Although most Okanagan visitors go for wine tours typically in summer, many craft beverage producers provide tastings year round, with special events planned in the fall and over the Christmas holidays.
Over three, unusually warm October days, I travelled Summerland’s Bottleneck Drive, a wine, spirits and brewery tasting tour, that includes 12 wineries, four cideries, two distilleries and a brewery. I got to meet with many of the area’s producers, like Christine Coletta and her husband Steve Lornie, who own Haywire Winery and the recently opened Garnet Valley Ranch.
The couple’s journey into winemaking started after taking a drive on a picturesque backroad in Summerland, where they had a summer home on the west shore of Okanagan Lake, and discovered a neglected orchard for sale more than a decade ago.
“Honestly, on a lark, we put in a low-ball offer on it…we got it and then we were like ‘oh, now what are we going to do?”
The couple, who lived in North Vancouver at the time, decided to plant one variety of pinot gris and sell the grapes to a winery. But a wine producer friend suggested they make the wine themselves, resulting in their first 168 cases. The next year they grew enough grapes to have 2,500 cases, and the following year 4,500 cases. The business has been so successful, last year they produced 40,000 cases, and during COVID made a permanent move to Summerland.
Lornie, who is a builder by trade, has put his construction skills to good use and completing an extensive renovation on the Haywire property, adding a new tasting lounge and event space, adjacent to the crush space where visitors can watch winemaking in action.
This year, he also built a specialty VIP tasting room at their 360-acre Garnet Valley Ranch property, which was once a cattle ranch.
The ranch is now growing grapes at the highest elevation for grape growing in the Okanagan — 650 metres (2,130 feet) above sea level.
“It’s not on the grape atlas for B.C.,” says Lornie, referring to a government report that indicates suitable grape-growing locations in the province.
“Garnet Valley is just beyond the edge of where you could successfully grow grapes. … One of the rules was you would never plant grapes unless you can see the lake but this valley traps the sun and we get a breeze from Okanagan Lake that moderates the temperature. When we saw the property and saw the southwest exposure, we knew it called out for grapes,” he says.
Although they knew they would be “pushing the limit” with the Garnet Valley site, Lornie says their grapes have done “extremely well.”
Starting next summer, the couple plan to partner with next door neighbour Carolin Sherman of Wildhorse Mountain Guest Ranch, who will take guests on horseback riding excursions through the couple’s bucolic property, culminating with wine tasting in their new, sleek tasting room overlooking the vineyards.
“It’s a once in a lifetime experience,” says Sherman, who has been offering trail rides on her family’s 80-acre property since 1999. “There’s so much to see in this landscape, and it isn’t a difficult ride.”
Sherman says riders will get to ride through Garnet Valley Ranch for about one hour before enjoying the wine tasting.
At Lunessence Winery & Vineyard I meet another member of Bottleneck Drive, general manager Cameron Walker who says while they are one of the smaller producers in Summerland, with only four acres, the winery is a “passion project” for its owners who care deeply for the community.
“Summerland is still an under-the-radar experience. When people come up here, they are spending the day going to Naramata or Osoyoos but when they take the time to stop in they realize there’s so much happening here,” Walker says of the district, about an hour from Kelowna International Airport.
He points out their winery is near Giant Head Mountain, a popular hiking destination where you can enjoy expansive views of Summerland, as well as Naramata and Penticton.
Another great viewing spot is at Summerland Ornamental Gardens, that looks out to The Trout Creek Bridge, built in 1913 and was the highest structure on the Kettle Valley Railway at 73 metres above Trout Creek.
Most of the stops I visit on Bottleneck Drive have amazing views of Okanagan Lake, like Lightning Rock Winery, named after a large rock that was split in half on the property by a lightning strike.
Owner Ron Kubek and his wife Tracy do most of the work at the winery along with a small crew and are usually on site to oversee the tastings. After meeting the affable couple, you can’t help but come away feeling you made new friends.
Kubek, a former real estate developer, has always enjoyed wine and after buying the rolling hills property renovated the existing log cabin and did his first grape planting in 2006. He now produces about 3,000 cases annually.
“One of the best parts of a wine tasting is people who have never been to a wine tasting before walk away and say this is awesome; I’m now not intimidated,” says Kubek. “To Tracy and I, that’s a huge win because a lot of people are intimidated because they don’t talk wine nerd. … We just talk like regular people.”
Nomad owners and longtime friends Mike Petakau and Brad Klammer, who opened their cidery 10 years ago in Summerland, produce over 30 different products, with flavours as diverse as pineapple to strawberry. The owners make a point of travelling to European cideries, in particular, every few years to learn more about their craft.
“We’ve always been into cooking, flavours, cultures, travelling. All these influences have always been intriguing to us,” says Klammer.
Petakau adds they began by making beer, before craft breweries were popular in B.C., but switched to ciders since so many of their friends in the Okanagan had apple orchards.
“We really got into ciders,” says Petakau. “When we take a hobby, we’re not fringe. We want to know it all.”
At another cidery, Summerland Heritage Cider, visitors can not only buy cider but take home some apples from the site’s apple orchard. It was started by three apple farmers who went into the cider business but realized running a cidery wasn’t for them, says Ted Vollo, the son of one of the original owners who now runs the business with his wife, Lauren.
The young couple, who left their jobs as geologists in Calgary to take over the cidery, say they enjoy it because it is so social.
“The cidery is more of a hub/meeting place. It’s a casual experience for people to get together and have some cider. We’ve had such a good experience here,” says Vollo.
Of the 19 craft producers on Bottleneck Drive, most are open in the fall, with reduced hours or by appointment only, so be sure to contact them first before heading out for a tasting. However, this winter, during the Summerland Light up the Vines event, Nov. 25 and Dec. 1-2, all Bottleneck Drive members will be opening their tasting rooms between 5 and 9 p.m. to provide holiday cheer.
The Kettle Valley Steam Christmas Express Train, a restored 1912 steam locomotive, will also operate in Summerland, from December 8 to 23.
If you go:
Stay - Summerland Waterfront Resort, on a secluded section of Okanagan Lake’s shoreline, also has its own wooden boardwalk from which you can check out the wild birds that visit near the resort’s outdoor, heated pool. All of the 115 condo-style suites have a full kitchen, dining area and fireplace.
Kim Pemberton was hosted by Bottleneck Drive, which did not review or approve this story. Follow her on Instagram at kimstravelogue.
