Are you ready for the Okanagan Fall Wine Festival?

PENTICTON – The 39th annual Okanagan Wine Festival gets underway next week with 10 days of wine tastings, live music, food pairings and sommelier battles throughout the valley.

From Kamloops through the Okanagan to the Similkameen, vineyards and wineries will be hosting special events as this year’s grape harvest wraps up.

This year’s wine festival, which runs from Oct. 3 to 13, includes more than 80 events, from the Lieutenant Governor’s Wine Awards and Reception at Kelowna’s Laurel Packinghouse on Oct. 3 to a Thanksgiving dinner at Hillside Winery on Oct. 13.

You can try stomping on grapes at the House of Rose Winery in Kelowna or take in Astronomical Wine and Skygazing at the Rollingdale Winery in West Kelowna.

Dozens of South Okanagan wineries are offering unique events from Wild Goose Vineyards’ Meat Stock in Okanagan Falls to the eighth annual Garlic Festival at Hester Creek Estate Winery in Oliver.

This year’s new fall festival event, Sensation, is already more than 50 per cent sold out. The wine, culture and food experience takes place Oct. 12 at the Penticton Lakeside Resort and Conference Centre.

A calendar of events during the wine festival can be found at this website.

See this webpage for the full wine festival guide.

To contact a reporter for this story, email Steve Arstad or call 250-488-3065 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.

We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above.