The Okanagan is one of my many favourite weekend retreats and this weekend was no exception. The weather was (mostly) fabulous, good family time, good eats, and a fun wine `tweet-up` with @AllisonMMarkin in Penticton to top it off.

We had good intentions on Good Friday to find kosher beef and make matzo ball soup to go with the Kosher wine that I had procured to give a nod to passover, but after a day of visiting, we lazily grilled up some thick juicy un-blessed steaks, veggies, and potatoes. The wine was a Galil Mountain Pinot Noir that, although we failed in keeping our meal kosher, rocked that steak hard. I had first come in contact with the Galil Mountain wines at the Vancouver Playhouse International Wine festival at the only Isreali wine booth. I found the overall flavour of the wine very unique. I picked up dark cherry, cinnamon, and tobacco notes on the pinot noir.  It wasn`t huge on the fruit and had soft tannins which made it easy to enjoy on its own as well.  Needless to say, the bottle was gone very quickly.

Saturday dinner was at The Gasthouse on the Lake… one of the best German restaurants I have been to. It is a must if you are passing through Peachland.  If you are in the area (or more likely driving through) stop in for a beer on the patio, or make reservations for some fine dining. Their wine list is very extensive, but I ended up ordering a Long Island Ice Tea when no one else was willing to share a bottle and the by the glass didn`t appeal to me.  I broke tradition from ordering Schnitzel to try out a beer braised roast and was not disappointed with the tender, flavourful roast.  I missed the veggies that I saw on everyone else`s plates, though.

Before we headed home on Sunday, we stopped in Penticton to visit with Allison Markin (THE Penticton Wine twitterer) for some lunch and a little wine tour.  I find that wine tours are best when they are little because it isn`t long before the wines start all tasting the same and it all blurs together….  We started off at Township 7.  We were all pretty familiar with the wines, but I wanted to lurk around a little.  We sampled some whites:  Brent liked the Semillon and I liked sniffing the chardonnay (so spicy!).  We tweeted Brad Cooper:  `we are in ur cellar, drinkin ur wine`.  And when we were ready to leave, we found Brent hanging with the horses.

Next stop was Red Rooster where we greeted `Frank` with all of his baggage and controversy and tried their line up.  They are known for their featured local artists, and you can taste wines while wandering their gallery.  I enjoyed each of the wines equally so I eeny meeny`d and ended up with the Reserve Merlot.  The chocolatey notes won me over anyways.  We made a quick stop in at Hillside Estates to snag a Muscat Ottonel which is the perfect sushi wine and the final stop was Elephant Island to sample some of their award winning orchard wines.  I adored the possibilities of mixing martinis with the Apricot and Black Currant dessert wines because very soon they will feature drink mixing recipes from their bartending challenge on their website.  Can you say drink mixing party at my place? La piece de resistance was the Stella Port made with an 8 year old solera system and aged in french Oak Barrels.  We loved the chocolate covered cherry flavour, and I was reminded of a cedar sauna.

We bid farwell to our new friend and headed back home with a little bit to add to our stash of wine.  I really can`t wait to get back to the Okanagan already!  For more Okanagan wine enthusiasm, there is both a facebook group(Okanagan Wine Casual) and some tweets (@okwinecasual).

Tags: All She Wrote, Bradley Cooper, Chardonnay, Easter, Elephant Island, Galil Mountain, Gasthouse on the Lake, Hillside Estates, Kosher, Merlot, Okanagan, Okanagan Wine Casual, Peachland, Penticton, Pinot Noir, Red Rooster, Semillon, Stella Port, Township 7, Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 15th, 2009 at 9:24 pm and is filed under Bradley Cooper, Miscellany, New World, Okanagan, Pinot Noir, Wine Tastings, Wineries. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.