Located at the northern tip of the Sonoran Desert, with scorching mid-summer temperatures, the rugged bench was thought to be good for little more than growing scrub and grazing cattle in the early 1900s.
Laid down by a glacial-era lake, the bench is made of sand. Water drains quickly and vines are forced to send roots deep into the subsoil for water and nutrients. Instead of expending energy on foliage
There’s not much precipitation either. Receiving an average rainfall of less than 20 centimetres per year, the area is Canada’s only “pocket desert” — part of the Great Basin Desert, connected to the network of deserts that extend southward to the Sonoran Desert in Mexico.
Most unusual in a desert region though, is the light; the Okanagan gets more hours of sunlight than any other growing region in North America.