Day 14: Kelowna Wine Country
September 22, 2012
After much driving yesterday (and even more driving to be done tomorrow), we only had a short 45-min drive ahead of us this morning. It took us from Vernon to Kelowna, BC, the heart of the Bristish Columbia wine country. Yesterday I wrote about Vernon and that it was not that picturesque. After we left the valley around Vernon, we saw an immediate change in the countryside. Kelowna is situated at the Okanagan Lake, and surrounded by gentle hills on all sides. The scenery looked almost Mediterranean, with vineyards along the highway and countless signs pointing to fruit stands or even free fruit picking opportunities.
Impressions from Kelowna Wine Country
We started with two small wine tastings at a small and medium sized wineries. At one of the biggest (and coincidentally: organic) winery, we did a full tour, taking us through their whole production line and into their wine cellar, which is located in a 1/8 scale of the Egyptian pyramids. The tour was nice, though we got the impression that in order to make organic wine you have to be very alternative in every aspect of life. Unfortunately, we didn’t really like any of the wines we got to try. That is not to say they weren’t any good, but they were all overly sweet for our taste. Compared to the taste of the wine from Europe in general, and considering the steep prices for wine around here, we still prefer a nice French, Italian or German wine.
Cheers!
After checking into our accommodation for tonight, we headed to downtown Kelowna to fill up on gas and grab some dinner. We quickly settled on a very nice Thai place, a welcome change to the meat-heavy “restaurants” (which would be called fast-food places in Europe) of the last few days.
Me waiting for my food
Tomorrow we’ll head straight to Victoria. After the slow pace of the last few days, we decided to take this big leap and not spend another night on the way. We will definitely stop in Hope, BC though, don’t worry.
