Monday, May 4
We got together with Kevin this morning and took a walk along the beach towards Peachland. The temperature was about 18C but there was a breeze off the lake that made it feel much cooler. We hadn’t had our fill of walking yet so Kevin took us to a canyon that he had accidentally discovered when he was in Kelowna last year. There were some fairly steep sections and we realized that we were both a little out of shape!! Unfortunately, Jerry forgot the camera back at the campsite and we don’t have any pictures to show for our efforts. We did a little grocery shopping with Kevin then went over to his suite which he rents from a lady who also works at Mission Hill Winery.
Janet and I, had some time to kill before dinner so we went a few miles down the road to find out when the wine tours took place. Kevin had told us a little about Mission Hill Winery but we really were quite surprised at what we saw. The grounds are immaculately manicured and trimmed and the whole place is huge. The buildings and inner court yard area would cover at least a city block. You can actually see the bell tower from any point south of here as it stands on a point of land jutting into Okanagan Lake. We arranged for a tour of the winery on Tuesday afternoon, as Kevin would be at work in the restaurant. He admonished us not to tell anyone on the tour that he would be working here. Kids can be very funny that way.
Tuesday, May 5
Even if you’re not a wine lover a winery tour is an interesting and educational experience. Neither of us had ever been on a winery tour and we were curious to see the place where Kevin would be working so we decided to go on the Mission Hill tour. There are numerous wineries throughout the Okanagan Valley; in fact the Okanagan is fast becoming one of the most important new wine producing regions in the world – winning many international awards. This is partly due to the climate, with hot, dry summers and cool (not cold) winters and the type of soil, a coarse, sandy loam – not at all like the clay that sticks to our shoes in Manitoba. Mission Hill Winery grows most of their own grapes or have contracted with local farmers. They directly own five vineyards in the valley extending as far south as the Canada/US border. Each vineyard has its own micro-climate and soil variations and therefore is suited to growing only certain varieties of grapes.
For a mini-tour follow this link to Mission Hill Family Estate Winery website and click on the “View Our Flash Introduction” on the lower left side of the picture of the arch and bell tower. Then click on the Virtual Tour in the left hand pane to see a lot more detail. These links are much better than the pictures that we took.
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