A Wine Worth Running For

After months of anticipation, the weekend for the ½ Corked (Half) Marathon had finally arrived. Both Mr. Cool and I were having hectic weeks at work but we managed to off-load enough of our files to sneak out of our respective offices by noon and hit the road. Luckily, the highways were clear enough that we made our way to the sunny Okanagan in time to pick up our race packages for the big run.

We were joining forces with a phalanx of runners for Primavera - the pasta-loading party thrown by the Oliver Osoyoos Wine Association - in the evening but I figured we had plenty of time to settle into our digs before we needed to leave. The Mimster had arranged for accommodation in Osoyoos and I wanted to go through the information package and show Mr. Cool all the goodies I'd rounded up for our race outfits.

And, lo and behold, foremost among the registration goodies was a bottle of event-branded wine! Unavailable, except to those participating in the run, this is one of those special bottles that speak to me as a bona fide wine geek. It was going to be fun adding this bottle to The List.

I figured Primavera would just be a buffet, eat when you like affair. Ooops. When we arrived at Church and State - the winery hosting the dinner - we saw that it was a sit down, catered affair and that we were among the last to arrive. Fortunately, we found three plum seats together and managed to  show up in time before the first course.

We'd missed a bit of a reception that featured wines from the Association's member wineries but we still managed to scoop a couple of glasses of interesting wine as everything was being finalized for dinner. Considering most of the diners were going to be running in the morning, there was an awful lot of wine being poured.

1615.  ½ Corked Blend (Okanagan Valley)

The primary wine accompanying our Joy Road dinner was the race-branded wine that we'd received in our registration package. I haven't been able to find out much information about this year's vintage of the ½ Corked Blend but I understand that Tim Martiniuk of Stoneboat Vineyards spearheaded the effort. Each of the Association's member wineries contributed wine from their cellars to produce the "rare blend of 31 premium red wines." I don't know what the make-up of the blend was but, given the who's who of member wineries and the reputation of the region for producing the biggest red wines in the province, this was no shrinking violet of a BC red.

Full of dark fruit and earthy notes, it went down easily with the Spaghetti Bolognese and Baked Pesto Pasta being served to all the prospective runners. There didn't seem to be any end in sight for either food nor wine but all good things eventually come to an end. Mr. Cool and I both determined that, with a half marathon to run in the morning, we were better off behaving ourselves and making an "early" night of it.

Besides, I was rather sure that there wasn't going to be any shortage of wine during the next day's activities.

So, we bid adieu to our dining mates - and, new drinking pals - Peaches and Coco. The two ladies just happened to be sitting next to us and we simply seemed to click - sharing more than our share of laughs through the evening. I can't say that I recall having as much fun discussing endless orgasms and the perils of dating younger men with complete strangers before.

Call me crazy, but it might have been the wine. And, with a promise to keep an eye open for them during the race, we called it a night.