One of our favourite summer getaways that we’ve been doing for a few years now is going to visit wineries in the Okanagan! We love the Naramata Bench (a 10-minute drive from Penticton) – it’s gorgeous, packed with wineries, and such a fun place to spend a weekend!
The last two years we’ve stayed at a big house with a group of friends, and then rented a shuttle bus to take us from one winery to the next. It’s the perfect way to get to enjoy all the wineries! I think we’ve been to close to 20 wineries in the region – haha there are just so many. So I’ve narrowed it down to my 12 favourite Naramata wineries for you to check out 🙂 Happy wine touring!
Naramata Wineries:
1. Poplar Grove
This is where we’ve had lunch during our day-long wine tours, and it was great both times! The view from the restaurant patio and winery is spectacular, and the food is great too! This past summer I picked up a wonderful late harvest white blend – the most delicious, sweet wine.
2. Ruby Blues
A quirky, fun winery with a Volkswagen van in the parking lot! It’s a small winery but with lots of awesome wines to taste and choose from.
3. Bench 1775
Another winery with a great view! They also have a restaurant where you can eat and enjoy the view. We didn’t get the chance to eat at the restaurant, just taste the wines – of course I loved the wine with a pink label! 😉
4. Hillside
Hillside makes my all-time-favourite rosé ever! It’s the perfect, slightly sweet, easy to drink rosé 🙂 Their other wines are great too though, although the rosé was my top pick! There’s also a bistro that overlooks their vines and cute little garden area.
5. Upper Bench
In addition to wines, Upper Bench is a creamery too – and they make their own cheeses! You get to taste wines paired with their cheese – so cool and not to mention delicious! We bought a few bottles of wine and some different cheeses as well.
6. Three Sisters
So many of these wineries have spectacular views from their tastings rooms, which I love! There were so many wines to taste – both reds and whites (I love whites and Guido loves reds haha!) – so there’s something for everyone!
7. Moraine
Moraine had quite the selection of wines, and they were super generous with their tastings. Guido said this was his favourite winery of the day when we did our winery tour – he bought seven bottles from here!
8. Lang
We sat down at this beautiful table on their patio for our wine tasting. It was nice to get to enjoy the outdoors, overlooking the vineyards. They had some nice, higher-end wines to choose from, which were all lovely.
9. Tightrope
A great winery with a nice selection of wines to choose from! I picked up a white blend and a delicious rosé.
10. Monster
I love the wine bottles Monster has – they have the coolest illustrations right on the bottle! The wines are super reasonably priced, and taste delicious too!
11. Joie Farm
If you’re from Vancouver, I’m sure you’ve seen Joie’s wines around the city. So it was fun to get to visit the actual winery after being familiar with their wines. It’s right next to a few other wineries so you can walk from one to the next!
12. Deep Roots
We had our tasting on this beautiful balcony overlooking the vineyard and lake. They had a great selection of reds and whites at reasonable prices. It’s also right near Joie and a few other wineries you can walk to.
There you go – enjoy! We love visiting these wineries and stocking up with wine for the year. Haha this past summer we came back with almost 40 bottles! We may have overdone it, but then we keep those as our wine for the year for parties, gifts and enjoying at home 🙂 We love that each bottle is from a vineyard that we’ve visited and we can tell stories about our experience there!
If you’re already in Naramata or nearby Penticton, Kelowna is only a 1-hour drive away. So if you feel like venturing there, my two favourite Kelowna wineries are Mission Hill and Tantalus. Mission Hill has the most beautiful grounds to walk around, a huge tasting room, and an amazing restaurant to eat at – I highly recommend it! Tantalus also has spectacular views, and the most delicious Riesling you will ever taste!
And if you’re looking for another great weekend getaway from Vancouver, my favourite places to visit are Kelowna, Whistler, and Tofino (here’s my Tofino travel guide)!
Do you have any favourite wineries in Naramata, Kelowna, or the Okanagan? Let me know and I’ll add them to my list to visit next time!
XO