SOWA Banée 2010 reflections

Dinner at Passa Tempo restaurant (Nk'Mip Winery) – click for larger

We're still catching up on a busy week, but we're going to post up some of our many reflections from last weekend's Banée.

Our drive to Osoyoos was an easy one, as there is not much tourist traffic on the highway at this time of year, and it made for a relatively quick trip. We arrived at the Watermark Beachfront Resort mid-afternoon. The Resort is situated in the heart of Osoyoos and overlooks the lake. We headed up to our room, which was a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom suite. Our Banée package awaited us!

After a short break, we headed down to meet up with the other Banée attendees. Our Banée coordinator, Sue Alexander, greeted us in the Resort's wine bar. We were then shuttled to Passa Tempo restaurant at Spirit Ridge for a media reception, hosted by Anthony Burée. We were pleased to be seated with such great company – such as Bill Eggert, maverick winemaker at Fairview Cellars; Brooke Blair, winemaker at Jackson-Triggs; Sandra Oldfield of Tinhorn Creek and Rob Summers of Hester Creek.

It was an informative dinner conversation, with a discussion of old world vs. new world styles. Wine flowed as the evening progressed. A few wines of note were Gehringer Brothers Dry Rock Chardonnay 2009, Fairview Cellars 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon, Road 13 2008 Rockpile (one of their new blends!), and Dunham & Froese 2008 Amiticia.

Culinaria, an event held back at the Watermark Resort, was our next and last stop on Friday (one can only indulge in so much great wine and food) and what a great experience it was! Wine tasting, samples of local food (including amazing local chocolates), a gourmet cooking demonstration by Joy Road Catering, an iron chef competition and a live auction made for a fully-packed evening.

We were glad to be able to just head upstairs for a good night's rest in preparation of the action-packed Saturday ahead.