Heart Wine Country

When you travel to beautiful British Columbia, most people will visit Vancouver. You would probably go downtown, visit the sandy beaches, bike ride around the sea wall, walk through Stanley park, cross the Capilano bridge, shop at our large Metrotown shopping mall, take pictures of the Olympic torch but one thing that you must do is take a 3.5 hour drive into the Okanagan.

Fresh fruits, sunny weather, beautiful lake, nice people and most of all, the Wineries!! We take time each year in the summer for a trip into the Okanagan. Whether it's camping, cabin-ing, or just feel like driving for 3 hours to eat, we always find ourselves bringing home some wine. There are 120 wineries in the Okanagan. all ranging from luxurious establishments to small family owned wineries. There are wine routes everywhere its not easy to miss. Even though we've been to the Okanagan so many times, we still haven't visited all the wineries. We've been to Mission Hill, Quail's Gate, Jackson Triggs, Nk'Mip, Dirty Laundry, Rollingdale and Mt. Boucherie. Our most recent trip back to Kelowna as the weekend of Aug 5th. We didn't visit any new wineries, just went back to our 2 favorities; Mission Hill and Rollingdale.

Mission Hill is atop at the highest point of the Mission Hill. It is a luxurious estate winery, beautiful views and a very tall clock tower that can be seen from a far. They have a fantastic wine tour that teaches you the art of enjoying wine, the mission hill facilities and tour which includes a trip down to their wine cellars and a video about how Anthony von Mandl created this beautiful winery.

The winery also has a Terrace restaurant that looks over the beautiful Okanagan lake. Like all wineries, there is a wine shop and a private tasting room. We didn't buy any wines from Mission Hill this year, but they have a 2010 Five Vineyards Rose (70% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Franc, 10% Shiraz) that I'd like to try.

Rollingdale is a much smaller winery compared to Mission Hill. But this small winery sure stands out to us. Rollingdale is 100% family-owned and operated and is located in West Kelowna (West Bank). Unlike Mission Hill, Rollingdale does not have fancy scenery or educational tours. When you first arrive at the farm-gated winery, you walk in to a giant fridge. Inside you find the wine store manager and wines on shelves. If you are lucky, you may run into the store owner like we did 2 years ago to give us a brief history and walk around of this winery. This trip we bought a 2007 Estate Pinot Grigio and two bottles of the 2007 Pinot Noir icewines (A mix of apricots and strawberries flavours. Creamy texture with zippy acidity// Bronze Medal Winner, 2009 Grand Harvest Awards, Vineyard & Winery Management Magazine). Excellent!