BC Wine Country Weekend

[trip style = food & wine + weekend getaway]

Editor's Note: For more Okanagan wine country inspiration—or should I say inSIPration?—check out the Expedia Viewfinder Travel Blog for my article, A stylish guide to western Canada wine country.

Reader advisory: The winery photos below contain graphic images of yours truly frolicking through vineyards and modern tasting rooms that may cause you to book a last-minute getaway to British Columbia's premier wine region.

Home to over 100 wineries, BC's Okanagan Valley is a popular destination for western Canadians. Similar to Swiss wine, BC wine is still a relatively well-kept secret by a province that drinks nearly everything it produces. Why? You could blame our old-fashioned liquor laws, but I'd like to think that we drink it all because it's just that good.

Recently, the region has attracted more international attention from wine lovers and investors who heard it through the gravevine. Painted Rock's Red Icon blend sells for $55 at the winery, but in Shanghai goes for up to $500 in wine shops and $950 in restaurants. On a recent visit, I may have considered buying a few bottles, booking a trip to China and selling them to pay for my travels to the world's leading market for red wine.

The business of wine aside, BC's Okanagan is worth the trip to sip your way from Oliver to Lake Country on Pinot Gris, Merlot, Chardonnay, Cab Sauv, or one of the other 80+ grape varietals produced in the region. Because many wineries close up for the winter, early fall is a great time to visit. Not only will you sample some delicious wine without the crowds, you'll be right in the action during harvest season.

Trip Styler Tip: Wine tasting is haaaaard work, so don't forget to eat! Stop by Therapy Vineyards for a bite of wood-fired pizza from Howard at Lil's Kitchen, visit Poplar Grove's popular Vanilla Pod Restaurant, or grab some gorgeous cheese at Lock & Worth and hang out on a picnic bench overlooking Okanagan Lake.

A few of my favorite wineries and wine picks...

Lock & Worth Winery, Naramata Bench
Wine pick: Merlot
This young, no-fuss winery is also home to Poplar Grove cheese, so your wine tasting comes paired with food. And really, what's better than wine & cheese? {Hint: Nothing}

Painted Rock Estate Winery, Penticton
Wine pick: Syrah
This stunning, modern tasting room provides a beautiful setting for beautiful wine. Trust me—you'll want to spend an afternoon on the patio with a bottle of wine making all your friends jealous via Instagram.

Poplar Grove Winery, Naramata Bench
Wine pick: Viognier
More than just a gorgeous wine label and tasting room, this winery is home to a lovely restaurant and excellent wines, including my picks, Viognier and Merlot.

50th Parallel Estate Winery, Lake Country
Wine pick: Chardonnay
This is also a relatively new winery with an impressive industrial tasting room-meets-production-facility tucked away in Lake Country. Don't leave without a bottle of Chardonnay, Riesling and Rosé!

This post is written by Trip Styler's Assistant Wayfarer/Editor Heather.

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[images by @heatherlovesit & wineries mentioned, top image by trudelphoto.com]

Exploring Canada - Postcards {3/3}

[trip style = urban + sightseeing + wine tasting]

The past week has been a full pour of Canadian Kool-Aid---the best flavor, obviously. I just got home from BC's wine country Saturday morning, and somehow I've ended up in Whistler {where I'm writing this now} on Sunday. Though I travel {outside of Canada} almost as much as George Clooney's character in Up In The Air, I'm a little obsessed with the place I call home.

Canada's diverse. Full stop. Using Vancouver's wilderness-meets-cosmopolitan backdrop as an example, within a:

• one minute walk, I can run beside the Pacific Ocean on Vancouver's impressive seawall network
• nine minute {Canada Line} train I can taste world-famous gelato, nibble on local cheese or drink craft cocktails in Gastown
• 11 minute bike ride I can sit in the sand at Kits beach and watch the setting sun
• 20 minute drive I can go for a heart-pumping hike in North Vancouver
• 25 minute {Canada Line} train I can eat a traditional Cantonese dim sum feast in Richmond
• 50 minute drive I can pick strawberries in Abbotsford
• 90 minute drive I can ski at Whistler Blackcomb, consistently voted the number one ski resort in North America
• four hour drive/ferry I can ride Tofino's surf on Vancouver Island
• five hour drive/30 minute flight I can sip wines in the Okanagan, Canada's second largest wine region

I could go on, but the list would never end....

Because a picture is worth a thousand words, here are some of the local finds and moments I'll never forget, snapped this week exploring my backyard.

Vancouver {A Vancouver Aquabus swishing from stop to stop around the harbor.}

{A world of flavors and vendors at Granville Island Public Market}

{"The world's best gelato" from Bella Gelateria, as voted by judges and people at the Firenze Gelato Competition in Italy. I concur; it's the best I've tasted in a long, long time.}

{Two Vancouver cocktail institutions: An Old Fashioned---taking seven minutes to make done right---at the Di6mond, and a line up of libations at Pourhouse.}

{Coffee---no decaf here---and a homemade peanut butter cup at Nelson the Seagull.}

Richmond {Learning about sustainable fishing from "fisherman frank", a second-generation fisherman based in Steveston, the largest commercial fishing port in Canada.}

{A farm-to-table education at Terra Nova Rural Park, home to projects for local schools, as well as garden plots for local restaurants and residents.}

{Bubble tea and a hot pot dinner on "food street", a three-block strip of over 200 Asian restaurants. A local expert told me that ordering bubble tea is akin to personalizing your drink at Starbucks, so I ordered a pudding-flavored bubble tea with pearls, add extra pearls and add extra pudding. The bev was giant and I drank the whole thing...and then ran on the treadmill the next morning.}

The Okanagan {It's still summer in the Okanagan, Canada's only desert. The view from my room at the Manteo Resort in Kelowna.}

{Uber local cuisine at RauDZ Regional Table in Kelowna. Crushed from nearby grapes, the dinner started with white wine sangria accented by Okanagan peaches. From there, we ate chicken poutine, Dungeness crab cakes with salsa verde and a salted caramel dessert---that in a perfect world would be bottomless.}

{Wine tasting amid vines, sunflowers and a chicken coop at the Okanagan Crush Pad, moving toward biodynamic wine making by 2014.}

{Buying local at its best; picking apples right off the tree at Matheson Creek Farm in Penticton.}

If you're interested in seeing postcards from the international bloggers on my get-to-know BC tour, check out their posts here!

[photos by @tripstyler taken while exploring BC with Tourism Canada]