TRAVEL: A taste for Canada

James Belfield gets a taste for Canada's food, wine and hospitality.

It's easy to get over the hypocrisy of having travelled 11,400km to "eat locally" when tucking into the tastiest heirloom tomatoes with home-pickled veg.

When the view through a darkening restaurant window shows golden vineyards backed by an unspoilt mountain range, it's simple to forget that your size-12 carbon footprint has stomped straight through the "eat local, think global" ethos.

I'm at the Burrowing Owl estate winery. I'm in the Okanagan valley. I'm in Canada. I'm three flights, a brief stopover in Los Angeles, an overnighter in Vancouver and about eight tonnes of CO2 emissions away from Auckland.

I make plans to start planting trees when I return, and send a crisp spider's web of crackles through the top of a delicate sugar plum and fennel blossom creme brulee.

Kelowna, the gateway to the Okanagan valley is about four hours drive or an hour's flight for the environmentally-challenged east of Vancouver. And it is a gateway a place to linger briefly, admire and pass through.

I headed south. In a car. On a self-drive wine-tasting tour. I would have to ditch instinct and learn to spit.

Once over Kelowna's new bridge, the big-box supermarkets soon thin out to allow fields to take over. Within minutes, hoardings for budget car hire and smug real estate agencies give way to beckoning signs advertising wineries and tastings. And they don't take no for an answer. As soon as your self-control gene has kicked in to stop you pulling in at the first driveway sporting the bunch-of-grapes signpost, you've passed two more by. The guidebook says there are "95 wineries for your enjoyment" in the 128km between Kelowna and Osoyoos I found at least two more. Canada has a growing reputation for wine and the Okanagan is growing it for the whole country.

There's a decent North American-sized portion of education to accompany the food and wine.

The major source of learning seems to be The 100-Mile Diet by Alisa Smith and James MacKinnon. The couple spent 2005 living off food grown within 100 miles (160km) of their Vancouver home and sparked a global campaign. Canadians, ever the race to promote maple-leaf-branded nationalism, have embraced the book and are keen to tell anyone travelling through their nutritionally blessed land that they are "living by the book".

Perhaps it's the area's relative youth in grape-growing. Everywhere you look, orchards are being ripped out to make way for the new cash crop. Huge, smooth, architecturally designed estates such as Mission Hill Family Estate have created horizons which look like the "old" wine countries of Italy and

France only smoother, more North American.

The United States it is a short hop over the border from Osoyoos in south Okanagan to the home of the brave appears to have made a major impact. It seems a shame. Then you stop off, have another pinot noir, talk food and drink and realise this is a different land entirely. The region was irrigated by soldiers returning from World War I, organised by enterprising politicians to construct a series of canals to create the perfect terroire.

The best explanation I've heard for terroire, that untranslatable French term for what's required to make an excellent wine, came from Grant Stanley winemaker for Quail's Gate Estate winery. Maybe it was his New Zealand education, but he went further than soil type, altitude and latitude: "People always talk about the terroire and the slope and the soil, but they leave out the people involved. That's the most important part."

Another Kiwi connection, wine operations manager Mike Hilton at Mission Hill, was responsible for the region's most striking winery. He was more interested in talking about the hunting moose, big-horned sheep in the wilderness which lurks just behind the newly rich playground of the Okanagan.

And that's the beauty of the Okanagan's terroire. It's not just the food and wine, it's the people who grow, use, sell, eat and drink it all.

And that's why you travel. That's why you travel to eat locally. Because the people who produce this food add more seasoning than anything you might pick off a supermarket shelf.

Where to eat and drink (and sometimes sleep)

OKANAGAN

Quail's Gate Estate Winery, Kelowna

The first stop south of Kelowna sets the scene perfectly for the trail down the Okanagan valley. The Old Vines restaurant allows for a taste of bison burgers and a visit to the winery allows for a chat with a graduate of Marlborough Polytechnic. Grant Stanley worked for Ata Rangi and Montana wines on this side of the world and gained an international reputation for pinot noirs as well as being one of the screw-cap revolutionaries who helped the wine world turn its back on the cork. Now he's taken his down-to-earth winemaking style to Canada and isn't afraid to show it. "I could use thermostats and computer controls. I could have someone contacting my mobile whenever a temperature changes. I could be hi-tech. But I just use a thermostat and a bucket."

Burrowing Owl Winery, Black Sage Rd

The pick of the bunch for winery accommodation. The Wyse family's majestic terracotta buildings including guest house, working winery and Sonora Room restaurant are surrounded by a sea of vineyards. The owners' maxim to "do no harm" is apparent from the donation box for preserving Burrowing Owls on the wine-tasting bench but also stretches to bluebird boxes and bat nurseries as a natural form of insecticide. Just watch for bears if taking an evening stroll through the back paddocks. Like much to do with wine in the Okanagan, Burrowing Owl is fresh-faced its winery licence was granted only 10 years ago and has every feature expected in a top-rated, award-winning hotel. But, despite its youth, it has the feeling of a mature guesthouse accentuated by the jars of pickles and preserves made from produce grown by sous-chef Chris van Hooydonck.

The Toasted Oak wine bar and grill, Oliver

Oliver's former Fire Hall is hosting a meal for the volunteers from the town's Festival of the Grape when I join executive chef Jeffrey Brandt for dinner. He's hard-working enough to keep disappearing back through the kitchen swing-doors to make sure the dozens downstairs are being properly rewarded. And he's proud enough to extol the virtues of the local produce by choosing for our meal an unpretentious roast pork with the last of the summer beets over something that his time at the sophisticated Oro in Toronto proves he is undoubtedly capable of.

Nk'Mip Resort, Osoyoos

The Osoyoos Indian Band started growing grapes on its band lands in 1968 and that has now grown to a multi-million dollar winery, resort and cultural centre. It also leases so many of its 13,000ha for vineyards that 25% of the Okanagan's grapes are on the band's land. Nk'Mip (pronounced in-ka-meep) has an impressive setting, on the edge of natural desert land and overlooking Osoyoos Lake. It is the country's first aboriginal-owned and run winery/resort and guests can visit the stunning cultural centre set among yellow aspen, black sage bushes and red sumac.

Naramata Heritage Inn and Spa, Naramata

Norm Davies epitomises his family-run, lake-front, beautifully-dated hotel/homage to yesteryear. After briefly moving to the big smoke of Vancouver, he and wife Janette returned to take over the inn and give it the latest of three makeovers since its first guests walked through its doors in 1908. Now, bearded for winter hibernation the inn, too, closes during the off-season he describes his love of local food, bemoans big-box supermarkets and knocks off a decent-sized steak in the Cobblestone Wine Bar and Restaurant. The inn sits at the end of a sleepy street in the quiet lakeside hamlet of Naramata. It has become renowned for jazz evenings and its Aveda Concept Spa. You're not going to spend time in your room. They are small and furnished simply with period pieces a plain writing desk and carved-wood bed are preferred to an imposing 21st century television but perfectly in keeping with its pioneering legacy. Rather, the old-world setting makes a visitor want to make the most of comfy seats by a communal open fire, loungers on a wraparound balcony or a shaded spot on the patio.

Manteo Resort Waterfront Hotel & Villas, Kelowna

Lake Okanagan has its own monster. Ogopogo is reportedly 4-10m long with a horse's head and a serpent's tail. It was first sighted by Mrs John Allison in 1872 though the Indian folklore of the area tells of N'ha-a-itk, or lake demon, at a cave near Rattlesnake Island, which is further south. There are, of course, lots of things you can do in and around Kelowna, but if you've had so many amuses bouche that your bouche isn't amused any more or if you can't bear to have to keep spitting back your wine because you're driving through wine country, why not crack open your own bottle on your own waterfront balcony and watch out for British Colombia's answer to Nessie.

Fresco, Kelowna

Rod Butters and co-owner Audrey Surrao found success in Whistler, and Toronto before coming home to open Fresco and "play in the chef's paradise" of the Okanagan. Try for a chef's table seat to see his smooth team in operation and wonder how he keeps his cool as the evening really hots up.

Mission Hill Family Estate, Westbank

A simply jaw-dropping setting and the undoubted highlight of the Okanagan wineries. All is not quite what it seems the "family" title speaks more about branding than a cozy father-son setup and the owner Anthony von Mandl made many of his millions through alcopop Mike's Hard Lemonade rather than the wine for which Mission Hill has grown its reputation. It's slick. It's manicured. From the four French-made, hand-crafted bronze bells and pelican weathervane which feature on the 12-storey bell tower to the purpose-built studio-kitchen which can open into an auditorium for cooking demonstrations or even make television programmes, this is top-notch North American opulence. And, if you dig a little, you can even hear a few familiar accents with Kiwi winemaker John Simes and wine operations manager Mike Hilton key figures in the estate's success. Any food tastes incredible in such a setting as the dining terrace of course it is faultless to start with.

VANCOUVER

Granville Island Public Market

Don't have breakfast at the hotel. Catch a water taxi, or better still walk over the bridge you'll soon make back the lost calories and revel in fresh produce, meat, fish and pastries. Ah, the pastries. It's worth contacting Cecilia Yong at Edible BC, who runs culinary tours around the market, if only for the constant supply of tasters from the mix of regular and casual stalls. Oh, and the pastries. Breakfast will undoubtedly go on long enough for the Granville Island brewery to open while you're still on the island and for you not to feel too guilty to try one of their home-brewed ales.

Go Fish, West 1st Ave

I walked past the shack half a dozen times before realising that's where I was going. The patio is ringed by herbs and the boats bob in front of you selling wholesale the salmon you can gorge on, deep-fried or grilled from the cafe. The straightforward fish and chips are served in bamboo bowls with a sesame slaw the more adventurous could try a coconut salmon bisque.

West, Granville St

The opposite of Go Fish is the award-winning West. What must have chef David Hawkesworth done in 2004 to slip from gold to silver the only time in the past five years in the city's restaurant of the year competition? Perhaps the temperature-controlled wall of wine held slightly less than its 3000 bottles. Perhaps the Mario Bellini-designed leather chairs found, by the way, in the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art were out being recovered. It is faultless which is slightly unnerving in a game as unpredictable as feeding the masses.

GETTING THERE:

Air New Zealand flies direct to Vancouver three times a week from Auckland. Supersaver return fares to Vancouver are from $2389, exclusive of New Zealand airport departure fee and other taxes. For latest deals visit airnewzealand.co.nz

For more information about Canada:

www.travelbc.com

www.tourismvancouver.com

www.edible-britishcolumbia.com

James Belfield travelled courtesy of Air New Zealand

- © Fairfax NZ News