December 22, 2005 | Tips from Us >
Sun Peaks Resort, Wineries & Vineyards
The Sun Peaks
Icewine Festival is coming up in mid-January, and it's an event not to be missed. I attended last years festival, and had a great time. Held at
Sun Peaks, a ski resort in the BC interior (about 45 minutes from Kamloops), the festival is a celebration of harvest time for the icewine grapes. Icewine, for the uninitiated, is a sweet dessert wine which is created from grapes that are left on the vine until mid-winter. They are only harvested after the temperatures have dipped below freezing for an extended period, which freezes the grape right through. The solid grapes are then pressed, and the resulting sweet juice is fermented into a really remarkable drink. But the festival's activities aren't restricted to just dessert wines. Last year, I attended seminars that covered topics such as pairing wine with cheese, and another on
BC's unique wines and wine regions. But for me, the call of the outdoors was too much to keep me inside all day. A snowshoeing tour, a
snowbike lesson, and as much
skiing as I could fit in, put roses in my cheeks all weekend (really, it was because of the brisk outdoor activity, not the wine...) The highlight of the festival is the progressive tasting, where wineries are set up throughout the resort's village, and festival-goers, with glass in hand, wind (or weave) their way through the pedestrian streets to the many tasting tables. This year, the Sun Peak Icewine festival is January 19 - 22, 2006.