A site meeting in the Okanagan Vineyards

Ok a little sneaky but............. hey when the project you are looking after is located in such beatiful countryside as this a little divertionary routing back to the airport and some devious time keeping was just too tempting for a good old skiver like me.

Finishing up on site at around normal time (honest) and with a late flight back (honest), my 'oops I'm lost' drive around the shores of Lake Okanagan (pronounced bizarly by the locals as the OH-KAN-AAAAAAAH-GAN Eh !) took in one of the finer Vineyards to be seen on the Westbank of the lake.

Built less than fifteen years ago Mission Hill is run by a Kiwi bloke and built in a very eclectic architectural style, but is well worth the tour round the cellars where they are proud to tell you that the wine boffins in France recently voted theirs the best Chardonnay in the world ? (I wonder if the tasting was conducted with chicken wings and not cheese at the ready and no spitting out into spitoons was allowed)

Needless to say the samplers at the end of the tour were welcome refreshment to the dry warm air blowing through and along the 68 miles length of the lake ! In predictable fashion there is a vast shop situated all of three steps from the tasting tables that cannot be side stepped en route back to the car and of course the temptation is to load up with fresh supplies for the new gaff.

Remebering however that I was booked onto the smallest turboprop known to man for the way home and that my baggage allowance was........ well............me ! I thought better of it and ran through the racks of gleaming bottles avoiding all the temptation to buy big in preparation for future visits by Mom and Mig !

Curiously the shop also offered a selection of fine Cuban Cigars ! Not at all on show to piss off the hoards of American punters unable to obtain them twenty miles away south of the border !


Don't worry mom there are only around another thirty vineyards to explore so you won't get bored during your visit ! I will endeavour to sort the chaff from the wheat by then ! Hic Hic !