After wildfires brought an abrupt halt to the tourism season this summer, the local wine industry is looking forward to the upcoming Okanagan Fall Wine Festival.

The event will feature two weeks worth of wine tasting events across the region.

“The first weekend will be very focused on the South Okanagan with the Après Crush tasting happening at the Penticton Trade and Convention Centre on [Oct. 27]," said Kimberly Hundertmark, general manager of Okanagan Wine Festivals.

That is followed by the Taste Passport on the Naramata Bench, in Summerland and south in the OK Falls area and Oliver and Osoyoos.

“The passports provide the passport holders with six elevated experiences that nobody else will actually have access to. They’re these curated experiences, whether it be a wine and food pairing or a flight of wines from a said winery — they’re just a really nice sneak behind, get to know the storytellers, get to know what’s going on during harvest, and really having a dialled in experience at our winery partners," Hundertmark said.

There will be several other tasting events happening in the Central Okanagan, including Valley First presents Après Crush on Nov. 3 at the Manteo Resort.

“This is an opportunity to really try a whole bunch of different wines from a bunch of different wineries all in one room. It’s also a really great opportunity for us to get together and celebrate our resilience as a community," said Joanna Schlosser of Quails’ Gate Winery.

Hundertmark says this is a time of the year where "winemakers are anticipating what’s to come."

"What the next three to six months are going to mean to them in their barrel rooms, in their cellars and in their stainless steel tanks. It’s one of those times where the stories and the birth of these vintages are taking place and it’s just really exciting to be right there with them and sort of along with them for their journey.”

The Okanagan Fall Wine Festival is happening from Oct. 27 until Nov. 5. Details here.