Destination BC, Andrew Strain
Cedar Creek Estate Winery
Walking through the vineyard at Cedar Creek Estate Winery, Kelowna, BC
Words by Cassandra Redding
What do you do when you want to go wine touring but you've left it too late to book? You build your own.
BC's Okanagan wine region, with its lush vineyards and picturesque views, stretches over 250 kilometres, and offers a wide range of varietals from clean crisp whites to warm juicy reds. With more than 200 wineries to choose from, including family-run boutique vineyards to world-class, award-winning wine operations, there really is a wine for everyone. One of the best ways to find your favourites is by touring with a group of friends.
In early summer I decided that I wanted to go wine touring for my birthday with my many wine drinking friends, but unfortunately, I decided on this idea just a little too late. Summer is prime season for wine touring, thus many of the guided tours were booked up. However, where there's a woman wanting wine, there's a way. Not wanting to see his damsel in distress, my guy went online, rented a passenger van, found a designated driver and rallied the troops.
If you are smarter than us, and think further ahead, there are many Okanagan wine tours to choose from - Okanagan Wine Country Tours, Red Dog Wine Tours, Vines and Views Wine Tours, Grape Escapes, Landsea Okanagan Tours & Charters, Top Cat Tours and Charters, Uncorked Okanagan Wine Tours, MJO Tours, Heart and Sol Tours Inc, Grape Friends Lounge and Tours, and Wicked Wine Tours all have great reviews.
Many of the guided tours offer water, snacks, and even lunch (we brought our own case of water and some survival chips). Some tours even include an accommodation pick up/drop off and cover the tasting fees. Do a little research and you will be sure to find the package that suits you and your group best.
If you are on a self-guided tour, like us, it is best to focus on a specific area of the Okanagan. There's really only so much wine you can or should taste in a day. Yes, you can sip and spit - but we aren't professionals and we were in it for the love of drinking the wine. We decided to focus on the East Kelowna bench region and 4 wineries; CedarCreek, Tantalus, Vibrant Vines and Kitsch.
Our first stop of the day was CedarCreek Winery. After an hour of driving from Vernon, through the Mission area of Kelowna, and along Lakeshore Road, we were eager for our first tasting. CedarCreek is one of the larger wineries in the area and with production dating back to 1987, they really do seem to know what they are doing. After squeezing our way to the tasting bar, a friendly gentleman offered our group of seven four different tastings for $8.00. Like many of the wineries, CedarCreek waives this fee if you decide to buy a bottle. The winery is known for their Pinot Noir, their Gewurztraminers, and the Rieslings. Our favourite was the 2014 Platinum Desert Ridge Meritage, which we included in our purchases, dissolving that wine fee quite quickly. (Start the car!) CedarCreek also offers informative tours of their vineyards and cellars, but you really need to book ahead. Next time.
5445 LAKESHORE ROAD, KELOWNA.
Cassandra Redding
CedarCreek Winery
Back on the road, with a quick search on Google Maps, we made our way to Tantalus. For a $5.00 tasting fee, our offerings included rosé and two kinds of bubbles. Bubbles always feel like a celebration and the enthusiastic, as well as, knowledgeable staff were a welcome addition to our happy day.
It's one thing to visit a winery to try some good (and sometimes not so good) wines from the region, but it's something even more special to learn about the place where you're standing and sipping.
1670 DEHART ROAD, KELOWNA.
Lionel Trudel
Tantalus
Our next destination was the Vibrant Vine winery. This is a super lively and fun place - as soon as we arrived we were handed 3D glasses and told that the winery is "the only 3D winery in the world." Indeed, it was. As we walked around the colourful store wearing our glasses, pretty much everything jumped out at us - including the art prints, the murals, the t-shirts, and even the bottle labels. After roaming the store, our handheld buzzer told us it was our turn at the tasting bar. For $6.00 we were offered 5 different tastings, including a taste of their famous Woops wine, aptly named after an employee mistakenly applied hundreds of labels upside down before anyone noticed. The wine went on to win the "Best White Wine in the World" Beverage Competition in Geneva, Switzerland in 2013.
3240 POOLEY ROAD, KELOWNA
Part of the gang at Vibrant Vine Winery
We had time for one last stop before our dinner reservations and learned from the Vibrant staff that Kitsch winery was nearby. Being a newer winery, none of our party was sure what to expect and we were all quite stunned by the entrance - it's a beautiful home (estate mansion) with stunning views of the impressive plateau in northeast Kelowna and the southern sights over the city. After oohing and ahhing over the scenery, we made around back to the tasting room. With a cheerful greeting from the super approachable staff, we soon learned about the owners' interesting entrepreneurial background. Trent and Ria Kitsch previously developed the famous SAXX underwear brand and selling the company helped them to pursue their Okanagan dream of planting grape vines and starting the winery. The wines were just as endearing as the story and the staff. For $10 (the priciest tasting) we tried 6 wines; 5 white and 1 red since Kitsch is a predominantly white vineyard. We all left with our favourite bottle, so the tasting fee really became moot.
3330 NEID ROAD, KELOWNA
1 of 3
Front Entry to Kitsch
2 of 3
Love my Tribe
3 of 3
Bird’s Nest view at Kitsch
Although no one in our group was an expert, we were not exactly novice wine drinkers either, but at the end of the day we all felt like we learned something new:
Remember that wine tasting should go from dry to sweet. Don't start with a dessert wine (unless of course, that's the only wine you like.) Ask plenty of questions, even if the answer seems obvious. I am not sure if it's just Kelowna, or because they work at a winery, but all 5 wineries had super friendly and helpful staff, who loved sharing their history and their wine backgrounds. Lastly, try it all. We saw lots of people coming up saying they didn't drink white or they didn't like bubbles or they found reds too dry – but if you're not trying everything, you might miss out on discovering that you actually like a different type of wine than you thought.
We also learned that you definitely don't need a guided tour to have an excellent time wine touring – but you sure do need that designated driver.