Napa North: Golf & Wine in Canada's Okanagan Valley

By Brian Kendall

Editor's note: This article was originally published in Estates West Golf Living. Visit the magazine website here.

‘‘See over there," says Len Harvey, pointing his 5-iron at twin cottages nestled on a pine-covered bluff at Predator Ridge Golf Resort.

"They belong to Sergio Garcia. The kid took one look and decided to buy in."

Like the 77-year-old Harvey, a locally revered teaching pro who drifted between club jobs in Canada and the United States before putting down roots at Predator Ridge, Garcia fell hard for the sun-baked, red hills of British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley, a landscape eerily similar to his Spanish homeland. Since his first visit for a TV exhibition in 2000, Garcia has made annual treks to the once- forgotten mountain valley now suddenly in the spotlight for its award-winning vineyards, championship golf courses and one of the hottest real estate markets

"Napa North," as local boosters have taken to calling the valley, attracted more than 1.5 million visitors in 2005. American, Canadian and European investors are rushing to buy into the Okanagan at what are still highly competitive prices for houses, condos and cottages in unspoiled locations. At some new developments near Kelowna, the valley’s largest city and central hub, with a population of 105,000, foreign ownership runs as high as 65 percent.

"A lot of people, especially Americans, are stunned when they first visit the valley," says Wade Webb, a Kelowna real estate broker.

"American travelers generally don’t envision blooming cacti, year-round sunshine and superb wines when they think of Canada. But the Okanagan actually gets more sunshine during the growing season than Napa and Sonoma."

Okanagan Valley offers fine wine and superior golf.

Located four hours east of Vancouver by car (one hour by air), the valley, a 135-mile-long fertile rift between the Cascade Mountains to the west and the lower Monashees to the east, begins at the northernmost tip of the Sonora Desert, which reaches south to Mexico. As a result, the Okanagan basks in an average of 2,000 hours of sunshine annually. Smothered in pink blossoms in spring, the semi-arid valley is the fruit-growing capital of Canada, producing apples, peaches, plums, strawberries, cherries and raspberries in Eden-like abundance. Also driving the summertime economy are fishing, boating and other water sports on the valley’s four major freshwater lakes. Come winter, the marquee draw is Big White, the largest ski resort in the B.C. interior.

Despite these other advantages, no one doubts it’s the irresistibly modern mix of fine wine and superior golf—the one-two knockout punch pioneered by California’s wine country—that has put the Okanagan on the radar of trend-conscious travelers and property hunters.

"Wine got us noticed and great golf has made the valley even more of a draw," says Catherine Callary of Tourism Kelowna, noting that visits have sharply increased since the release of the oenophile buddy film "Sideways," set in Santa Barbara County. "People are flocking to the Okanagan to have those same types of adventures."

The valley’s love affair with the grape began with Charles Pandosy, a French-born Oblate friar, who planted vineyards and made sacramental wines in the 1850’s. Commercial wineries followed, though they largely produced the sort of plonk that comes in cartons and has "Ripple" or "Duck" in the name. It was the enactment of the North American Free Trade Agreement on January 1, 1989, (removing provincial legislation taxing B.C. wines at half the rate of imports) that forced Okanagan vintners to finally get serious about their product.

Experienced winemakers from California, France, Australia and South Africa were recruited to oversee the replanting of more than 3,000 acres of vines with European varietals. Nurtured by the dry air and bright skies, Okanagan wines quickly began winning awards at prestigious taste-offs that included London’s International Wine and Spirits Competition, France’s Chardonnay du Monde and the San Francisco International Wine Competition.

Throughout the Okanagan glitzy resorts rose to accommodate the influx of visitors. Property values soared. And top golf architects began sculpting courses through the rolling hills of what is a Canadian oasis where tee times are seldom cancelled due to rain.