Napa v Kelowna

Napa Valley was always on the list of places to go as we were both very keen to carry out some wine tasting in the most famous wine making area in the world. Of course we had already been to Kelowna (blog here), and even our tour guide for the day in Kelowna told us that we must do Napa.

We checked into the RV park and wandered into town to see what Napa village was like, and I was pretty convinced that an area famous for wine making would have lots of bars. This was sadly not the case. The place only has 2 pubs, a few restaurants and a lot of retail shops, so you can imagine our disappointment. So after a coffee and some really good garlic butter fries, we called it quits and headed back to the van for the night.

Saturday was our wine tasting day and we have booked ourselves on a limo tour of the area. The price was $99 USD compared to $89 CAD, so more expensive. We also were shocked to find out that we would have to pay for our wine tasting at each vineyard, whereas the the Kelowna tasting were complimentary. You do, however, get your fee knocked off any wine purchase you make.

The limo arrived and had another couple in there, who were on their 1st wedding anniversary. John, the husband, had surprised Cindy with the trip, but the odd thing was that Cindy doesn't really drink and has never had a hangover, so Cazzie and I both thought this was very strange. We did get on very well throughout the day and had a real laugh!

The first vineyard was the biggest of the day but was also a modern art gallery. I wasn't here for art - I was here to drink. We got our tour of the place, allowed to taste some grapes off the vine and saw the bottling area. We were then invited to view some the of modern art, which did not interest us at all, so we headed for the tasting part. This is where I sampled the beauty of decanting wine again. The server poured one glass of wine straight from the bottle and the same wine was served through a hand held decanter. The difference is so noticeable and re-enforced the fact that you MUST decant your red wine, no matter how cheap or expensive. I now have a use for the 3 decanters at home.

I also learnt here that there are several different types of soil in Napa and these areas are called appellations. The terrain can range from rich soil to hard volcanic rock and which type of soil depends on which variety of grape can be grown. There are also huge differences in temperature from the bottom of the valley to the top of the mountains. The fog that comes in from the Pacific helps keep the temperatures lower in the summer, which aids the growing of the vines. With this being the case, our next vineyard only grew Cabernet Sauvignon grapes, which is where we stopped for lunch.


The final vineyard of the day was Mumm Napa, a place that makes sparkling wine and was easily the busiest place we stopped at. It was a different type of tasting as the 4 of us were asked to take a seat and the waitress brought 6 samples of sparking wine, including one made from Pinot Noir grapes, which just didn't taste right. Whether it was all in my mind that red wine shouldn't be fizzy or cold, but I just couldn't come to terms with it. The place was lovely though and Cazzie seemed to like it!!





That final place of the day was an olive oil tasting place which had about 50 different types of olive oil to taste. I particularly enjoyed the lemon and habanero ones!


Of course I am going to compare the day in Napa against the day in Kelowna and when I take everything into consideration, Kelowna gets my vote. The vineyards are nicer, the people are friendlier and the tastings are free. My pallet is not sophisticated enough to judge which wines are better, which I suppose is the only thing that really matters, but if I were to choose between the two, Kelowna would get my vote. The nightlife in Kelowna is much better too!

The Napa photos are here.

Stuoobs

xxx

Wine tasting that I can remember this time

I have photographic evidence to prove that I have been wine tasting before. Andy also did a blog on it which can be found here. I can’t really remember any of it.

We arrived in Kelowna from Harrison Hot Springs and had a wine tasting tour booked starting at 1pm. Our tour guide, Dagmar, was waiting for us at our RV park, so after a quick check-in, we were in the back of the mini bus and off. Dagmar had another 2 couples to collect en-route, who turned out to be Sharon and Michelle (not a lesbian couple as we first thought) and Haydn and Laura.

Dagmar was brilliant as a tour guide. She was retired and both her and her husband work for a wine touring company. She asked us the right questions that got all 6 of us chatting to each other about where we were from and why we were here.

There were 3 wineries planned. The first one was called Mission Hill and was easily the biggest and most impressive. There was a very organised, hour long tour that Dagmar had booked us onto. Now, I could bore you all by telling you that white wine should be served between 10 and 15 degrees and that red wine should be served between 13 and 18 degrees. I could also bang on about how the thicker the grape means the darker the red wine. Or, I could send you all to sleep by letting you know that the older vines yield less grapes, but the are much more flavoursome. But you’ll be glad to know I won’t ramble on about any of that.

After a short video about how the winery started and grew, we were shown around the place to see the vineyards.

Cazzie loving the scenery

After a quick visit to the cellar to see 1000’s of American and French Oak barrels, we were off to the wine tasting session where we were taught how to taste wine. It’s all about rinsing the pallet, swilling the wine in your glass and slurping the wine in your mouth to get all the flavours. It was a lot of fun – even though we didn’t get that much wine!

The wine was ready and waiting for us, complete with a very unused spitting bucket!

This was a really lovely place to visit, but it all felt a bit impersonal as there were 22 people in our group. Nevertheless, we were so impressed with the wines we tasted, we bought a couple of bottles. I did have a Pinot Noir in my hand, but Dagmar said I should wait and buy a bottle from the next place – and who was I to argue?

The next port of call was Quails’ Gate. This was a much smaller winery, where the tasting took part in a corner of the wine shop. As there was only our group taking the tasting we got a much better, personal service. This is where we learnt that the best wines come from older vines matured in brand new oak barrels. Another fact was that you should ALWAYS decant red wine no matter how cheap. The only red wine that doesn’t need decanting is Pinot Noir.

We were given the chance to have a wander around the place, so after buying the Pinot Noir here (Dagmar was right, it was the best Pinot Noir I have tasted) we took a step outside for a few photos.

Final port of call was an organic winery called Kalala. It was a 10 min drive away and we were all now a few glasses to the good, so the journey was a lot of fun. We arrived at Kalala just in time to see some harvesting taking place.

We were allowed to try these grapes out and they were so juicy and tasty.

We tried another 8 wines here, including an ice wine which is a very sweet dessert wine made from grapes that are picked and crushed when the temperature hits –8 degrees.

Overall, it was a top day. The 6 of us decided to meet up after dinner for some beers at the local dive called Blue Gator. It’s not often I walk into a bar and everyone else is more drunk than I am, but this was the case here. Everyone was smashed and dancing to the amateur blues night that takes place every Sunday. Cazzie and I couldn’t take our eyes off most of the people here as they bounced their way from the bar to the dance floor and back again. It was a brilliant laugh! We did our best to play catchup, but there wasn't enough time before closing.

Kelowna is a brilliant place with red hot summers and cold winters meaning you can spend half your year sunbathing and the other half skiing. There is a buzzing nightlife too with a pretty good casino thrown in. Perfect. The views across the 135kms long Okanagan Lake aren’t bad either!

If you are ever in the region, this place is a must.

All the pictures can be found here.

Stuoobs

xxx