Upon returning home from five days in the Okanagan I wondered to myself “why haven’t I visited here before?” My wife and I have traveled to some very interesting wine areas in the world – Sonoma and Napa in California, Champagne and Burgundy earlier this year even – so there really isn’t an excuse why we waited this long to visit the premier wine region in our own country. Making up for lost time, one of the first wineries we visited in the Okanagan was Summerhill Pyramid Winery, just outside of Kelowna.

This visit was as much for the view from their winery over Okanagan Lake and to have lunch at their restaurant. Luckily for us, we had a beautiful day to sit outside on their patio to have our meal.

My wife opted for a gluten-free pasta dish, and with us so close to good seafood, I couldn’t resist a feed of mussels. Enjoying suburb food and wine while overlooking the water was one of the highlights of the whole trip for me.

On one of our days we pointed our rental car south from Kelowna and headed to Oliver where there’s a very high concentration of excellent wineries. On a recommendation from a friend, we planned for a stop at Burrowing Owl Winery, on this day, somewhat shrouded in the smoke from nearby forest fires.

I’m so glad we stopped here for a tasting because I had what was my favourite wine of the five days – the Burrowing Owl 2016 pinot gris. It was superbly fresh and tasted of pear and honey. If we weren’t flying back to Saskatoon, I would have packed up a case of this to take back home.

A little later that same day, we headed to a very new winery – Play Estate. Up a steep hill a five minute drive from downtown Penticton, their patio has a million dollar view, even on a smokey day.

Two wines we tried here caught our attention. Their 2015 “Ad Lib” was fresh, young and citrusy and would be a perfect sipper for hot summer days. We both also enjoyed their moscato which tasted of peaches and limes and was a wonderful slightly sweet, low alcohol wine.

On our last night in the Okanagan, we headed over to West Kelowna to visit two of the larger and better known wineries in the area. Our first stop was the Mission Hill Winery. One of the attractions here was their beautiful grounds overlooking the lake, dotted throughout with sculptures by Icelandic artist Steinunn Thórarinsdóttir.

Their wines were as delicious as the views from their hilltop location were breathtaking. A pinot noir of theirs brought me right back to a day of sampling Burgundy around Beaune, France in March of this year.

Our last stop, to celebrate my wife’s birthday, was Quail’s Gate Winery. On this late afternoon, the smoke from the fires in the area had cleared, and we took up residence on a picnic bench to simply stare off into the distant hills and lake. Really, how did it take us this long to visit BC wine country?

Our visit to Quail’s Gate was for a dinner in the vineyard, something they do each week in the summer. Before dinner got started, everyone received a glass or two of wine to set the mood.

The dinner was nothing short of spectacular. Sitting in a row between the vines with overhead lights that came on as the sun set was an amazing setting. That was matched by the quality of the food – all from local farms showing off the in-season bounty from the Okanagan. And, of course, all paired with the best of Quail’s Gate’s wines. Really, a perfect evening.

It may have taken us way to long to take our first trip out here, but now that we’re located in Saskatoon, I think we’ll be back to the Okanagan in the not too distant future.