My buddy Reg just started up a wine tour company called Decanted Tours, it’s worth checking out https://www.decantedtours.com/. Reg is a great guy, hilarious and knows the are like the back of his hand. You’ll have a great experience. Whatever you end up choosing I hope you have a great time!
Love this idea! I don't know when I'll be in BC, but will keep it in mind for sure.
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I spend a lot of time going to wineries in the Okanagan. Although I haven't been to all of them, I've been to most of them, and I've been to the good ones many times. If it's your first time, pick an area and visit a bunch in there. You'll want to spend a lot of time at the wineries instead of travelling. There are wineries on both sides of the lake and from 50th Parallel to Nk'Mip it's a 160 km drive. If you have one day, here is the tour I would do.
1. Platinum Bench
Start here at 10:00 am. They are also an artisan bread company and the bread is fresh out of the oven at 10:00 am. Yes, it comes out throughout the day, but this way you are guaranteed to have it fresh and not surrounded by that many people.
2. Black Hills
The best wine (in my opinion) in the Okanagan is the Black Hills Nota Bene. They have an amazing tasting room that overlooks the pool and the winery. Their Syrah and Ipso Factor are also excellent.
3. Stoneboat
I discovered this one a few years ago and I now buy more of their bottles than any other winery. That is saying something for me, as I have a 400 bottle wine cellar. They are a Pinot Noir specialist and the customer service is amazing. They are the ones who introduced me to Platinum Bench.
4. Have lunch at Miradoro Restaurant at Tinhorn Creek
It's the best view from a restaurant in Oliver and the food is excellent. Skip the Tinhorn wine. This used to be the best value of any winery around, and it wasn't close. I used to buy cases of the wine each year for parties as it was relatively cheap and good quality. Over the years the quality and customer service went down and the price went up. Then they went and introduced The Creek, which was priced at $75 per bottle. This was absurd from a winery that producing $18 bottles. They've lowered it, but I won't go back.
5. Cassini Cellars
This is a must visit for me each time I'm in town. Their Quattro and Maximus are amazing.
6. Burrowing Owl
I used to buy a lot of Burrowing Owl. I still like it and they probably produce the best group of reds. Others may have better individual bottles, but Burrowing produces so many different bottles that are all good.
Now, start heading back towards Kelowna.
7. Stag's Hollow
This is a great winery on the back side of the Skaha Lake.
8. Blasted Church
It's a good winery, with a great food truck, and excellent views. People enjoy the wine here much more than I do. It's on the way to the next stop.
9. Painted Rock
It's easily the best view of any winery in the Okanagan. It's better than Mission Hill and Cedar Creek and the wine is substantially better. I can't say enough good things about it.
10 Mission Hill
I like Mission Hill. The view are nice and some of the wine like Quatrain and Occulus are amazing. The rest of the wine is meh. It's super touristy. The restaurant has amazing views, but it's pricey. It's frustrating to order a bottle of wine from the restaurant that is five times more expensive than it is from the store 100 feet away.
Other wineries I'd include if you have more time:
Quinta Ferreira, CC Jentsch, Phatom Creek (not sure if it's open yet), French Door, Hidden Chapel, Nk'Mip, Road 13, Bench 1775
Food places that are worth the visit:
El Sabor De Marina - Mexican place on side of the road where all the Mexicans eat
Hammer's House of Hog - BBQ served in a parking lot
Places I would avoid:
-Silver Sage - Literally the worst winery I've ever been to
-Jackson Triggs - Awful wine
-Church & State - It's the most over priced wine in the Okanagan
-Poplar Grove - By far the worst customer service I've ever had. I could fill multiple pages up with how bad I think they are and all the things they have done poorly. The wine is excellent, but not worth dealing with the people.
-Cedar Creek - Beautiful views, but the wine is terrible and it's way out of the way.
-Summerhill - Same thing as Cedar Creek, but they are close to each other, so you can visit both in the same trip if you like terrible wine with great views
I only drink red wines, so my picks and suggested trip likely won't work if you are into white wines.
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It might be worth checking out your local wine stores and seeing what Okanagan wine is sold where you live. It's a bit disappointing when you come back from your trip and find some of your stash was available here. -- One Fav is the Pearl of Casaba from Crescent Hills in Penticton. It's some weird muscat grape from Hungry that isn't too common. It tastes like perfume.
Places I would avoid:
-Silver Sage - Literally the worst winery I've ever been to
It's funny, we went on a guided tour a few years ago and Sage was the last stop for the day, we were having fun, buzzed and Sage was extremely busy, we had to wait a while just to have a tasting. I thought wow this wine must be pretty great to have this place packed. At the end, none of us liked any of it.
I don't know what they're doing for a marketing job, but it's working. We won't be going back though.
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It's funny, we went on a guided tour a few years ago and Sage was the last stop for the day, we were having fun, buzzed and Sage was extremely busy, we had to wait a while just to have a tasting. I thought wow this wine must be pretty great to have this place packed. At the end, none of us liked any of it.
I don't know what they're doing for a marketing job, but it's working. We won't be going back though.
I had a similar experience. The first time I went there it was so busy we just left and went back on another trip. The wine tasted like bad jam. I didn't finish one of the samples they poured. It's very pretty to walk around, but the wine is gross. The great thing about the area is that if you don't like one, there are many more just around the corner.
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I would like to take Mrs. JBR for a wine tour in BC for her birthday in August. I’m not a frequent wine drinker or aficionado by any means.
Looking for recommendations... Kelowna vs. Victoria. Specific tours or wineries. Somewhere we can also get a hike or two in over the weekend.
Thanks.
Squiggs96 has a lot of good recommendations in his post that I would agree with, but the truth is you can't really make appropriate recommendations for an individual without knowing what your preferences are and what you're looking to get out of the wine tour experience.
I've been a lover of wine for a long time. I spent time getting my wine certs, worked as a wine editor for a huge wine media company and distributor doing blind tastings every week, judging wines in competitions and travelling for blind tasting tests etc. There is a tonne you can learn about wine that deepens the experience and changes the nature of enjoying wine and winery service, but that's most often not the right vantage point to give advice to the casual drinker from. There's a also a lot of bs in the wine world, and it's not worth taking that seriously when in reality it's just another consumer beverage and nobody is wrong for enjoying whatever it is they like to drink.
There's nothing wrong with going on a wine tour where you want the most instagramable venues, or the most entertaining experience even if the wines aren't what experts would advise you on.
So, rather than listening to advice on places to get good wine, experiences of which will vary totally depending upon individual tastes, you should just describe what your ideal wine tour experience and weekend trip is made up of, excluding the wine itself, and get advice based on that.
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Hey Squiggs, I've been to a few of those and I think your recommendations are solid from what little experience I have with wine. When the missus and I travel pass through the Okanagan on our way to other places we always make time for Platinum Bench in the morning for bread and their Merlot, then visit a few other places at more-or-less random until it's time for lunch at either Burrowing Owl or Liquidity.
If you have the time I'd be interested in a short list of where the value is at for guys like me that don't like spending above $35 per bottle. The wife and I tend to gravitate towards the fuller reds but I'm willing to follow any recommendation.
A lot of great places mentioned so far! I think Naramata and anything further south is the best bet for great wineries. Lake Country has a few good ones but the further south you go it just gets better.
I haven’t seen Road 13 from Oliver mentioned yet, absolutely fantastic wines for the money! In 2018 they were awarded best winery in Canada from wine align. They were up against over 250 wineries from across the country.
I spend a lot of time going to wineries in the Okanagan. Although I haven't been to all of them, I've been to most of them, and I've been to the good ones many times. If it's your first time, pick an area and visit a bunch in there. You'll want to spend a lot of time at the wineries instead of travelling. There are wineries on both sides of the lake and from 50th Parallel to Nk'Mip it's a 160 km drive. If you have one day, here is the tour I would do.
1. Platinum Bench
Start here at 10:00 am. They are also an artisan bread company and the bread is fresh out of the oven at 10:00 am. Yes, it comes out throughout the day, but this way you are guaranteed to have it fresh and not surrounded by that many people.
2. Black Hills
The best wine (in my opinion) in the Okanagan is the Black Hills Nota Bene. They have an amazing tasting room that overlooks the pool and the winery. Their Syrah and Ipso Factor are also excellent.
3. Stoneboat
I discovered this one a few years ago and I now buy more of their bottles than any other winery. That is saying something for me, as I have a 400 bottle wine cellar. They are a Pinot Noir specialist and the customer service is amazing. They are the ones who introduced me to Platinum Bench.
4. Have lunch at Miradoro Restaurant at Tinhorn Creek
It's the best view from a restaurant in Oliver and the food is excellent. Skip the Tinhorn wine. This used to be the best value of any winery around, and it wasn't close. I used to buy cases of the wine each year for parties as it was relatively cheap and good quality. Over the years the quality and customer service went down and the price went up. Then they went and introduced The Creek, which was priced at $75 per bottle. This was absurd from a winery that producing $18 bottles. They've lowered it, but I won't go back.
5. Cassini Cellars
This is a must visit for me each time I'm in town. Their Quattro and Maximus are amazing.
6. Burrowing Owl
I used to buy a lot of Burrowing Owl. I still like it and they probably produce the best group of reds. Others may have better individual bottles, but Burrowing produces so many different bottles that are all good.
Now, start heading back towards Kelowna.
7. Stag's Hollow
This is a great winery on the back side of the Skaha Lake.
8. Blasted Church
It's a good winery, with a great food truck, and excellent views. People enjoy the wine here much more than I do. It's on the way to the next stop.
9. Painted Rock
It's easily the best view of any winery in the Okanagan. It's better than Mission Hill and Cedar Creek and the wine is substantially better. I can't say enough good things about it.
10 Mission Hill
I like Mission Hill. The view are nice and some of the wine like Quatrain and Occulus are amazing. The rest of the wine is meh. It's super touristy. The restaurant has amazing views, but it's pricey. It's frustrating to order a bottle of wine from the restaurant that is five times more expensive than it is from the store 100 feet away.
Other wineries I'd include if you have more time:
Quinta Ferreira, CC Jentsch, Phatom Creek (not sure if it's open yet), French Door, Hidden Chapel, Nk'Mip, Road 13, Bench 1775
Food places that are worth the visit:
El Sabor De Marina - Mexican place on side of the road where all the Mexicans eat
Hammer's House of Hog - BBQ served in a parking lot
Places I would avoid:
-Silver Sage - Literally the worst winery I've ever been to
-Jackson Triggs - Awful wine
-Church & State - It's the most over priced wine in the Okanagan
-Poplar Grove - By far the worst customer service I've ever had. I could fill multiple pages up with how bad I think they are and all the things they have done poorly. The wine is excellent, but not worth dealing with the people.
-Cedar Creek - Beautiful views, but the wine is terrible and it's way out of the way.
-Summerhill - Same thing as Cedar Creek, but they are close to each other, so you can visit both in the same trip if you like terrible wine with great views
I only drink red wines, so my picks and suggested trip likely won't work if you are into white wines.
Amazing. Thank you. Your reviews are very much in line with my own experiences.
I'm in Kelowna right now and I'm going to try to follow your lineup. Love me some reds. Can't wait to get some fresh bread and some sweet, sweet BBQ!
My buddy loves the wine from Orofino. He has brought a few different bottles of red over and they've all been really good after they are properly aerated. He wanted to try every winery in the Similkameen valley/Osooyoos and Oliver by next year (and enjoy it, not rush it like a check list).
One weird aspect about one of the Orofino wine he brought over though is that we felt they took a ridiculously long time to open up. One of the bottles took over 2.5 hours. We kept sipping and swirling the decanter a little every 15 minutes or so on the side until a specific flavor dissipated. It was still very good, but the wait for it to fully open up was so worth it.
If you have the time I'd be interested in a short list of where the value is at for guys like me that don't like spending above $35 per bottle. The wife and I tend to gravitate towards the fuller reds but I'm willing to follow any recommendation.
Great request. Here is my personal list of value wines from the Okanagan, even if JohnnyB disagrees with it. I haven't tried every red there, so people may have wines to add that aren't on my list.
1. Poplar Grove - Merlot - $26. I believe this is the number one value wine in the Okanagan. It's $26 per bottle. You cannot beat the taste for the dollar amount. That said, I cannot stress to you how much I hate the people that work there. Everyone from the wine club director to the person who seats people at the Vanilla Pod restaurant are just horrific at their job. I'd rather put something else here, or leave Poplar Grove off entirely, but I don't want emotion to get involved in what is a great value wine. On a side note, there used to be a decent debate as to whether the Poplar Grove Legacy at $45 a bottle was better value than the Black Hills Nota Bene at $60 per bottle. Now that the Legacy has risen to $52 per bottle, it's not close. I believe the Nota Bene is the best wine in the Okanagan. At only $8 more per bottle than the Legacy, it's now a clearly better value.
2. Stoneboat - Gravelbar Duet - $23. This is a phenomenal winery. This particular one is excellent value. The Pinot Noir is also great at $29. I bought a case last week that had 4 of each of them in it.
3. Quinta Ferreira - Reds - $30. There are six bottles there that are $30 per bottle. The only one I don't love is the Merlot Cabernet, and some of that might be because they insist on putting the word Merlot first. The quality of their wine goes up and down. When I was first introduced to it 5-6 years ago I loved it. A couple years later I did not. 3 years ago I was back in love. The Alagria is the best of the $30 bottles and the Malbec is a close second.
4. Burrowing Owl - Merlot - $32. I love this winery. This one has been a favourite of mine for 12 years. I would have included others on this list, but their prices have bumped up over the last few years.
5. Platinum Bench - Mur-Fi's Red - $32. Goes better with fresh bread, but still delicious on its own.
6. Road 13 - Seventy-Four K - $26. This was formerly called Rockpile I've been a member of the Road 13 wine club for 10 years. There customer service is amazing and their member's tasting room is excellent. I spent Canada Day 2017 at their winery. My only issue with Road 13 is they make too many wines. This leads to great differences in quality year over year. The 74K is fairly consistent. The rest definitely needs to be sampled before purchasing. The Honest John's Red is (was?) $20. I'm not sure they make it anymore. It used to be tremendous value that they used to hook you. I'm not sure if they make it anymore. When I used to buy it the price was $16 and Mick (owner) wanted to keep it that price forever. He said he'd just add the price to other bottles in order to keep that one low. I don't think this has happened.
7. CC Jentsch - The Chase - $23. A great value Bordeaux style blend. If you are ever here, ask if Larry is working. If he is, tell him Squiggy sent you and you'll get the VIP treatment. The rest of their wines are priced a little steep, but this one is worth it.
8. Stag's Hollow - Syrah - $27. I bought this one last week on my way through. It was well worth the trip. the Tempranillo at $26 is also excellent.
9. Sandhill - Cab Merlot - $20. Is it the greatest wine ever? No. Is it worth $20? Heck yes. Of all the $20 bottles out there in BC, I'd say this is my favourite.
10. Bench 1775 - Merlot - $28. They've got a lot of bottles under $35. This is my favourite.
Yo, i grew up in Osoyoos and live in Kelowna working in the industry. If you want reds, go down to Osoyoos/ Oliver and check out Burrowing owl, Culmina, Moon Curser, Tinhorn Creek. If you like aromatic whites and roses work your way to Kelowna and Lake Country. Summerhill is solid for traditional sparkling as is Vibrant Vines & Blue Mountain In OK falls if they have stock.
Great request. Here is my personal list of value wines from the Okanagan, even if JohnnyB disagrees with it. I haven't tried every red there, so people may have wines to add that aren't on my list.
......
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I hope you didn't take offense at my last post. I certainly didn't mean any. You've recommended a few wines in your posts that I haven't tried before but will now from the recommendation.
My point was just that in planning a wine tour for somebody it's better to plan around the non-wine components of the experience, such as how far to drive, or being able to bike between places, seating outdoors with lake vista, tolerance for being out in the heat, budget, interest in hearing the nitty gritty details of the wine or just wanting to have fun, get great pics and have good stories or winery names to drop afterwards etc. The combination of those things is going to end up mattering more to most people than tasting the perfect wines.
JBR said himself that he's not that into wine, so just planning a great day with good experiences seems more important. Also, you can pick up any bottle at a wine shop while in the valley without going on a tour, so it's better to plan a tour for the overall experience rather than the wine itself. Discussing best wines in the valley is just a different conversation than the one I think he asked for.
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Yo, i grew up in Osoyoos and live in Kelowna working in the industry. If you want reds, go down to Osoyoos/ Oliver and check out Burrowing owl, Culmina, Moon Curser, Tinhorn Creek. If you like aromatic whites and roses work your way to Kelowna and Lake Country. Summerhill is solid for traditional sparkling as is Vibrant Vines & Blue Mountain In OK falls if they have stock.
Don't think anyone else has mentioned them yet, but I'm with you on really enjoying their reds.
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Squiggs, great recommendations especially black hills and road 13.
Only things I would add would be a few more specifics on Naramata...
naramata during the day has really great cycling and hiking opportunities, plus lake time on Manitou beach. There is a reinvention of the old naramata inn and a new rustic adventure-resort on the top of the hill at chute lake lodge... really wanted to check them out this year.
But get a B&B in the area. We used to go to Apple D’or which is now Bench d’or and I will admit it used to be better before but the property is still amazing. There are more offerings in the area now.
The upper bench has so many classics like Nichol, La Frenz, laughing stock, hillside... elephant island is charming as hell with its fruit wines and a really sad story about a lost son the couple still honours today. My absolute favourite in recent years was Lock and Worth. They’re a brainchild of the guys at Nichol and they basically never make the same thing twice, super luxe. They’re sited with poplar grove cheese (not affiliated with poplar grove winery) and the cheese alone is worth the trip. So many little spots now worth going into. I’d stay away from poplar grove, red rooster, therapy (old red rooster)...
I’ve had too many perfect days in Naramata. You could wake up, go for a bike ride/swim. Clean up. Go to the grocery store or pentiction farmers market and get a bunch of charcuterie and cheese. Get your missus a bouquet from Lisa Lang, or even book a visit to her garden if you can’t see her at the market. Go fruit picking or hike up Munson and picnic the snacks. Rest up, clean up. Wine taste in the afternoon. Have dinner at hillside. Go to legend distillery and have them invent and name a cocktail after you. Skinny dip at manitou. Hot tub overlooking the lake and stars. Repeat!
There are several great gems in the OK Falls - Osyosoos area. I loved black hills, and agree the note Bene is a beast. I like burrowing owls wines but found the place bland and sterile. Road 13 is totally underrated with a great dining area. I’d stay away from blasted church personally.
In Kelowna there are some great finds like The Hatch and Rollingdale along with the many named classics. Dirty laundry is worth a drive to, it has a burlesque theme that women love and it has a great patio. Bottleneck drive is fun in general.
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