This valley is known for its wine.  There are multiple wine trails with 88 winerys total.  Mel, you would love this. And… tasting we did.  Because of the climate in Kelona and the Lake Country region in the northern end of the valley, mostly white wine is bottled there.  We will be seeing more reds as we make our way south.  Apparently it gets more desert like with a longer growing season ( up to 180 more days).  We did go to 4 vineyards today.  Unfortunately, you can’t ship the wine to the US.  You can only bring 2 bottles per person back without paying duty.  We were not able to find out what the duty actually is.  Everyone said simply that it was “small”…no straight answers.  It is a little discouraging to taste and not be able to purchase much.  I can’t do 4 tastings in one day :  (   It was fun seeing all the different vineyards.  Only 84 to go :  )

As I was getting dressed to go tasting, I found I had been wearing hiking boots and shorts for so long, I wasn’t sure what was appropriate.  Putting on earrings, I thought I was really getting WAY too dressed up.

I think I tended to enjoy the smaller vineyards best.  They spent a lot of time answering questions.  I finally have an understanding of how ice wine is produced and the risk that a vineyard takes to produce it. It seems that the vineyard is on alert for picking as soon as the temperature is at a freezing temperature for 48 hours. If the grapes are not picked at the exact time, all is lost and what was to be ice wine becomes simply dessert wine.  this particular vineyard no long attempts to produce ice wine. The one large vineyard, Sunnyhills, that we visited was know for it’s sparklingly wine.  You know I love my “bubbly”.