May 2006 My Birthday Tour

On day three we drove north to the community of Okanagan Falls to visit
Blasted Church.

Blasted Church sits on the east side high on a rolling hillside that cascades into Skaha Lake.

Another warm greeting awaited us as we entered the tasting room of Wild Goose.

It all began in 1983 when founder Adolf Kruger purchased a barren piece of land east of Okanagan Falls. Upon his return to his newly purchased property it was here that he discovered a large flock of Canada Geese feeding in amongst the tumbleweeds, boulders, and rubble. As he approached, the flock of geese took flight and flew to the north. From this time on the property became known as Wild Goose Vineyards!!

 

Author John Schreiner describes Wild Gooses tasting room as not just a tasting room but a family feeling. We had a marvelous time tasting the wines. Ask about their Noble Rot

We were also fortunate to have the please of meeting the winemaker Adolf Kruger and his son Roland who is the general manager.

Just as we were about to depart John Schreiner walked through the door.

From the vineyard comes some very fine wines. Some of the Vines were planted back in 1980.

Wild Goose is a winery that knows how to make Riesling. Their Stony Slope Riesling 2004 is a gold medal winner
and God's Mountain Riesling 2005 won a Governor's General award.

My favorite Pinot Gris - crisp with fruity flavors of Apricot and Peach

When your having such a good time enjoying the fine hospitality of Canada's wineries and tasting quality wines the time passes far too fast. We had time for one more stop and lucky for us it was right next door to Wild Goose

Stag's Hollow is a small family operated winery, owned by Linda Pruegger and Larry Gerelus. The varietals grown are Merlot, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Vidal

Here we had the pleasure of meeting and chatting with Linda Pruegger

The winery Produces about 2000 handcraft wines each year.

Tragically Vidal is one of my favorite wines. Winemaker Larry Gerelus says its a tragedy that so few wineries grow Vidal in BC.

Another good wine is their Renaissance Merlot; a blend of barrels from our Stag's Hollow Vineyards and Harmony One Vineyards in the Similkameen Valley

The winery's label is one of the very best designs. To see them click here

On the way back home we had time for one more stop. We selected Herder in Cawston. We arrived a day early. Herder was scheduled to open the following day.

However we were warmly greeted invited in and invited to taste the wines.

We had the honor of been served by owner Sharon Herder. We could see they were busy trying to get ready for their opening and ship the wines eagerly demanded by Vancouver restaurants. But the charming Herders made us feel welcomed and glad we stopped by.

 

Winemaker Lawrence Herder took time from his busy schedule to chat with us.
The Herders are a wonderful couple working extremely hard to produce quality wines in the Similkameen Valley .

I was very much impressed by the wonderful flavors of their wines.
Their Pinot Gris is 100% un-oaked and is sensational. A wine you must try,

A sinfully delicious wine is their Late Harvest Kerner It is so good I didn't even want to tell you about.