wine touring in bc

OK Wine Tasting

wine tasting in the naramata bench

[trip style = wine tasting]

This past weekend, en route to Kelowna, my husband I got to do something we've wanted to do for a long time: taste wine in the Okanagan---the OK for short. Wine touring in Canada's second largest wine producing region wasn't just ok, it was fantastic, relaxing and picturesque. 

After downloading 3 BC-related wine tasting apps, we hit the road at 8.15am with Tim Horton's coffee and carbs in-hand, and my sister's mix-CD blaring in the background. Five hours later we were lunching al fresco before sipping the region's best varietals.

We didn't have much time, so we selected 4 wineries in the Naramata Bench: Hillside Estate (where we lunched at their bistro and sipped in their tasting room),  Therapy (my fave winery), Laughing Stock or LFNG (good wines, cool vibe) and Mission Hill (check out the Reserve Concert Series). All the wines we tasted were great, which made me wonder if my palate was failing me, yet when visiting one of the region's bigger wineries at the end of the weekend, none of the wines appealed to me. Problem solved. The Naramata wineries were that good.

hillside estate winery

Pictures {Hillside Estate Winery}

hillside estate's eating area

{Area just beside Hillside's outdoor bistro}

guesthouse at therapy vinyards

{Guesthouse entrance at Therapy Vineyards}

therapy vinyards

{Inside the tasting room at Therapy}

Mission Hill

{Mission Hill's outdoor dining terrace}

mission hill reserve tasting room

{The reserve tasting salon at Mission Hill}

Trip Styler Tip: skip the vast and busy tasting bars and opt for a vertical of the reserve wines in the salon

mission hill grounds

{Stunning grounds at Mission Hill}

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Travel Apps :: Wine Touring in BC

Travel Apps :: Wine Touring in BC

wine touring smartphone resources

During the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, Tourism BC launched a new app: Near Me BC.  I profiled the app at the time, but other than frequent visits to Whistler and a weekend in Vernon at Sparkling Hill Resort, I haven't needed to use the app much until this past weekend.  Prior to lounging in Kelowna for the long weekend, my husband and I spent Friday doing something that's been on our travel to do list for a long time: wine touring in BC! After Ontario, BC is Canada's second largest wine region, so we're attempting to chip away at wineries slowly---similar to how you'd drink an aged red:) With this in mind, we chose to start in the Naramata Bench near Penticton.

Since I'm a little travel app obsessed, here are some of tools to help navigate BC's wineries:

Near Me BC
Type: iPhone/iTouch/iPad app
Description: Use this app to plan your wine tour by selecting the area > attractions for a list of wineries.
Cost: Free

Wine Tripper BC
Type: iPhone/iTouch/iPad app
Description: Find wineries in the region you want to tour, view hours, make notes, mark favourites and more.
Cost: $2.99

Nat Decants
Type: iPhone/iTouch/iPad app, Blackberry, Android, Nokia
Description: The maven of wine has an app for that.  Search by country and area to view wineries, pairings, reviews and more.
Cost: Free

Google Maps
Type: website
Description: Here's a tip on how to use Google maps for wine touring: Enter in your location, then enter "wineries" and the map will show wineries in the region you initially searched.
Cost: Free

Other Travel Apps we’ve Reviewed