Okanagan Valentine's Wine Touring

Had a lovely weekend in the south Okanagan, and took part in Valentine's events at Tinhorn Creek, Inniskillin, and Silver Sage.

Tinhorn Creek had a harpist, wine tasting, and chocolate plate for $5.  IMO they make one of the better Chardonnays in the region, though it doesn't quite compare to Township 7's.  It was fairly busy and they had a lot of their regular staff working, including Bill, who was our pourer.  Their reserve Merlot is quite good, but a little pricey for a BC wine.  For the spring festival they have a dinner in their barrel cellar, which could be fun.  I have to look into it further.

Inniskillin had a tasting that included most of their wines as well as one of their late harvests and Reisling ice wine.  I thought their Cab Sav was stellar.  We were fortunate to arrive there later in the day, as it wasn't too crowded and we were able to have a long discussion with Audrey, one of their pourers.  She said they plan to build a new tasting facility that's larger and more esthetically pleasing (the current room is small with a view of racks of barrels -- which is unfortunate as the location overlooks Oliver and could be a lovely setting). 

There was a Valentine's dinner at Silver Sage, which we were able to get last minute tickets for, despite it being sold out.  It was pretty good deal.  All you can drink and eat for $50.  The food was a buffet of roast beef, chicken, cesear salad, and cabbage rolls (the owners are from Eastern Europe -- I think Romania). They were serving a rather unusual wine combination of pinot noir/merlot -- it was not bad.  The white, I think was a pinot blanc -- I drank only the red, as did Rich.

The most amusing aspect of the night was the singer, who when we questioned what kind of music he usually performs said "I'm an organic grape grower".  During the dinner he sang, "You are my sunshine".  It was odd to say the least.  I was expecting maybe jazz or lounge music as an accompaniment during the meal.  That being said, we had a lot of fun, and all departed to the dance hall in a room beside the kitchen (the layout of Silver Sage is a bit unusual for a winery). 

The evening had the feeling of being at a fun house party.  Rich and I were by far the youngest people there.  A lovely older woman, danced to "Farewell to Nova Scotia" with me and later in the evening said she wanted to adopt me.  Rich met someone when he was outside smoking, who expressed interest in hiring him as a sales rep. 

This is a winemaker's dinner which will be hard to top, from the sheer entertainment value!

Comments

[Marilyn]

Lori,

I bought a Mission Hill wine (bottled by Mission Hill Family Estate, Okanagan Valley, BC) the other night from LCBO. It was delicious, dry and fruit tasting.

By the way - what does IMO mean?

Mum

[Lori]

IMO -- in my opinion :)