Checked out Observatory Wines & Summerland Estate Winery. We met the winemaker, Blair, who's…read morelooking to bring grüner veltliner into the spotlight. Tastings are $10.00/person for four pours. Bottles are $27.00 to $35.00. Our tasting fee was waived, potentially because we bought a bottle. - 2024 Bubble telescope - nice, easy drinking bubbly. Similar to a ruby grapefruit - 2022 Grüner veltliner - lighter bodied, slightly dry - 2023 Grüner veltliner ($27.00) - completely different than the 2022. More body, mouth feel - 2020 Observatory red

Relatively newly opened store just across the parking lot from its old location. This new store is…read morefar larger, with a much larger range of beers, wines and spirits, from the cheap & cheerful to more higher end stuff. There's walls of many, many fridges keeping beer and white wines cold. In fact my one complaint would be that there were no shelves with white wine that wasn't stored in fridges. As a tourist town, many folk may want to buy wine to pack in their suitcases to take home, and not having it form condensation in the case would be handy. A minor point some may feel, but still one that got my attention. The store charges 10c for either plastic or paper bags, so you need to bring your own carrier if you don't want to pay these extra charges.

When a winery holds tastes by appointment only I typically am dissuaded to visit. However my love…read moreof Laughing Stock broke this rule. A lovely private tasting hosted with great knowledge and friendliness. The story behind this vineyard is far better explained in person. Blind trust red and white, pinot gris and of course the Portfolio have all accompanied me home from this visit. Anyone that visits be sure to play the blind trust game! Their website is also extremely well done.

When two successful financial consultants give it all up to buy a winery and take a vow of poverty,…read morewhat do you get? Laughing Stock. It's clever, it's a great story, and they try every day not to live up to the name. Critics agree they're succeeding! The Pinot Gris is a good place to start -- it's affordable at $19.90 and has a great fruit taste, but it's not too simple. Step it up and try their Portfolio ($38.90), a big red blend that hits all the right marks with me. We didn't get the warmest reception, but we appeared in their tasting room right before closing time. The tasting room is modern and minimal with an amazing view of the valley and lake. It's a beautiful place to visit and shouldn't be missed in your Naramata Bench tour!

Friendly service, affordable prices, beautiful views, amazing wine!!! If you are a red wine…read moredrinking come here! No food or patio, very basic, but sometimes it's just about the wine. Parking is available. Some amazing views that make for great photos! I bought 4 bottles for $100. They don't have a wine club, but you can sign up with your email and they contact you when they are ready to ship out wine. They only ship 5 times a year, but you can order whatever you want in your case (mixed). I love their Merlot!!!! Give it shot!

Wine slushies. Five stars right there!!! Yup, in the summer you can grab a refreshing slush drink…read morewith wine in it. It's the best idea ever. It's totally worth the few wrong turns you are bound to take when you try to locate their winery. It's pretty much at the very end of the Naramata Bench road, then you go down, down, and around in the direction of the lake, then you end up on an even smaller road. Just when you think you're about to drive through a vineyard, Kettle Valley Winery appears. The tasting room is in the garage of the house. They've dressed it up and it's pretty cute. You are usually allowed to taste just two wines, so choose carefully! There's a lot of good stuff from this shop. I'm a big fan of pretty much every red I've tried of theirs. You can easily fill a case. They have a small wine shop, so if you're in a groups of eight or more call ahead and make an appointment.

Random winery along the side of Highway 97, just N of Kaleden. Decided to make a pit stop…read more Parking is plentiful in the lot in front of the storefront. Building is basically a wine store. Staff were friendly and helpful. The place specializes in fruit wine. When buddy and I went, there was a bulk discount. Guessing it was because it was the end of season. Only 1 thing to do in this situation. I tried both the cherry and peach wines. Pretty solid stuff. Keep in mind that these are fruit wines and therefore are sweeter than conventional white wines. I gave some bottles to my wino friends and all of them really liked the product as well. Worth stopping by if one needs to load up on wine while in the area.

This winery produces amazing a unique wines - there is something here for all tastes. I have picked…read moreup so many cases over the years. Makes great presents. Currently, they have a $88 case: 1 OK Red Blend, 1 Cherry Merlot, 1 Oak Cherry, 1 Red Plum, 1 Peach, 2 Bartlet Pear, 1 Strawberry, 2 OK White Blend, 1 Dry Cherry, 1 Offdry Cherry. YUMMY!

Like both expensive and cheap wines, I'll try to squeeze all the goodness I can out of this review…read more The difficulty comes not from the location being inferior in any way, only that it's so unfortunately average. Deep Roots is the equivalent of Proxima Centauri. Yes, I'm talking about the red dwarf 4.24 light years away that recently came under focus after the discovery of potentially habitable planets and I forgot this is a wine review, and none of you care. The point is that Proxima is a small member of a star system (like that drummer with no beard in ZZ Top ironically actually named Frank Beard) that also containing two brighter stars like our own (the Alphas, or if you prefer, Billy and Dusty). Given their luminosity, it is impossible to perceive Proxima unless you have a good telescope and squint really, really hard. Brighter neighbors similarly overwhelm Deep Roots, and brighter not because of size, but more from originality and overall appeal. On its own, Deep Roots has a great name with a matching impressive logo. It's easy to reach with ample parking, and has a deceivingly simple exterior leading into a cozy if not (more appropriately) intimate tasting room. Read between the lines, it's small. My girlfriend and I were on vacation through Okanagan wine country. Over six days, we visited sixty wineries. That's sixty wineries, not an exaggeration. We ended the trip with 120 bottles acquired. Alas, none were from Deep Roots. We tried, taking in their offered samples, but despite the amazing view of the lake (which you can find at nearly all the wineries), we found little noteworthy with Deep Roots. I mean seriously, I took video and photos, and had to reference them to pull whatever I could into this review. It's shocking considering the winery's history--supposedly, Deep Roots is called that because it's one of the oldest in the region, tracking back several generations of the same family. And there are claims they sell a great Syrah, and everyone should please give them a chance because no two palettes are the same. I adore Silver Sage so don't take my taste buds as gospel. We only tried them because my girlfriend and I practically had to avoid them while finding the entrance to the more interesting Elephant Island around the corner. And yes, I just said the fruit winery that resembles a hippie commune is more interesting than the classic winery with a corkscrew symbol. But did we regret our visit? Absolutely not...the whole point of visiting regions like Naramata is to be spontaneous, to go where you weren't expecting. I can find Hillside and Therapy wines anywhere in the province. Deep Roots was not on the agenda--we rolled down the hill, forgot to brake and stumbled into a winery. Only in Naramata can that happen, and Deep Roots is worth a try for no other reason. However, if you are one of those insisting on planning every moment of a journey (Mom), than Deep Roots may not be high on your list.

We came up to Penticton for the car show and my club made this one of our tasting stops. Almost…read moreeverybody picked this as their favourite stop both for the wine and great attention we received from the staff. I should also mention this is not my first time here and have been stocking up, by the case, on their wines since they opened four years ago. Right now their whites are dialled right in and ready to drink. I prefer letting their reds age but really 4-6 months in the bottle and they are amazing.

Back for our annual visit to Dominion Cider. Tastings are still $5.00 waived with purchase; magic…read morehour, three experimental flavours and two apple sodas. Their sodas (plum & sage, ginger & peach, lavender & vanilla, cucumber & lime) were refreshing. Bought several experimental series bottles; once and future (perry with quince), times like these (cider with sauv blanc and apricot) and bright young things (perry with crab apples) along with halcyon days with rhubarb ($6.25) and a 4-pack apple sodas ($20.00).

Always a good time when we stop into Dominion Cider to see what's new…read more Tastings are now charged (for 4 pours) but the fee is waived with purchase. Our pourer was super friendly and bubbly. We were given two bonus pours of their experiments series. Bottles are $20.00 and a 4-pack is $24.00 (tax included). - April in Paris - winesap single variety. - Nom de plume - off dry, plum was very subtle. - All that glitters - tang of nectarine comes through and smelled heavenly. We bought a bottle ($20.00) for home). - Hope springs eternal - peaches, smoother than the nectarine. - Times like these - kveik fermented cider. A beer cider hybrid. - Castles in the sky - super delicious. They use grapes from Lightning Rock. We also bought a bottle ($20.00). Definitely check them out if you're a fan of craft ciders.

This place is beautiful! You can see the crop and the stone patio where you can dine as soon as you…read moredrive in. We did not eat but it looked damn good. The wine tasting was good and we did end up buying a bottle but it was the customer service that was amazing. We thought we left our credit card at one of the earlier wineries and the lady doing the tasting was about to be on the phone to help asap. We did find it but I was impressed how fast and friendly the help was!! Also if you buy a bottle you get your flight cost removed from it. They have a tasting teaching you how to pair wines as well, which could be cool! Place is worth a stop!!

From the minute we drove onto the property, I fell in love with Serendipity Winery. The aesthetic…read moreof the building makes it feel like you're driving into a Napa vineyard in the heart of Naramata. You won't be paying Napa prices, though! All the wines we tasted were absolutely delicious as well. There's a reason why they have medals and awards stacked upon their winning wine bottles in the tasting room. Probably my favorite wines we tasted during our vacation. The gentleman who lead us through our tasting was lovely. We didn't feel rushed and we loved that the tasting room overlooked the vineyard. Can't wait to come back and try out the food menu. Free parking in the dirt lot. We showed up without a reso and were accommodated almost immediately for a tasting.