Naramata Walk Pt. 1

We love to walk. My wife and I enjoy a nice stroll or hike. We also enjoy a nice wine tasting. So we decided to combine them in one, sun-drenched, route-marching, wine-slurping day.

Naramata Bench is an area of the Okanagan stretching north from Penticton along the Okanagan Lake. There are around 45 wineries along the bench which is about 15 kilometres by road from the village of Naramata to the city of Penticton. We decided to walk and visit some of them.

We drove from Kelowna and arrived at the Naramata Courtyard Suites which is a little motel that has been revamped and was a cozy place to stay (I think we paid about $150). We parked our car, checked in with the motel, and headed off.

The first place we were going to visit was Bella Sparkling because, at 11 in the morning, nothing is better than some bubbles! About half way there, which was in the opposite direction than the rest of the wineries were, I noticed that there weren't a lot of signs to the winery and I was heavily dependent on my Map app. Checking their web site, I realized that the winery was only open on Saturday and Sunday - and this was a Monday! We turned around and headed back towards the motel.

Getting out of Naramata was arguably the hardest part of the walk. It was a pretty steep, sustained hill but thankfully it was still a bit cool. There were a couple wineries right in Naramata but we wanted to get a couple kilometres along before we stopped.

Posing by the ironwork at Serendipity Winery.

Our first winery for actual tasting was Serendipity. They were 'just off the road' - or at least, that's what I told my wife. "See, it's right there!' A good kilometre or so down a steep hill, we came to the gates of the winery, followed by another steep hill into the tasting room.

Being a little off the road, it was not terribly busy. The person behind the counter was quite friendly and we enjoyed tasting the wines they had on offer. One of my favourite was the 2016 Rosé ($22) which was crisp and fruity. It also had a rich red colour, unlike some other rosés on the market. It is made of all red grapes.

We also purchased the 2016 Viognier (also $22) which is a fuller bodied white and one that has a wonderful taste. We also considered getting the Pinot Noir but preferred to wait until a later date.

I'm sure this happens all the time, especially considering the number of cyclists visiting the different wineries, but we thought we were quite clever n asking the winery to hold the purchased wine for us until we returned the next day with the car.

After hiking up the hill to the gate and the next hill that led to the road, we continued on our journey. The main road at this point was quite pleasant to walk.

Outside Joie Farm Winery in their little jardin.

We skipped a couple more wineries and then went down from the road to visit Joie Farm Winery. I love their Rosé - but it is easily available at the liquor store. I was excited to try some of their other wines and I was not disappointed! Their Rosé was, of course, wonderful but we enjoyed their other wines as well. Our service was excellent - the guy behind the counter was a teacher from Ontario whose brother lives in the Okanagan so he decided to work and holiday over the summer!

The 2016 "En Famille" Reserve Riesling ($24) was a fruity, delicious wine that is just a touch off dry (in the German 'spätlese' style). It was a juicy, delicious wine and we ended up with two bottles. Although great with a variety of food, this is also a wine to enjoy on its. own.

The 2017 Noble Blend ($22) is a blend of Gerwurz, Riesling, Pinot Auxerrois, Pinot Blanc and Muscat. This is another fruity white that would be good with certain foods but would also be wonderful sipping on the deck.

I made arrangements to pick up the wine the next day. However, the winery is closed on Tuesday and I had to make arrangements to meet one of the workers to pick up our wine. She was very nice about it, though, so everything worked out!

Next up was Lake Breeze. We didn't actually do a tasting here but stopped for lunch. On their gorgeous outdoor patio, I drank an ocean of fizzy water and used their bottle to fill up my water bottle as it was almost empty. The service was excellent as well as our lunch.

I had the Bench Burger which included one of my favourite Italian cheeses, Pecorino, as well as mushrooms and truffle aioli. Yum! Accompanying it I had a glass of their Meritage which paired well with the rather lean meat. My wife had the Grilled Chicken Sandwich which included another one of my favourite Spanish cheeses, manchego, as well as avocado cream accompanied by a food friendly Pinot Blanc.

We thought about doing a tasting there as well but, considering that we had a fair ways to go, we decided, instead, to press on. As I walked up the hill back to the road, I felt a strange chill on the back of one of my legs. I had just applied some more sunscreen so I thought that it must be an extra thick application. However, the cold spot kept occurring, seemingly randomly. Was this some sort of strange skin condition brought on by the intense sun? Or had this hill climbing caused some sort of ligament/vein/artery issue? Did strokes start this way? I asked my wife if she could see any hideous discolouration but she couldn't see any.

Finally, I decided to take drink out of my water bottle. My full water bottle. That was now half empty because the gas from the fizzy water was forcing some of the liquid through the top - and onto my strangely chilled leg!

After the water episode, we hit a fairly long stretch of road that was bereft of wineries. Up and down we went, with no wine and just fizzy water that kept escaping from my water bottle. We probably spent an hour or so going from Lake Breeze (about the 2600 block) to Bench 1775 (1700 block. In the city, those nine blocks would be fairly close but out on the bench, it seemed to take forever!

Finally, we arrived at Bench 1775. It was by far the busiest winery we tried. The guy doing the tasting was polite but not overly friendly. Maybe because we were all sweaty? The wines were nice, though, but we couldn't do the same deal that we did at every other winery on the bench. However, the guy did waive the tasting fee and we did go back the next day and purchased up our wine.

We purchased two wines at Bench 1775. The first was their Brut Rosé ($22). This Chardonnay and Pinot Noir blend was crisp and just a bit fruity but would be wonderful on it's own or with something that wasn't too heavy. This is a killer value as it is done in the traditional method (like real Chanpagne).

The other wine was a 2016 Semillon ($19). This is made of wine from two different vineyard, one in Naramata (cooler) and one in Oliver (hotter) so the wine ends up being tasty ad complex. A really good food wine (chicken, fish, pork, etc.).

Happily, after we had visited Bench 1775, the vineyards seemed to be closer together. Mind you, at this point, if the winery was up a steep hill or down by the water, we tended to skip it as we wanted to make it to Poplar Grove in time for dinner. Some of the ones that we missed out that I really wanted to see up to this point included Nichol, Kettle Valley, Foxtrot (although you need an appointment), and Terra Vista (Spanish varietals). If only they splashed out for an outdoor escalator.....