VIN DE PAYS

Alastair and and Dawn dragged me off to visit some of the vineyards near Kelowna. In my youth this land was all planted in fruit trees (as my grandmother's family did in Salmon Arm - the north end of the Okanagan - at the early 1900s). In the 1970s they started to plant vines instead of fruit trees and have been doing so ever since. Changed days! I remember my father never made any money with his fruit; that certainly cannot be the case for these vineyard owners!

We started at Gray Monk Estate in Winfield, north of Kelowna. In Austria and Hungary this grape is called Grauer Monch or Gray Monk and has a very distinctive blue-gray coloured berry.
The winery is a very smart establishment with a deck restaurant overlooking Okanagan Lake where we had lunch. Dawn and I did a fair bit of sampling and between us bought a good few bottles .

The common grape varieties in this region are ones that suit the cooler end of the wine-growing regions of the world. This area is like Germany and they plant similar grape varieties: Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, Riesling, Chardonnay, Merlot, Gewurztraminer. The latitude here is Latitude 50 degrees. This area is due north of the American border (Latitude 49 degrees or the '49th Parallel' as it is more commonly known).

This particular bottle is from a next door winery, Arrowleaf Cellars, Winfield. They are small outfit, - no big car parks or extensive landscaping - and like the others make small-lot, cool-climate wines. In their smaller space, overlooking Okanagan Lake, they have a few pieces of sculpture out on the grass along with some rose bushes and ledges to sit on.

This bottle above, Solstice, is a blend of Merlot, Zweigelt and Lemberger (also known as Blaufränkisch) grapes.

All these wineries invent their own names for their blends. Another one of Arrowleaf's is called Bacchus which is a Riesling x Sylvaner x Mueller-Thurgau crossing.

Lastly, Mission Hill Vineyard (above) is south of Kelowna and is - from the limited visits I have made - in a different league. It is big, imposing and, as Dawn, says, 'very California'! It spoke 'corporate' and 'cultural' to me. While all vineyards have facilities for the big tour buses, this place caters for outside events in their outdoor amphitheatre adjacent to their imposing tasting and catering facilities.

Their big tasting hall has many items to buy along with the wine. To taste, one glass is $2 and you could have 3 for $5. The other 2 wineries above were free of charge.

Missionhill white wines are Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Grigio, Sauvignon Blanc. The red wines are Cabernet Merlot, Pinot Noir, Rosé.

I tried Pinot Noir in all 3 wineries. Big jammy fruity wine these are not. They were more earthy and somewhat high on acid for me. But these are not Hot Climate wines. Also their production is not on the scale of Australia and California (let alone France and other European countries); I never see these for sale in the UK. Come to think of it I never see them written about either, e.g. Jancis Robinson.