The Okanagan Valley

The Okanagan runs for well over a hundred kilometres down the interior of British Columbia, a valley of long lakes with dry, almost desert benches above them, and the combination of hot summers, cold nights and a long growing season made it wine country in British Columbia, Canada's second wine-producing province after Ontario. Around Kelowna the plantings lean to Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Riesling; further south towards Oliver and Osoyoos the valley gets genuinely hot and Bordeaux varieties and Syrah ripen. Icewine is made here too, from grapes left on the vine until they freeze solid and pressed while frozen, which concentrates the sugars enormously, though more than ninety per cent of Canada's icewine comes from Ontario. Beyond wine there are orchards, lake beaches, a rail trail through the Myra Canyon trestles, and one of the country's warmest lakes at Osoyoos.

History

The valley is home to the Syilx, the Okanagan people, an Interior Salish nation; about 3000 years ago some 12,000 people lived here, moving through the year to fish, hunt and gather and wintering in pithouses called kekulis. The first fur traders came north from Fort Okanogan in 1811, the Brigade Trail through the valley carried furs until the Oregon Treaty of 1846 drew the border across Osoyoos Lake, and in 1859 Father Charles Pandosy founded the first European settlement, the Oblate mission at Okanagan Mission, now part of Kelowna (Wikipedia, Okanagan).

What to look for

• The cellar doors - well over a hundred wineries down the length of the valley.
• Icewine - frozen-harvest wine, made here though most Canadian icewine is Ontario's.
• The Myra Canyon trestles - the rail trail over restored wooden trestle bridges.
• The lakes - swimming and beaches at Okanagan and Osoyoos.

When to go

May to October is the season, with the harvest in September and October the liveliest; icewine is picked in the deep cold of December or January, which very few visitors see. Summer is hot and the lakes are busy with Canadian holidaymakers, so book ahead.

Good to know

Tasting means driving between wineries spread over a long valley, and British Columbia enforces drink-driving law strictly, so use a tour or a driver. Tasting fees are now standard and add up. Summer wildfire smoke has affected the valley in recent years, sometimes badly, and can obscure the views and close roads.

Nearby

Kelowna is the main base; Osoyoos and the desert south are at the valley's end.