The Travel Group 25th Anniversary North Okanagan Retreat

The Travel Group celebrated our anniversary with a wine tour. Saturday morning we started out at Kelowna airport in a 14 seat bus with lots of room for wine purchases.  We were lucky with the weather for the first week of November but the wineries were starting to close or change their hours for the season so we had a bit of a slow start.  Our first stop was a Rollingdale Winery, an organic winery in West Kelowna.  The Quonset hut houses the tasting bar and winery where everything happens.  There were big bins of grapes waiting to be processed and the heady aroma of wine greeted us as soon as the doors of the bus opened. 

If don’t "get" that you are truly on a farm, the pet donkey will bring it home.  

They make some very tasty wines but I was most impressed with their Stoney Slopes Pinot Noir.  A ’08 vintage grown in Okanagan Falls, I sure hope it tastes as good when I open the bottle I blew my budget on.

Next stop was Volcanic Hills where our Sommelier Guide, Shalyn from Wine Your Way Tours took us through a food and wine pairing lesson.  Tasting your wines with cheese, sausage, lemons, dark and milk chocolate will quickly teach you what works and what doesn’t.  We have some new ideas for our Friday winedowns.   They have one of the largest tasting room and gift shops I’ve ever seen and good comfortably accommodate our group lesson.  There is always a bottle of their Rose in my fridge so I was happy to stock up.  The Volcanic Hills team have excellent experience making wine their wine is very good value.

Ahead we had Quail’s Gate Winery for lunch and a private wine tour.  First, lunch at Old Vines Restaurant where we were soon munching on Frites with Truffle and Parmesan and sipping on Blue Mountain Brut.

I really enjoyed the Lois Lake Steelhead Salmon with potato mash, gingered squash, kale, pecans and lemongrass butter.  Crisp salmon skin, moist flesh and lively vegetable. 

The Slow Roasted Fraser Valley Porchetta was a popular dish as well. 

Chef Roger Sleiman showcased the season and the wines when he planned his new late fall menu.  We chose Quail’s Gate 2010 Pinot Noir and 2011 Chenin Blanc which are some of the best in the Okanagan.   Fourteen smiling, happy faces headed out for a private vineyard tour with Peter, guide extraordinaire. Peter shared a lot of knowledge as he took us through the vineyard and their wine library and finished with a tasting in their beautiful fireplace room.   I highly recommend a visit to Quail’s Gate Winery and lunch at Old Vines Restaurant. 

We were ready to head to Sparkling Hill Resort to sweat out some of the food and wine in one of the amazing spa there.