Why Naramata, B.C. Is the Okanagan Wine Town Breaking the Rules

When I pull into Naramata in early May, I’m expecting a sleepy little town where farmers are ploughing vineyards and locals are pulling vegetables from their yards for dinner—and, to some degree, I’m right. As I drive along the downtown strip near the shores of Okanagan Lake in B.C.’s wine country, I notice beautifully painted storefronts decorated with kitschy items, and lilac trees in full bloom that decorate patches of parking lots while the scent wafts on the breeze. Could it be any more idyllic?

Why Naramata Is a Different Kind of Okanagan Wine Destination

Naramata is known for the Naramata Bench—home to 40-plus award-winning wineries, like JoieFarm, Nichol and Laughing Stock. But I’m here this weekend to discover another side of it, too: it’s one of only a handful of towns in Canada with a Cittaslow designation—a global network of towns committed to improving quality of life by slowing the pace of everyday living. It’s almost akin to a global blue zone in which the focus is on local culture, strong food systems, environmental stewardship and social cohesion. So, like I said, idyllic.

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But if you scratch the surface of the little town at the end of the winding bench, settling on the lesser-seen side of Okanagan Lake, you’ll find a youthful, rebellious spirit. Or, at least, a community that’s decidedly doing its own thing and bucking the norms of the other Okanagan destinations that city-slickers like myself visit in order to spend their time Sea-Doo-ing and powerboating.

How Naramata Slow Builds Community

“When we all came together originally, we were thinking this would be a really powerful tool for business, but we very quickly realized that it had very little to do with business, and had everything to do with community,” says Miranda Halladay, a board member of the Naramata Slow community group, over breakfast at Just Baked 9Mile Bakery, a prominent café on the downtown strip.

“The success of the designation is that it has engaged the community. In fact, our mission is to create conversation within the community about how we make living in Naramata better for everyone.”

Across the street, I spot two grey-haired women, equipped with garden spades and shovels, planting irises in front of homes, the flowers spilling out into where—I think—a sidewalk ought to be.

The back alleys, similarly, are decorated with beautifully overflowing flora, and many fences are covered in painted murals. These alleys, rather than sidewalks, are how folks walk around in downtown Naramata. At intersections, several stop signs have been “yarn-bombed,” their poles decorated in knitted swaths of colourful scrap yarn—a hilarious but wholesome take on graffiti. Charming, too, are the women who are essentially guerilla gardening the entire town.

“These two ladies started [gardening] in the laneways, and now that’s blossomed because there’s all these people that are coming to help garden,” says Nicole Hackworth, nodding that the women—Alyce Karr and Bonnie Cooke—are something of local legend. Their work is also feeding the town’s consideration for being a designated David Suzuki Foundation “butterflyway”—a movement that is encouraging communities across Canada to develop habitats for pollinators (namely, bees and butterflies).

Halladay, Hackworth and Jacquie Carlson are just three of many community figures who make up Naramata Slow, the community group responsible for upholding the Cittaslow designation. The town (with a population of less than 2,000) recently held the international conference for the global movement, hosting designated representatives from Europe and around the world.

“When we all came together originally, we were thinking this would be a really powerful tool for business, but we very quickly realized that it had very little to do with business, and had everything to do with community.”

To be clear, Carlson says, the Naramata Slow group is not made up of politicians or city councillors; rather, they’re local business owners and community members who make sure that the town maintains its designation and ensure that incoming mayors don’t lose sight of something that’s integral to the small-population town.

“So, what’s on the checklist of things that need to be maintained in order to keep the Cittaslow status?” I ask, naively.

“It’s not as prescriptive as all that,” says Halladay, who owns Elephant Island Winery farther up on the bench. “It’s more about the community.”

JoieFarm Pairs Okanagan Wine With Gourmet Hot Dogs

Later that day, I learn just how non-prescriptive things can be here in Naramata. Walking into JoieFarm Winery, one of the most well-known producers in the Okanagan VQA canon, I spot lime green Muskoka chairs and picnic tables popping against a lush tasting field. Dogs and toddlers (mine included) run free in the space, where thoughtfully made wines are paired not with stuffy charcuterie plates but instead with gourmet hot dogs. Yes, hot dogs.

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I sip on a glass of En Famille Pinot Gris and, later, a glass of their famous Noble Blend, which pairs wonderfully with the Mexican “street dog” (a street-food-forward take on the hot dog, with grilled corn, onions, tomato aioli, feta and Tajín) and the Tailgate (a hot dog with crumbles of blue cheese and drizzled with Frank’s RedHot Sauce) developed by JoieFarm’s owner, Alistair Veen. The breathtaking view of vineyards rolling out to the vast Okanagan Lake on this bluebird day gives me a moment of reverie, but I have to chuckle as the winery’s playlist kicks into vintage millennial hits from bands like Sublime and Weezer. The winery’s manager, BJ Tumanut, and tasting room manager, Kyle Clausius, both don hot pink JoieFarm-branded sunglasses and make their rounds among the tables.

At Elephant Island, Wine Country Gets Even More Unconventional

Over at Elephant Island Winery, I find more of that same sense of rebellion—many of the wines here are made without grapes. I sip on glasses of blackberry and sweet apricot dessert wines next to a kids’ play area, where a donation of toys from the community isn’t rare. Elephant Island itself was built on a bit of a tongue-in-cheek premise, says Halladay, who opened the winery in collaboration with her grandmother back in 1999. “It’s a bit of a ‘white elephant,’” she says with a laugh, and, clearly, her grandparents shared that same sense of humour.

The winery’s catalogue also includes crabapple, cherry and framboise wines, and a few grape-based wines, too.

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It could be the wine or the rebellious spirit, but I’m starting to feel a buzz of excitement about this place. Whether largely misunderstood—or perhaps just because it’s harder to get to, being squarely across from Summerland but requiring a 45-minute drive around the lake to find it—I have to wonder why, in all of the years I’ve been visiting the Okanagan, I’ve never made the drive to this revered wine destination. Suddenly, I’m looking up the cost of property as I fall in love with this idyllic town that may boast that its approach to agriculture and community is intentional and slow—but is far from sleepy.