SMOKE ON THE WHISKY
If there is a smoky air to some Okanagan whiskies, it’s not peat reek. For the past five summers, the 110-mile-long string of distilleries near the sliver of water called Okanagan Lake has witnessed blazing destruction in large tracts of nearby forest. In Vernon, British Columbia (BC), smoke clouds from the wildfires hung so low they drifted straight through the doors of Okanagan Spirits Craft Distillery.
Then, in 2021, a climate change-induced heat dome sent typically balmy summer temperatures soaring to 50°C, bringing a flash-point mob of wilting angels to guzzle maturing spirits. However, as serious as this sounds, don’t let it extinguish your dreams of touring the Okanagan Whisky Trail.
“The Okanagan is the Puerta Vallarta of summer,” as distiller Tyler Dyck tells it. Just a four-and-a-half-hour drive from Vancouver, the narrow, 80-mile long lake
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