John McEwen and Rosalie Elliott recently became grape growers by default.
The Vancouver couple, self-described "foodies" who fell in love with the Okanagan Valley five years ago, had no intention of joining the berry-farming brigade when they drew up plans to build an Asian-inspired home here on a vine-strewn ridge north of Penticton.
But as they prepared for the groundbreaking planned for this month, they discovered that a neighbour - a winemaker for a nearby estate - had miscalculated the property line and unwittingly planted rows on their little patch of heaven.
Their response wasn't exactly anger.
"We said, 'Fine, go for it, just give us a case of wine every year,' " Mr. McEwen, 56, recalled with a laugh.
Vines and wine, after all, are why he and his wife decided to build a home in Naramata.
"The attraction of living literally amongst vineyards and orchards is powerful, since we live in a large city, but knowing that we don't have to actually work in them is a great draw," said Mr. McEwen, co-chief executive officer of Discovery Capital, a venture capital firm.
"At harvest, it's gorgeous."
Across North America, Bacchanalian baby boomers are feeling the tug of wine's proverbial terroir. Echoing the migration of golf enthusiasts to planned fairway communities and skiers to mountainside resorts, they're taking up residence as close as zoning and their budgets will allow to prized vineyards.
Mr. McEwen, whose property overlooks the distinguished syrah producer Nichol Vineyard, among other wine makers, said his intention is to downscale in Vancouver and spend the bulk of his time in the country, where he will have the luxury of connecting remotely to the main office.
Meanwhile, Ms. Elliott, a retired dental hygienist who grew up in Saskatchewan, has already started to reconnect with rural life, trading in her car for a pickup.
Mr. McEwen jokes he'd like to equip it with a wine rack instead of the more typical backwoods truck accessory, a gun rack.
"It's rather handy having 18 wineries within three minutes of our doorstep," said Mr. McEwen, who hopes to complete the house, to be decorated with Balinese furniture and artifacts collected on their many travels, within 18 months.
"We won't need as big a wine cellar as in town, which is now full of Okanagan wine anyway."
In the United States, wine pilgrims have been flocking to planned vineyard communities in Washington, California and New York as well as to such unlikely grape-growing states as Idaho, Texas, Arizona and Ohio. (Napa Valley, California's most vaunted wine region, remains a fairly strict agricultural preserve and is not generally open to private developments among the vines.)
And while some new row-house developments in Ontario's Niagara region boast "vineyard views," the Okanagan, because of its unparalleled vistas and relatively liberal zoning laws, is the scene of the biggest oeno-migration in Canada.
One of the most spectacular developments is Greata Ranch, a planned 40-acre residential project surrounded by an additional 40 acres of vines on the shores of Okanagan Lake, between Peachland and Summerland.
A partnership between CedarCreek Estate Winery of Kelowna and developer Concord Pacific, it will feature about 400 homes, from townhouse-style dwellings to condo-style units.
The project's "vineyard living" motto is no overstatement. It will feature a 20-room "wine lodge," which can be booked for special events, as well as a high-end restaurant and a full-blown winery capable of turning out 10,000 cases a year from the surrounding vineyards.
Residents will get first dibs on membership in a wine club that will enable them, among other things, to pitch in with pruning and harvesting. In return, they'll get to buy discounted, special-edition wine emblazoned with their own names.
"At the end of the day, you'll be able to show off, pull out your special Greata Ranch reserve wine," said Gordon Fitzpatrick, CedarCreek's president.
Mr. Fitzpatrick says the sales process has only just begun but that he has already received 4,200 expressions of interest for the units, which range in price from about $450,000 to more than $2-million.
At some new leisure-themed developments, which tend to fetch premium prices because of the perceived prestige of living among the vines, the golf lifestyle co-exists with the grape.
Further south, near the Washington border, is a partly completed multiphase project called Spirit Ridge. The luxury vineyard resort in Osoyoos, developed by Bellstar Hotels & Resorts, features residential and rental units, vineyard and lake views, and a golf course.
Calgary-based Bellstar also is a partner in the Oliver Wine Village project announced in this fall. The 3.6-acre waterfront development will feature condominiums, a hotel, spa, restaurant and culinary-arts and wine education centre.
Also partly built is The Rise, a $1-billion, 1,210-unit community in Vernon incorporating a golf course designed by Masters champion Fred Couples. But that other assiduously manicured landscape - the vineyard - is expected to be The Rise's central appeal. Once completed, the project will include a wine club similar to that at Greata Ranch, producing wine from more than 20 acres of adjacent vines, five acres of which have already been planted.
"There's such a calming effect from the vineyards," said Leona Snider, The Rise's president and CEO. "You just calm down. They're orderly. There's just something about a vineyard that makes me feel okay. I'm okay today."
Another big draw to vineyard living is the constant access to the back gates of boutique estates that often sell out of expensive, limited-release vintages.
"Most of the wineries have cellar clubs, so you can become a member and get their private reserve wines" that aren't available to other customers, said Laureen Redman, who with her husband, Jerry, last month moved into a ranch-style house overlooking St. Hubertus, CedarCreek and Summerhill wineries, about 10 kilometres south of downtown Kelowna.
An independent consultant, she said the couple, both wine buffs in their mid-40s who previously lived in the area but slightly farther from the vineyards, are building a 15-by-20-foot wine cellar that they plan to stock mostly with Okanagan wines.
The wine tastes better when you can soak in the soothing vineyard views, she added. "Maybe savour is the right word."