winery, I ate a lunch of caramelized onion tart and spinach and scallop salad at their Old Vines Patio restaurant looking out on the vines, the glorious autumn colours and the lake. For all the dulcet beauty of this landscape, there is a gnarly finger of suburban sprawl scratching its way up these hillsides – a reminder of the long strip mall that makes up most of the city of Kelowna. After lunch I drove away from the city along the lake through Peachland and Summerland towards Penticton.
Those names tell of Okanagan’s other claims to fame. This is orchard country – the source of the peaches, apples and cherries that fill the Vancouver markets. In spring, the blossoms fill the valleys and, as I drove south with the lake on one side and the orchards on the other, I saw that peach trees turn a stunning shade of flame-orange in October. Summerland may just be an arbitrary name but the Okanagan does have some of the warmest summers of the province and the lake that, on this October day, is so blue and empty and calm, fills up with waterskiers, ski-dooers and various other noisy pleasure craft. The Okanagan Valley is a place to be saved for the blossoms of spring or the autumn harvest when the air is heavy with the scent of thousands, probably millions, of apples.
Another of the Okanagan’s cities, Penticton, lies at the south end of the lake. It’s more attractive than Kelowna but you don’t come to the Okanagan for the cities so I drove on, looping up the east side of the lake to lovely little Naramata, a village nestling in the prettiest, most Mediterranean part of the Okanagan. Ten wineries perch in the hills and small valleys that line the winding country road between Naramata and Penticton. Therapy Vineyards and Guesthouse is the newest and offers bed and breakfast accommodation – its rooms have burgundy drapes and duvets and look out on walnut trees, vines, peach trees and the omnipresent lake. Other Naramata Bench wineries include Red Rooster – its new buildings unmissable just a few yards from the road, and Hillside with its big wooden barn of a bistro. Down in Naramata itself, the elegant and cosy Naramata Heritage Inn and Spa with its Rock Oven dining room looks out on the lake at the end of the elm-lined main street.
Driving down the long main street, I was sceptical. The restaurants looked as though they might serve you a hearty slice of meatloaf and a cup of Maxwell House. Then I came to the Wine Country Welcome Centre and its Toasted Oak Wine Bar and Grill a big, cosy pub-like establishment, housed in the old firehall and with a manager, Jay Drysdale who has a mission to demystify wine in general and share his passion for BC wines in particular. Jay pointed me in the direction of the “golden mile” of Okanagan wineries between Oliver and Osoyoos. My favourite stop was the Burrowing Owl Estate Winery – a southwestern mission-style structure with an elegant restaurant, The Sonora Room, that looks out over dramatic dark hills and miles of golden and red vines.
Ten minutes south of Burrowing Owl, I heard myself announcing “I’m in Santa Fe” to the empty car. The change in landscape from Naramata’s gentle green slopes to brown hills and sagebrush is startling. The Nk’Mip (pronounced Inkameep)Cellars belong to the native band of the same name and look out over Osoyoos in the heart of the pocket desert that stretches all the way from the Sonora desert in Mexico. Signs on the road here warn of rattlesnakes. It’s hard to believe that I’m just 80 miles down the road from Mission Hill’s bell tower. I could have driven the length of the Okanagan’s wine country in less than two hours. But why on earth would anyone want to?
www.frontier-canada.co.uk feature the Naramata Heritage Inn and for 10 nights, including Air Canada flights and intermediate car hire would cost from £1387
www.missionhillwinery.com
Quail's Gate Estate Winery: www.quails-gate.com 1 250 769 4451
Therapy Vineyards & Guesthouse: www.therapyvineyards.com
Burrowing Owl Estate Winery: www.burrowingowlwine.ca 1 250 498
Nk’Mip Cellars: www.nkmipcellars.com 1 250 495 2985
No comments:
Post a Comment