Sipping wine in the summertime in B.C.'s Okanagan playground

OKANAGAN VALLEY, British Columbia — There's a "hotel" here for wayward rattlesnakes.

It's on the grounds of the Nk'Mip Desert and Heritage Centre in the southern section of the Okanagan Valley.

Nk'Mip (pronounced "IN-ka-meep") is the Osoyoos Indian Band's name for its visitor attractions near the city of Osoyoos. It's also the name on the band's wine labels at North America's first aboriginal-owned and -operated winery.

Nk'Mip Cellars produces award-winning chardonnay, pinot blanc, pinot noir and merlot at a winery overlooking Osoyoos Lake.

Just a short walk across the sagebrush-dotted property is the visitor center where rattlers sometimes wander along hiking trails.

"But not to worry — they are rather shy creatures," says Margaret Holm, the center's technical-service manager. "If you see snakes on the trail, just come back and tell us, and we will collect them."

Once collected, the rattlers are lodged in a small enclosure — the so-called Rattlesnake Hotel — until staffers color code their rattles with red, blue, yellow and other paint colors. That way employees will be able to identify "repeat offenders" on the two kilometers of trails leading to replicas of early-day Indian villages. The painted rattles and electronic chips inserted into some of the snakes also provide information about the habits of the local snakes. Rock climbers dread finding them in handholds on Canadian cliffs.

But, "They are God's creatures, part of the natural environment," Holm says. (By the way, visitors are invited to "adopt" Nk'Mip rattlesnakes to help finance rattler research. Prices begin at $35 Canadian.)

The Nk'Mip environment is a rare patch of dust-dry desert in the otherwise lush Okanagan Valley. Dozens of wineries and hundreds of acres of fruit orchards are spread through this 120-mile-long valley in British Columbia's heartland.

"This piece of desert was a wasteland — "a bad joke," says Margaret Holm, when granted to the Osoyoos Band by treaty in the 1800s.

Some joke, as it turns out. The 400-member Osoyoos Band, under the direction of business-minded Chief Clarence Louie, not only built the successful Nk'Mip winery, but soon will open a next-door luxury resort and spa called Spirit Ridge.

Meanwhile, a larger visitor center is nearing completion for travelers and resident rattlers.

Nobody knows for sure how long the Osoyoos Indians have been here. "Thousands of years — maybe forever," says Brenda Baptiste, the visitor center's general manager.

The sun-blessed valley is about 240 miles east of Vancouver, B.C. Kelowna, the hub city (pop. 100,000-plus), is a four- to five-hour drive from Vancouver. Its airport includes service to Seattle and Canadian cities.

In summer, the Okanagan is a playground for golf, swimming, boating, kayaking, cycling and wine touring. Most of the wineries offer tours and tastings. At last count, there were about 60 wineries — and almost as many golf courses — scattered through the valley. In winter, powder snow attracts skiers to Big White, Apex Mountain, Sun Peaks, Silver Star and other resort areas.

The valley's jewel is 52-mile-long Okanagan Lake. Wine-country communities along the lake — from north to south — include Vernon, Kelowna, Peachland, Summerland, Naramata and Penticton. South from Okanagan Lake are the wine-producing cities of Oliver and Osoyoos.

Into this gentle valley have come vintners from throughout the wine world to establish the Okanagan as a consistent medal winner at international wine competitions.

Pascal Madevon, winemaker and vineyard manager for the Osoyoos LaRose winery in Oliver, is the Okanagan's French connection. He was so impressed with the first LaRose grape harvest that he moved his family here from France in 2002.

"The growing season is short, but intense," he says. "Results are excellent."

Osoyoos Rose is a partnership involving Bordeaux-based Groupe Taillan and Canada's Vincor International. Vincor is known for its Jackson-Triggs wines from the Okanagan.

Bruce Nicholson, winemaker at Jackson-Triggs, is a gambler. He bets on successful harvests for icewines.

Canada is the world's largest producer of icewines — considered precious nectar by celebrities in California and Asia.

Icewines are produced from grapes left on the vine to freeze naturally, then picked by hand at the magic temperature — at least minus-8 degrees Celsius (17.6 degrees Fahrenheit) and pressed while still frozen.

"It can be a risky business," Nicholson says. "There is no guarantee of the ideal conditions we need. I've come within one day of missing the harvest."

But there are rewards. Because yields are small, the average price here is $50 (Canadian) for a slender bottle half the size of a regular (750-milliliter) wine bottle.

Not all of the Okanagan's favorite wines — even icewines — are made from grapes.

The family-owned Elephant Island Winery in the Naramata area produces prize-winning wines from pears, apples, crab apples, cherries, black currants, apricots and other Okanagan fruits.

"We usually sell out of everything by the end of our season (Oct. 15)," says Del Halladay, Elephant Island's owner

Fuji Ice, an icewine from naturally frozen Fuji apples, is a specialty.

Ian Sutherland is the valley's only cheesemaker.

He offers three kinds of cheese — along with wines — at his Poplar Grove Winery near Penticton. The cheeses: Okanagan Valley Double Cream Camembert, Naramata Bench Blue (a creamy blue cheese) and Tiger Blue, an aromatic blue cheese that Sutherland says "has some teeth."

And then there is the Kelowna Land & Orchard Co., a 100-year-old Kelowna-area delight.

Richard Bullock and his family harvest about 5 million pounds of apples each season to make apple juice (no preservatives) and ice (there's that word again) cider.

"Well," says Bullock, "that cider began as kind of a mistake. We had an early freeze. We tried to make some cider from the frozen apples, and it worked."

It's cider with a kick, with fermented juice from Granny Smith, Fuji and other apple varieties.

Kelowna Land & Orchard offers tours of the 140-acre orchard in an open-air wagon towed by a farm tractor. And there is a menagerie of farm animals ... goats, chickens, sheep, llamas, etc.

Visitors are encouraged to be on the lookout for Ogopogo, the elusive, but usually friendly, monster of Okanagan Lake.

There's a reward of $2 million for proof of Ogopogo's presence.

Ogopogo is said to be a more than 20 feet long, with several large humps on its back and a reptilian head.

I thought I saw Ogopogo the other day, lurking near the Kelowna lakefront.

Or maybe it was that spiked cider from Richard Bullock's place.

(Stanton H. Patty, a Vancouver writer, is the retired assistant travel editor of The Seattle Times).