It's been a whirl-wind tour of the Okanagan, but in that time, we visited 12 wineries (that I remember!) and ate at a few of Kelowna's most amazing restaurants. Here's how it all went down:
We drove all day Saturday in the rain - we checked into the hotel and got ready for our first event: the
Westjet Wine Tasting. Good times - all of the wineries from the area were there!!
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| Me and Mari at the Westjet Wine Tasting |
Sunday was a bit of a headachey blur - we got out for a drive and we visited
Mission Hill Estate Winery,
Quails Gate and
Volcanic Hills - and we didn't even do a single tasting!!!
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| Majestic Mission Hill Estate Winery |
Yipes - we needed a good lunch to get our minds off our aching minds, so we hit up
Mimi's Italian Grill on Bernard Ave for lunch and had a nice salad and some delicious pasta. Best. Salad. Ever. For real!! Spaghetti was okay - mine is better - I'll post my recipe for bolognese sauce one of these days!
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| Mimi's Italian Grill makes a mean Spinach Salad! |
Since it was STILL raining (and continuted to rain for the entire weekend) we went back to the hotel for 3 or so hours of Criminal Minds, then pried our butts off the beds and hit up another amazing restaurant:
RauDZ. ARRGHGHGHGHGHGHG so good - their philosophy is simple: everything is local and everything tastes great. I started out with a pear sangria, crazy tomato basil salad (with garlic sel) and then I chose a Cold Plate for dinner. I finished the meal with a dessert trio - chocolate bonkers insane so good. I was practically in fetal position by the end of the night - so good.
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| RauDZ Pear Sangria! |
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| RauDZ heirloom tomato salad - drool! |
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| RauDZ Cold Plate = DREAM COME TRUE |
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| Capped off by Chocolate Dessert Trio - heavenly! |
We tried to get to bed early because Sunday was going to be busy!! We booked a tour of the
Bottleneck Drive region with
Uncorked Okanagan Tours! Our tour guide was Debbie who was so fun and knowledgable. Our tour started at
Dirty Laundry, then we hit
Thornhaven (the owner gave me a free bottle of ice wine!),
Sleeping Giant Fruit Winery (meh),
Sumac Ridge,
8th Generation,
Bonita's Winery,
Greata Ranch Winery. Then we went to
Little Straw Vineyards for a fab lunch. We hit one more winery,
Mount Boucherie Estate Winery and we were DONE. Debbie poured us out of the van at our hotel and we rested for a bit and ended up at
Bordello's Italian Pizzeria. It was not that great. I would say that my
grilled pizzas are about a million times better... try the recipe out - you can even do it in your oven!!
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| Dirty Laundry Winery |
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| Little Straw Vineyards: My kind of schedule! |
Anyhoo - we drove home today for 9 hours in the rain - good times! Can't wait to start drinking all of my wine! Also, it's nice to be home again and get back to cooking my own food ;)
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| Some of my non-wine purchases! |
That Cold Plate dinner at RauDZ looks awesome!
ReplyDeleteHey Red Deer, it's roz.If you want to post these photos on foodbuzz. Log into Foodbuzz,scroll down to add photos, then put your e-blogger web address where you are instructed then click the submit tab, or put these photos into your computer. Then go to add photos , then upload.
ReplyDeleteIf you ever visit California, be sure to visit the Napa Valley Wine Country, or Lodi Valley Wine Country.
Good Luck , Roz
Looks like you had an amazing time. Next time your in Kelowna would love to take you on a Craft Beer Tour. Let me know
ReplyDelete