{"id":1550,"date":"2011-07-01T11:56:47","date_gmt":"2011-07-01T11:56:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/?p=1550"},"modified":"2014-02-17T00:47:54","modified_gmt":"2014-02-17T05:47:54","slug":"wine-festivals-for-the-seasons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wine-festivals-for-the-seasons\/","title":{"rendered":"Wine Festivals for the Seasons"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
\n<\/a>By Michael Fagin<\/p>\n

Fall colors and the wine harvest, spring flowers in wine country, or soaking in the summer sun, food, wine and the beach. These were the hard choices that my wife and I had to ponder when Tourism Kelowna<\/a> invited us to attend one of their seasonal wine festivals.<\/p>\n

We made the decision to go to the fall festival and were very pleased with so much to do between the 110 wineries that participated, the winemaker\u2019s diners, as well as wine and cheese tasting events. And let us not forgot one of our favorites, pairing chocolates and wines.<\/p>\n

We arrived early to the kickoff event and started with a stroll around downtown Kelowna\u2019s beautiful Waterfront Park.\u00a0 Our timing was perfect to enjoy the outstanding sunset views as the colors reflected on Okanagan Lake.\u00a0 We greatly enjoyed \u201cwindow shopping\u201d at some of the lovely outdoor restaurants and lounges.\u00a0 We were saving our appetites for the \u201cAll You Need is Cheese and Wine\u201d event at the festival kickoff.<\/p>\n

At the kickoff event we received all the information needed to plan our itinerary.\u00a0 We decided to target the East Kelowna Wine Trail (see individual stories on this website.) While visiting the wineries we also found other interesting things to do. The first stop was at Arlo\u2019s Honey Farm, (near Tantalus Vineyards, famed for its Riesling). The beekeeper and owner Helen Kennedy gave us a quick run-down on some of their award winning honey products.\u00a0 One of the interesting things that we learned about honey is it is a powerful immune system builder and can also be used on your skin for cuts and bruises.<\/p>\n

One of the more interesting benefits of honey is that it is supposed to take the edge off of a hangover.\u00a0 I guess that is good to know in case one of us has too much wine. So we decided to purchase some of these products just in case.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Just five minutes away from Arlo\u2019s we found an oasis at the Okanagan Lavender & Herb Farm.\u00a0 The property used to be an apple orchard.\u00a0 Many of the area orchards were replaced with vineyards.\u00a0 When owner Andrea McFadden took over this property in the mid 1990\u2019s she decided to plant lavender.<\/p>\n

We loved the Lavender Farm with the brilliant colors and fragrances of the lavender, and of course the rolling hills and views of the lake.\u00a0 You can read descriptions and see pictures.\u00a0 However, nothing will replace a visit here in the summer to really see, smell and soak it all in.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The highlight of our visit was learning about the \u201cGarden to Table Programme\u201d.\u00a0 This programme teaches how to use all the herbs in the garden to make an entire meal. While we did not participate in the programme we certainly reaped from the harvest.<\/p>\n

We were served a complete meal made from products grown at the Lavender Farm including herbal ice tea, rosemary bread, lavender bread, along with fresh vegetables and fruits.\u00a0 Last but not least we were served a whole array of deserts; lavender meltaways, lavender flavor biscotti, and petit tarts.<\/p>\n

And now, time for a quick power nap on the sunny balcony to gear up for our next stop on the winery trail.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Michael Fagin Fall colors and the wine harvest, spring flowers in wine country, or soaking in the summer sun, food, wine and the beach. These were the hard choices that my wife and I had to ponder when Tourism Kelowna invited us to attend one of their seasonal wine festivals. We made the decision to go to the fall festival and were very pleased with so much to do between the 110 wineries that participated, the winemaker\u2019s diners, as well as wine and cheese tasting events. And let us not forgot one of our favorites, pairing chocolates and wines. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wine-travel-to-wine-regions"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1550"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1550\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3558,"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1550\/revisions\/3558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}