May 2006 My Birthday Tour

May is such a wonderful month

 

It's my birthday and were going to wine country to celebrate.

 

When you own your own business you take care of your clients needs before setting off on a vacation. It was pass noon before we were on the road. The first stage of the trip was driving from Delta to Hope. We avoid highway one and selected a back road 0 Avenue that took us along the US Canadian boarder.

We passed by the Ranches of Langley Township ( Baby colts) , sheep farms ( baby lambs), Cattle farms (new born calf's) and berry farms.

We entered the Cascade Mountains heading for the town of Hope where we would change directions taking the Hope Princeton Highway #3 through Manning Park.

There was still a great deal of snow in the park. We also encounted a number of deer feeding near the highway. A very scenic drive.

The town of Princeton marks the beginning of the Similkameen Valley
It is not un till you reach Keremeos that you begin to notice the dessert terrain and the ever increasing vineyards.

St Laszlo Estate Winery is located in Keremeos.

Just down the road from Keremeos is the smaller peaceful community of Cawston. Here we find the wineries of Crowsnest Vineyard, Herder,Orifino and Forbidden Fruit Winery

Since we got off to such a late start we we unable to visit these wineries at this time On to Osoyoos.

We began our tour of the wineries at Nk'Mip {pronounced "ñk-meep"} Cellars, North America's first aboriginal owned and operated winery, Vincor International and the Osoyoos Indian Band worked together to establish this magnificent winery on the hills above Osoyoos over looking the town and Osoyoos Lake.

Additional inform on Nk'Mip click here

For more Photographs please
click here

The winery pays tribute to the Band's heritage through its unique design and displays of artifacts.

Been mid week the winery was not too busy and we were able to explore he huge gift shop admire the artifacts and of course taste the wines.

The winery is open all year for tours and serves lunch from the May long weekend to early October.

There is nothing like enjoying the taste of Fine BC Wine.. Our hostess was charming with a beautiful smile along with a good knowledge of the wines and winery

We tasted Wines form the QWAM QWMT Series . QWAM QWMT meaning to achieve excellence

The QWAM QWMT 2004 Chardonnay is one of the best Chardonnay's produced in Canada.

 

We had a pleasure of meeting winemaker Randy Picton. He was kind enough to spend a few minutes with us answering questions and allowing us some additional tasting including the highly acclaimed and award winning QWAM QWMT 2004 Riesling Icewine

Just to mention one award Gold Medal 2006 New World International Wine Competition California

 

The patio provides a place for lunch and a breath taking view of the lake and the town of Osoyoos

 

The winery over looks the town of Osoyoos , Osoyoos lake and the vineyards