Wining My Way Through the Okanagan

Is it tacky to make multiple posts back to back and call them all extravaganzas? Maybe! But I'll do it anyway because I'm a huge fan of the extravaganza! When we last left off, I had finally finished up the birthday celebrations! The following celebration that hit and involved visiting wineries was Canada Day! Joining me today were special guest stars Tim, Linda, Rachel, and (on his very first wine tasting) Matt! We stuck around in Summerland and Naramata and visited two new wineries, as well as a revisit to the Legend Distillery! As I've mentioned in previous posts, since I've covered Legend Distillery I won't be talking about it here and will instead be focusing on the new wineries visited: 8th Generation and Elephant Island Orchard. Winery #1: 8th Generation As you can probably infer from the name, 8th Generation got it's name from the fact that the owners come from a long line of winemakers and grape growers, dating all the way back to 1783! Their goal is to

Welcome one and all to the final part of my Birthday Extravaganza!! It's been a long journey, but an exciting one, and I assure you that we're going out with a bang! I want to thank all of you and all of my family for putting up with me during birthday season, I do like to go all out so I appreciate everyone going all out with me! We arrived down in Oliver last time and for these final two wineries we will be staying down there! We've got some big hitters for the finale: Hester Creek and Checkmate. This was my first time at both of these wineries and when I tell you I was blown away by both of them, I'm not exaggerating at all.  Winery #1: Hester Creek Hester Creek is tucked away in Oliver and has a very Tuscan vibe to it. The original winery was made in the early 80s, but became Hester Creek when it was sold about a decade later and was named for the creek that borders the southern part of the land. The winery went through one other transfer of ownership in 2004 when i

Hello all my lovely people! We are halfway through my birthday extravaganza! Who's ready for Part 3? We finally head out of Kelowna and down to Summerland and then Oliver for mostly new wineries! In this post I will be covering our visit to Dirty Laundry, which seems to be a crowd favourite among anyone who's visited Kelowna, and down to Burrowing Owl which is another winery that I've eaten at but never done a wine tasting! Our first stop on today's journey was actually to Summerland Sweets! If you've never been, it's this really cute shop that sells jams, syrups, nuts, and more! There's also a cute ice cream shop that I'm going to have to return to because it looked really good. If you're ever in the area, definitely stop by! Winery #1: Dirty Laundry Vineyard The amount of people that told me I had to visit Dirty Laundry during my time here is just staggering! Basically Dirty Laundry is kind of this speakeasy/saloon-themed winery that's super ca

Welcome back to Birthday Extravaganza!! When we last left off we had finished up with West Kelowna and were making our way to East Kelowna. Three more wineries on this side: Summerhill Pyramid Winery, Cedar Creek Estate Winery, and Tantalus Vineyards! Since Tantalus was actually the first winery I wrote about, I'm just sticking to the two new wineries this time around!  Winery #1: Summerhill Pyramid Winery Summerhill is one of the oldest fully organic wineries in Kelowna, and has been organic since it was purchased in 1986. Summerhill actually has a pyramid at their winery and they age some of their wine in it! This is also a great winery for all the vegetarians/vegans out there. All of the wine is fully vegan and they also have a very vegetarian/vegan-friendly restaurant! I've never eaten there myself, but I've heard good things about it and would love to go sometime. Something else I love about Summerhill is that you get to try any 4 wines you want from their menu!  1. Ci

HELLO ALL!!! Welcome to my Birthday Extravaganza!! Very recently it was my birthday, and how else was I going to celebrate other than doing a two-day wine tour? The following posts will be a 4-part series showcasing all the different wineries that I, along with my family, visited on my birthday weekend. Now some of the wineries were repeat visits so I won't be touching on those, but not to fear! There were still plenty of new visits! Part 1 will focus on the West Kelowna wineries we visited. The wineries were Mt. Boucherie, Beaumont Family Estate Winery, and Mission Hill Family Estate. Since I covered Mt. Boucherie in one of my very first posts, this one will be focusing on Beaumont and Mission Hill.  Winery #1: Beaumont Family Estate Winery Beaumont has had a special place in my heart since last summer when I visited for the first time. This small, family-owned and operated winery that's located in a trailer on the Westside Wine Trail is SUCH a gem that I feel not enough peopl

Welcome back everyone! Today I'm going to be covering two wineries located in West Kelowna, one that I've visited before and one that's brand new! The two wineries are Frind Estate Winery and Kalala Organic Estate Winery. Both are very different and both have very unique qualities to them. I find that West Kelowna has some of the most diverse wineries throughout and I've been enjoying my exploration of them all. Winery #1: Frind Estate Winery Anytime anyone mentions Frind in a conversation I literally can't stop myself from blurting out: "That's the Plenty of Fish guy!!" and I'm sure that nobody ever really cares to know that, but I think it's pretty cool! Markus Frind bought the property after he sold Plenty of Fish and was looking to do something more hands-on, so what better than a winery! Frind is a beautiful winery located at the base of Mt. Boucherie and extends right to the lakefront. People can actually drive their boats right to the la