Thursday 4 June 2009

Vacation - Days 8 and 9 - Wineries!

This was one of my favorite few days of the trip . . .

our first stop was the Summerhill Winery and we signed up for the tour immediately. Our tour guide was a retired school teacher from Winnipeg, Manitoba . . . wouldn't that be a great retirement job . . . I'll have to brush up on my wine making before I apply.

If you've ever been curious about wine making check out their website and of course if you're ever in Kelowna make sure and stop in and take the tour. The story behind the pyramid and how it is used in the wine making process is very interesting and unique.

Gewiirztraminer is one of my very favorite white wines and we have now added a bottle to our wine stock. Maybe save it for a wedding anniversary this summer.

Cedar Creek Estate was next on the list . . . we did not go on the scheduled tour but opted to try the three varieties of wines that were on offering for the day. Very delicious!

We purchased a Pinot Blanc to add to our little stash to take home.
Quail's Gate was the first stop on our second day of wine touring.

We decide to not go on the wine tour but did check out their three samples of the day. Surprising how some flavours come through in some wines! Very tasty.

And, of course, we added another bottle to our stash.

We saved the most beautiful winery until last. The Mission Hill Winery was huge and it was obvious that expense was not an obstacle when this was constructed. Absolutely beautiful!

And is this a million dollar view or what?!?!!? I could sit there all day and just meditate with that view. Maybe I'll enlarge this photo and have it framed for my office . . . there are days when it would be great to just sit back and lose yourself in something else.

Even the birds thought this was the place to be!

This is what the vineyards look like . . . they are everywhere you look. I really didn't know what to expect a vineyard to look like, but this really wasn't in my head at all. Live and Learn!

The tour took us into the storage areas and we saw lots and lots of barrels of wine. Unfortunately, the barrel was too big to sneak into the trunk of the car.

This was certainly the time of year to take wine tours . . . the guide said that usually there are big tour buses coming through and it's almost impossible to move in the wine shop, plus the tour groups get very large. There were maybe 15 to 20 of us in our group - very nice, friendly people.

One last view for you . . .



'til next time,
M.

P.S. - Quilt shops are coming up next!

3 comments:

Myra said...

Awesome tour M! Lovely photos! thanks for sharing! 8-)

Quilter Going Bananas said...

Great pics! The touring of the wineries looked like fun, a nice way to spend time on a vacation....

Good thing you had room in your vehicle for all those bottles of wine
LOL

Canarella said...

What a great vacation time you are having...enjoy the time