Uniquely Okanagan summer sippers

New choice in OK wines

Allison Markin - Jul 24, 2024 / 11:00 am | Story: 498405

Photo: Lionel Trudel Photography

These hot days are a prime time to explore several new summer sippers from sparkling wine in cans, to locally made hard lemonade, to refreshing pink bubbly on the patio.

River Stone Estate Winery in Oliver is offering convenient Summer Days Packs including a slushie six pack. But if you’re looking to pop a cork for a special occasion, the winery’s sparkling white Merlot is a great choice. Light and refreshing, it pairs well with almost any grilled dish.

On the Naramata Bench, Ruby Blues Winery recently released two convenient cans. The lower in alcohol and calories option, a Sparkling Piquette Rosé featuring one of the winery’s iconic vintage Volkswagen buses on the label, is a fun choice to take on a hike. Peace, Love, Bubbles is a sparkling pink wine made as a frizzante and is delicious with fresh strawberries.

Kaleden’s Lakeboat Vineyard and Winery smartly plays on its name with the SS Wanderer, an off-dry aromatic white wine, also conveniently in a can. The SS Wanderer was an unofficial ferry that once serviced passengers on Okanagan Lake.

Keeping somewhat with a water theme, Abbotsford’s Seaside Pearl Farmgate Winery has Daffodils – the flower is featured on the label of its sparkling wine in a can and Penticton’s Cannery Brewing’s Lakeboat German-style lager is a popular craft beer choice.

Keeping in tune with transportation, the Paddle Shift Riesling spritzer from Synchromesh Wines is vibrant off-dry and lower alcohol option for fans of Riesling, and it too comes in cans.

For something more traditional, Liquidity Wines in Okanagan Falls has a lovely non-vintage Brut that takes some of its cues from champagne and is worth a sip or two on the winery’s patio overlooking an amazing view, perhaps while waiting to enjoy a multi-course experience at the winery’s restaurant. More to come on the dining options in a future column. Hint: bleu cheese ice cream.

Finally, just released this week from Summerland’s Okanagan Crush Pad is the wildly unexpected Narrative limited Summer series.

More wine? Guess again. Get ready for Narrative Hard Iced Tea in a pouch and Narrative Haskap lemonade in a bottle, the winery’s innovative response to the challenges facing the Okanagan’s grape crop this year, transforming distilled grape spirits into new products using natural ingredients. It's perfect for summer.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.

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About the Author

A creative thinker with more than two decades of experience in communications, Allison is an early adopter of social and digital media, bringing years of work in traditional media to the new frontier of digital engagement marketing through her company, All She Wrote.

She is the winner of the Thompson Okanagan Tourism Association's 2011 and 2012 awards for Social Media Initiative, an International LERN award for marketing, and the 2014 Penticton Chamber of Commerce Business Excellence Award for Hospitality/Tourism.

Allison has amassed a following on multiple social networks of more than 30,000, frequently writes and about social media, food and libations as well as travel and events, and through her networks, she led a successful bid to bring the Wine Bloggers Conference to Penticton in June 2013, one of the largest social media wine events in the world, generating 31 million social media impressions, $1 million in earned media, and an estimated ongoing economic impact of $2 million.

In 2014, she held the first Canadian Wine Tourism Summit to spark conversation about the potential for wine tourism in Canada as a year-round economic driver.

Allison contributes epicurean content to several publications, has been a judge for several wine and food competitions, and has earned her advanced certificate from the Wine and Spirit Education Trust.

In her spare time, she has deep, meaningful conversations with her cats.

She can be reached at [email protected]

The views expressed are strictly those of the author and not necessarily those of Castanet. Castanet does not warrant the contents.

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