By Don Urquhart, Times Chronicle
The 25th annual Festival of the Grape (FOG), part of the Fall Festival Weekend in Oliver, returned with a tasty flourish on Sunday, Oct. 2 bringing visible joy to wine lovers of all ages.
Welcoming people to the traditional territory of the Okanagan Nation, Osoyoos Indian Band (OIB) Councillor Nathan McGinnis expressed the sentiment of everyone in attendance when he enthusiastically said: “It’s so great to see the Festival of the Grape back after two years of COVID!”
Ian Lobb, executive director of Oliver Tourism said the turnout for this year’s FOG – the first since 2019 – “blew us away”. A total of 33 wineries were on hand offering tastings covering a wide range of varieties.
Lobb had nothing but praise for the volunteers who enabled the event to be a success and also for the wineries who managed to staff the tasting booths at a time when everyone is facing extreme staffing challenges.
The event included the ever-popular Grape Stomp, sponsored by the Oliver Osoyoos Wine Association (OOWA). And participating for the 25th time in the Grape Stomp was the Babushka Queens, “the longest stomping team to never have won!” the team laughed. “But we’ve got a couple of ringers so maybe this year we’ll be the longest stomping team to finally win!” Unfortunately that didn’t happen, but there’s always next year.
For FOG first timers, mother and daughter Cher and Alex, they were suitably impressed. “It’s our first time and no disappointment,” they agreed, adding they did actually have one disappointment they admitted: “because we didn’t come yesterday for the breweries!” they said of the Cask & Keg event.
“It’s beautiful, it’s wonderful, the wine is lovely, the entertainment, weather, the people – it’s just quite the experience,” Cher said. Alex added: “This is my first real good introduction to wine and wine tasting and the culture of it all and I’m definitely not disappointed.”
They did have one small complaint however, and one that echoes a number of other people Times Chronicle spoke to, the Oliver Tourism website is difficult to find specific information on the event itself.
For Shannon, Carla, Corry, Gen, and Anetra all from Maple Ridge, they reneged from first timers to seasoned FOG veterans. “We love it, it’s just a fun day!” they agreed. “it’s probably the busiest I’ve ever seen it and it’s the warmest I’ve ever seen it,’’ said a five-time veteran of the group.
They did have one complaint however. The normal routine would be to come up and visit wineries on Saturday, do the Cast & Keg event on Saturday night, and then attend FOG on Sunday. With really only one beer drinker amongst them, she “took one for the team” by skipping the beer event.
As for the FOG: “This is how we got stuck on some of the wineries,’’ one of the group volunteered, added because you can taste at so many different wineries and then you end up going to them after doing the tasting here.”
For Ron and Dawn from West Kelowna this was their third FOG and their view is clear: “We love it! It’s our favourite day of the year!” Their view is reflective of many at the event when they say, “being able to try all the different wineries without having to drive 50 miles from one place to another is great!”
“And just the atmosphere there’s always other stuff, not just the wine – the grape stomp, the entertainment and they have food trucks. If they didn’t have food trucks this place would be dangerous,” Ron laughs.
Ron and his wife come down each year on the Grape Savvy Trolley Co which runs special shuttles for events like this one which means there’s no worries about getting behind the wheel after wine tasting.
For Bailey (who is a volunteer at FOG) and her friend Deanna, a first timer from Kelowna it was a great event. “It’s really cool,” said Deanna, “I didn’t know it was going be this busy. I think it’s cool how much is going on, there’s so many wineries and it’s just a beautiful day and all the wines I’ve tasted so far have been really, really good.”
Local Oliver residents Perry and Rena similarly were surprised at how many people there were at the event. “It’s wonderful, it’s surprising the turn out is really great,” Perry said, adding this is their third FOG.
For Jody and Vanessa Gelowitz, “it feels like the whole town is here!” While the couple lives in Kamloops, Vanessa is originally from Oliver and has been to the event before. For Jody, “it’s quite the experience to be able to wander from tent to tent when your glass is empty you get a refill immediately, so it’s pretty cool,” he said.
“Having all the people out here in the beautiful weather and having an event like this after COVID where everybody was stuck in their house, to see everybody again being able to socialize it’s probably the best part for me,” he added.
And another local pair, representing the younger generation, was Paolo from Osoyoos and Isabel from Oliver. “It’s wonderful. It’s really amazing,” said Isabel who has attended before.
For Paolo the highlight was the variety of wine that you can taste in the outdoor setting. The two did agree however that for the Cask & Keg event a day earlier, “it would have been nice to have a few more breweries, but today is fantastic there’s quite a lot of choices.”
