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AN HOUR IN THE OKANAGAN  – Special Holiday feature
Featuring visits to/with Wild Goose.   Liquidity.   Moon Cursor.   Culmina.   Road 13.   Brodo.   Fairview Cellars.   Local Lounge and Grill.   Howard Soon at Sandhill and the legend – Dick Cleave.
Plus our host Ellen Walker Mathews – Thompson Okanagan Tourist Assn.
Hope your holidays are going well.
  

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THE SHOW

  In May of this year I was invited to join other journalists on a 4 day tour of the Okanagan.
I welcomed the opportunity to reconnect in person with many of the winemakers that I’d met when I lived 5 glorious years on the Naramata Bench.
I asked my Host Ellen Walker Mathews if I could duck away both  to interview people I’d missed over the course of a year.
I just had to start at Moon Cursor..makers of very good wines and very good times.
I snuck away from the tour to  include  Richard Cleave..recognized as one of the original and best growers in Canada. He always has an opinion and I counted on that.
I took an hour and visited my friend Joe Luckhurst at Road 13 and the always entertaining Bill Eggert at Fairview Cellars.
Also very much a part of the journey and this special were Roland Kruger from Wild Goose, who had added a Deep South BBQ to the crush pad. Whats better than smoked meat,  to go with their outstanding Rieslings. 
Next it was off to his neighbour Liquidity and its Chef Rob Walker. This was the surprise of the trip…a restaurant so cool you could drop it into Vancouver nightlife and it would thrive.  It helps that it has the same views as their next door neighbour Blue Mountain.
We included a stop at Culmina in the South Okanagan. It’s the home vineyard of Don, Elaine and Sara Triggs. (Jackson-Triggs)
And their famous winemaker Pascal Madevon (Osoyoos La Rose)
What a beautiful vineyard and winery.. When you look at the talent assembled here it all says “here is a winery to keep a very close eye on”.
 Up the road – two fine dining destinations.
First  was Chef Paul Cicconi at Brodo in Penticton.
(There’s a town that can always use a new food destination!)
And  a wonderful visit to his former kitchen,  Local Lounge and Grill in Summerland with host/owners Christa Lee McWatters-Bond, Cameron Bond and Chef Lee Humphries.
 And we finish with  BC Wine veteran winemaker Howard Soon at his new Sandhill winery , right downtown in Kelowna.
 

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