# In Canada's wine country, quirky charm reigns over the Okanagan Valley > Unique wineries and rich cuisine await food lovers in the Okanagan Valley. Discover what makes Canada's wine country so captivating for wine and food fans. - URL: https://langandtrip.com.ua/en/article/v-vynnoi-strane-kanad-v-dolyne-okanahan-tsaryt-prychudlyvoe-ocharovanye/ - Language: en - Published: 2025-09-22 - Categories: Leisure, Restaurants, Canada, Lakes, Food & Drinks --- A quirky, modernized log cabin with a stunning view over the picturesque valley, "The Hatch" feels more like a backcountry camp than a winery. Its logo is bold, strange and funny: a man with a bird's nest for a head, an egg hovering like a UFO right above him, as if an idea is about to hatch or be swallowed in one gulp. The whole place feels like a cheeky answer to the pretentiousness that winemaking so often invites. Inside, I run into even more unexpected things, including a few "vagabonds." "These are wines that don't get the recognition they deserve," explains Jesse Harnden, the official "archdeacon" at The Hatch winery, with a wry smile. Fittingly, the labels for the varieties chosen for their "vagabond series," from Cabernet Franc to Muscat and Semillon, were designed specially by a local artist named Paul Morstad, who depicts ironically drawn, raggedly dressed gentlemen who would look right at home in a Depression-era breadline. The quirkiness continues all around me: labels with triceratops, flying pigs and a very odd-looking creature playing the banjo. "Every one of our wines has its own story," the archdeacon says. I'm in the Okanagan Valley near the city of Kelowna, which sits at the heart of one of Canada's fastest-growing wine regions. A scheduled Tuesday stop during the royal visit of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to British Columbia in late September, Kelowna, a city of 117,000, and the surrounding area are less well known than Sonoma, Napa or even Niagara, but this valley has changed dramatically over the past three decades. ## A wonderful terroir Split by a warm, narrow, 84-mile lake that stretches almost all the way to the US border, the Okanagan Valley is a place where calm waters are ringed by low mountains, and where the wineries on the surrounding slopes have grown from just 17 in 1990 to more than 160 today. With the beaches of Okanagan Lake and an abundance of food and drink, the region is not only a destination for royalty; it is quickly becoming a top getaway for an ever-growing number of Americans who come here to taste the fruits of this land and enjoy the other perks of this beautiful terroir. Over my two weeks in the region, I drink my own weight in wine, touring a string of vineyards and learning along the way that the valley's unique climate makes for wonderful wine. Sitting in a rain shadow, summer here is hot and dry, with June days that run from 5 a.m. to 10:30 p.m., and daytime temperatures topping 90 degrees Fahrenheit. These conditions are ideal for Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, Pinot Noir, Riesling, Chardonnay and a host of other varieties. At the Mission Hill Family Estate winery in West Kelowna, which William and Kate plan to visit, I enjoy a tasting in the winery cellar and then sit down to a fresh lunch on their terrace. As I eat, I savor both the view and the food, sourced from local farmers and rounded out with produce grown right on site. Farther down the road, I visit the western outpost of Jackson-Triggs, a big national brand, for a unique food-and-wine tasting experience, sampling fresh, local ingredients paired with their natural Okanagan wines. I even lace up my hiking boots and walk the land at Quails' Gate, climbing through the vineyards in West Kelowna and tasting their Merlot, served out of the back of a pickup truck, as I watch the late-afternoon light shimmer on Okanagan Lake. ## Family businesses I also get my feet wet, literally, at the House of Rose winery. While some wineries here (including Mission Hill and Quails' Gate) radiate sophistication, the charm of the Okanagan can be found in the many small, family-run spots like House of Rose. Here I take off my shoes and socks, climb a few small steps and sink into the muck, planting my bare feet into about a foot of juice, skins and vines, the last remnants of several thousand partly crushed and terribly runny grapes. The red slush is surprisingly cold, and I grit my teeth as I give it a good stomping. The proto-wine slides between my toes, slippery and unpleasant, while I hitch up the hems of my shorts and do my best to keep the grape juice off my limited supply of clothes. After a couple of minutes I've had enough; climbing back out of the barrel, I chat with Aura Rose, the current owner. Still family-run, House of Rose was opened by her father, Vern, a retired teacher, in 1993. They farm just five acres on site, producing three white wines, three dessert wines, a rose and three reds, including their bestseller, a full-bodied blend called Hot Flash. The blend's name was born one evening when Aura and a number of other women of a certain age were sipping wine and eating, and, frankly, getting a little tipsy, and one friend felt a genuine tidal wave of heat. "Women love it," she says with a faint smile. "And it pairs wonderfully with cheese." ## Local sources Great wine is often found alongside great food, and that holds true for the Okanagan too. On a Saturday morning I browse Kelowna's local, twice-weekly farmers market, following the crowd from a mall parking lot to a nearby spot. I look over the organic offerings at its 165 stalls, from apples and peaches to cabbage, green onions and lettuce, chatting with some of the vendors about the unique and usually excellent growing conditions in this valley. The same sun and soil that yield these grapevines, they say, also grow the bounty I see in front of me. To sample the best flavors of the area, all in one place, I have dinner at Raudz, a Kelowna institution that has been around for fourteen years now. Chef and co-owner Rod Butters made his name in luxury hotel kitchens, including a stint with Four Seasons. His minimalist space in downtown Kelowna is meticulous about sourcing from the valley. "We use 100 different small producers," he notes as he passes my table. He boasts that 92 percent of all their ingredients and 99 percent of their wines by the glass come from local sources. I dig into the food, tasting everything from savory pork-cheek confit to tender venison carpaccio. The next day, I take a short trip from my lakeside hotel to check out a handful of other spots in the walkable downtown, all places that use Okanagan ingredients. At Broken Ladder I sip a cider made from apples grown in local orchards. At Okanagan Spirits I drink a spruce-flavored gin and a cherry-flavored liqueur, learning how even this distillery follows the seasons in its offerings. And at the Beer Institute I chat with self-proclaimed beer connoisseurs, sampling their unfiltered, unpasteurized brews, some of them made with hops they grow themselves, on site. ## Quirky appeal And then, with a friend behind the wheel, I drive out of town, cruising along the lake and climbing up to a headland that towers above it, to "The Hatch," where, I think, I enjoy the stories just as much as the wine I'm tasting (both are wonderful). The so-called "head steward" Andrew Melville tells me that their raison d'etre (reason for being) is to showcase the individual vineyards their wines come from. He also explains the funny job titles. "We wanted to be different from other wineries, so it seemed redundant to have titles like 'manager' or 'assistant night janitor,'" he says. "For what I do, head steward sounded great, had a ring to it, was odd, but also fitting in an odd sort of way." He adds that all the quirkiness I encounter is deliberate. "We created 'the Hatch,' the pun intended, as our incubator for different forms of art, wine, vineyards, stories and so on," he says, adding that he feels their logo pretty much says everything we need to know about what they do. "We had the concept of the 'bird' and the 'egg,' and then we found Paul, and that painting just tied it all together, almost like the rug in Lebowski," he said. Sounds about right, for this fresh, fun, slightly funky corner of the West Coast.