This year, we plan to go to wine country as often as we can, to reconnect with all the people we love and to savour all the delicious wines they’re making. We want to dine amid the vines at Quails’ Gate and Hester Creek, watch the sunset from the terrace at Home Block and check in with the chickens at Backyard Farm. We want to check out what’s happening at Naramata Inn, where a couple of industry insiders are opening a French bistro. We’re craving the aromatic spices of Manzil Restaurant at Kismet Estate Winery and the giant breakfast burrito at the El Sabor de Marina food truck, and we’re dying to discover all the new places that have opened in Penticton and Kelowna and everywhere. We want to taste all the spring whites and rosés and light reds that will be released over the next few weeks and months. We want to feel that sense of awe that always strikes as we drive past McIntyre Bluff, and the warm welcome in tasting rooms everywhere from Lake Country to Osoyoos. And then we want to meander along Highway 3 to Keremeos and load up the car at all the fruit stands, to add some peaches and cherries and tomatoes and peppers to the cases of wine we’ll inevitably bring back. We also want to spend more time on the islands, checking out the small, family-owned places doing great things, like Emandare and Alderlea in the Cowichan Valley, and hopping over to Saturna Island where Sage Hayward is making killer wine just metres from the Salish Sea. Wine, after all, isn’t just a beverage. It’s the taste of a place. That’s what we talk about when we talk about “terroir,” but it’s also the reason wine tourism is the best way to travel. And yes, this is a good time to buy local and support our wineries, but the best reason to visit wine country is simply because it’s the best, most delicious way to spend your time. We hope to see you there.
