Our 16th Annual self-guided Cowichan Valley Garden Tour from 10 am to 5 pm on June 6 2010 gives you a magnificent opportunity to enjoy the highways and byways as you explore private gardens throughout the beautiful Cowichan Valley. Visit six uniquely different horticultural delights that are all new to the tour this year. These include a garden that keeps a family self-sustained in vegetables throughout the whole year and another garden that is part of the Slow Food Movement. Four other beautiful gardens are filled with magnificent plantings, garden designs and unique water and

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On May 3, Cherie Oke of Cowichan Valley Photos was privileged, on behalf of the Cowichan Wine & Culinary Festival, to be the guest of Rocky Creek Winery at their Press Conference. What a treat that was! First, the tastings and appropriate canapés from Amuse Bistro to accompany them. With the crisp, fruity dry Ortega –a flavourful bruschetta; with the gold medal winning Pinot Gris a luscious layered camembert and chevre from the Cowichan’s own Hilary’s Cheese. Robin’s Rose paired with a carrot dip and thin slices of artisan bread

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Chocolate lily (Fritillaria affinis) at St Peter's

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The wildflowers at the Mt. Tzouhalem Ecological Reserve have certainly peaked at this time. While a few species have pretty much gone; shooting stars and fawn lilies, many of the others are at or near their prime. The balsamroot flowers are beautiful at this stage although may only be that way for a few days if the good weather continues. The common camas and death camas are both blooming strongly and should be even better next week! While there are a few chocolate lilies in the area they are close to the end of their blooming season. Carpets of

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Blue Grouse Estate Vineyards, which started out as a hobby for Hans and Evangeline Klitz, is located approximately 28 miles north of Victoria on Vancouver Island in the Cowichan Valley. Hans and Evangeline along with their two children, Richard and Sandrina, pay attention to every little detail that goes into making their wines from hand-pruning and harvesting their grapes to marketing their winery. They take great pride in the fact that their vineyard is one of the founding Estate wineries of Vancouver Island.

The wines available at Blue Grouse Estate Vineyards

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Glenterra Vineyards which opened in 2000, is home to organically grown grapes. Thistles Cafe is also available for you’re dining pleasure. Thistles offers a dinner for two special each Friday night beginning in April. There is a 10% discount on wine when purchasing this dinner for two.

The wines available at Glenterra Vineyards include: 2009 Vivace, 2009 Gerurztraminer, 2007 Brio, 2007 Merlot, 2007 Pinot Gris, and 2007 Pinot Noir. Their wines can be found at many fine wine and liquor stores on Vancouver Island.

The winery is open April 2nd through September 30th, Thursday through Monday

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Venturi-Schulze Vineyards, Cobble Hill, Cowichan Valley

The vineyard, which is

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Zanatta Winery and Vineyards, located in Glenora, is four minutes southwest of Duncan in the Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island. Glenora comes from Scottish origin meaning “golden valley”, which perfectly describes the Cowichan Valley. The winery, which opened in 1990, is part of a 120 acre farm with thirty acres being dedicated to the vineyard and the remaining 90 acres consisting of hay fields, pasture, forest and old orchard trees.

Loretta Zanatta, Italian educated winemaker, and her husband, Jim Moody, also own Vinoteca on the Vineyard Restaurant and Wine Bar

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At Echo Valley Vineyards, tucked away in the breathtaking forests on Vancouver Island, the grapes are organically grown and irrigated from their own clear mountain water wells. This is truly the most virgin land in Cowichan Valley. The winery currently buys grapes from other Cowichan Valley winerys and uses their own technique to produce their wine. In the near future, as the plants mature, they will be harvesting their own grapes.

The award winning Eurpoean style wines available at Echo Valley Vineyards are: Chardonnay, Beaujolais Blanc, Gamay Noir, Beaujolais Rouge and Nouveau Gamay. They

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Merridale Estate Cidery is located on the southeast coast of Vancouver Island, about 40 minutes north of Victoria, and one hour and 20 minutes south of Nanaimo. Merridale has truly been an ongoing project for the owners, Janet Docherty and Rick Pipes. Since their purchase of the property in March, 2000, they have continued to renovate the estate with a tremendous focus on quality control. As they would renovate one part of the cidery, they would outgrow another and have had to continually update and upgrade.

In the summer of 2005,

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