Robert Bell's

Wines of Canada

Since 1992

Amazing Wineries

British Columbia

50th Parallel Estate Winery - Winfield BC

Located in Lake Country near Carr's Landing north of Kelowna. Curtis Krouzel and Sheri-Lee Turner-Krouzel are the Founders and forceful Management Team of 50th Parallel Estate. Grant Stanley formerly winemaker at Quails Gate is an investor, partner and winemaker.

The property has 51 acres. The major plantings in the 30-acre vineyard are seven Dijon clones of Pinot Noir. The 50 th Parallel vineyard also has blocks of Pinot Gris, Riesling and Gewürztraminer

Ancient Hills Winery - Kelowna

A family owned winery located in North Kelowna directly across from the Kelowna Airport, on land originally planted to grapes more than 60 years ago.

Arrowleaf Winery - Lake Country BC

A family-owned winery established by Joe and Margrit Zuppiger and their son, Manuel Zuppiger. Arrowleaf is overlooking Okanagan Valley just north of Kelowna in an area known as Lake Country, BC. The Zuppiger family, originally from Switzerland, immigrated to Canada in 1986. 

Averill Creek - Duncan BC

Averill Creek is a 30-acre estate winery on Vancouver Island that specializes in distinctive, terroir-driven wines. The company was established in 2001 by vintner Andy Johnston, driven by his lifelong love of wine and vast experience of working at wineries around the world, including Tuscany, Australia, France, and New Zealand.

Bartier Bros - Oliver, BC

Brother Don and Michael Bartier were born in the Okanagan. They came home joined forces and opened the Bartier Bros winery in Summerland. They have a small vineyard and use the facilities at the Crush Pad.

Michael is a well know winemaker in the Okanagan. Michael's winemaking experience was launched by making wine at the Okanagan's Hawthorne Mountain Vineyards (See Ya Later Ranch).

Black Hills Estate Winery - Oliver

Black Hills Estate Winery is located between Oliver and Osoyoos, British Columbia. The vineyard is nestled in the sun-burnt hills on the Black Sage Bench, home to British Columbia's highest quality vinifera grapes. The rugged desert earth, long sunlight hours and cool nights yield the intensely flavourful grapes that are blended to produce Bordeaux-style "Nota Bene" their most popular wine. In 2008, Black Hills became the first winery to win the Lieutenant Governor's Award for architectural excellence.

Black Widow- Naramata Bench

Dick Lancaster has been a noted amateur winemaker for over 30 years. In 2000 Dick and his wife Shona came across this beautiful seven acre property. It was already producing vines, with a panoramic view of Naramata Bench and the lake, it was too good to turn down. Taking on grape growing and commercial wine making was a natural progression, satisfying a long time passion.

The name represents the Black Widow spiders which are quite common on the property, and serve as a reminder that they are growing grapes in a desert region.

Blue Grouse - Vancouver Island

Blue Grouse Estate is comprised of 65 acres tucked away on a sunny Vancouver Island slope in the Cowichan Valley, named from a Salishan First Nations word meaning "the warm land". Located on the near Duncan. The winery is owned by Paul and Cristina Brunner along with their daughter Paula.

Bordertown Winery and Vineyard

Located in Osoyoos a short distance from the USA/Canada border. Mohan Gill opened his winery in May of 2015 the culmination of a lifetime dream. Mohan and his family built their reputation as growers. Lieutenant Governor’s Awards for Excellence in British Columbia Wines 2016 for the 2013 Living Desert Red

Burrowing Owl Estate Winery

Located on the prestigious Black Sage Road near Oliver, British Columbia, Burrowing Owl Estate Winery is one of Canada's most popular wineries with a reputation for producing premium wines of exceptional quality. Their wines have already been amply rewarded with top honours including Canadian Wine of the Year, Best Canadian Red Wine, Best Canadian Cabernet Sauvignon, The Lieutenant Governor?s Award of Excellence and internationally, their Meritage has twice won Best of Class.

Jim and Midge Wyse selected their location based on the Canadian Grape Atlas (Ag Canada 1984), which identified this area as the best grape growing region in the country. Being nature lovers and with a vineyard surrounded by a wildlife preserve that in the past has protected the endangered burrowing owl, the naming of the winery was easy. The winery is now run by son Chris and daughter Kerry. One of the Okanagan great success stories.

Checkmate Artisan Winery - Oliver, BC

Anthony von Mandl owner of Mission Hills Winery bought the winery and vineyards of Antelope Ridge ( Original name was Domaine Combret ) because of its success with Chardonnay. Antelope Ridge was the supplier for Mission Hills award winning Chardonnay. The CheckMate tasting room is a clever pop-up structure designed by Tom Kundig, the star Seattle architect who redesigned Mission Hill Family Estate winery two decades ago. Located on the fame Golden mile.

Deep Roots- Naramata -photo by Matt Ferguson

A young but very successful winery located on the Naramata Bench

Ex Nihilo Vineyards Inc.

Ex Nihilo bears the name of Frederick Hart’s sculpture that adorns the west façade entrance of the Washington National Cathedral in Washington, DC. The sculpture depicts figures emerging from chaos; the name translating to “Out of Nothing”. There are castings and fragments of the original in San Francisco and that is where owners, Decoa and Jeff, first saw and fell in love with the beautiful work on a trip to visit family in Napa.

Fitzpatrick Vineyards - Summerland, BC

Fitzpatrick Vineyards is owned and operated by the Fitzpatrick founders of Cedar Creek in Kelowna. This farm winery sits below the highway upon lake side property. The veranda has an amazing view of lush vineyard, mountains and the sparkling Lake Okanagan. Fitzpatrick Vineyards is a boutique winery specializing in sparkling wines

Damali Lavender Farm Winery - Cobble Hill

Fort Berens Estate Winery Ltd - Lillooet

The pride of Lillooet. This award winning winery has been a success since day one with its quality wines.

Gray Monk - Lake Country, BC

Grizzli Winery - West Kelowna

The Chang Family opened their original Winery in Richmond, opening a second location in West Kelowna.

Hester Creek Estate Winery -Oliver, BC

Hester Creek Estate Winery is situated within some of British Columbia's oldest vineyards in the bountiful Golden Mile region. The 95-acre, Mediterranean-influenced grounds, winery, and guest villas evoke an old-world sense of tranquillity that take you back to a more simple, unhurried era: a time when a young girl named Hester pondered life and daydreamed by the edge of the creek that would later take her name. The winery is owned by Curt Garland.

Hillside Estate Winery- Naramata

Hillside Estate was started in 1984 when Vera and Bohumir Klockockas began replacing fruit trees with vines in the orchard they had purchased in 1979 on Naramata Road, just north of the city of Penticton, BC. The couple had decided the site would be ideal for a vineyard because of the gravelly topsoil on a slope which faced west, catching the direct rays of the sun and reflections off nearby Lake Okanagan. The winery is currently owned by a group of investors.

Winemaker Kathy Malone is focusing, as much as she can on making Hillside wines with grapes grown on the Naramata Bench. “We want to show the Naramata fruit,” she says. “It is the best place in the Okanagan to grow grapes.”

Hugging Tree - Keremeos

Walter and Cristine Makepeace moved 13 times during their careers with the RCMP. In 2005, just before Walter retired from the force, they settled down in the south Similkameen Valley, buying a highway-side organic apple and peach orchard near Cawston where they could finally put down roots for themselves and for their three children. Nine years later, the property has blossomed into a family-operated estate winery that includes daughter Jennifer and sons Brad and Wes.

Indigenous World Winery - Lake Country, BC

The winery opened in 2009 is a combined adventure of Ross and Geri Davis , winemaker Roger Wong and his wife Jillian. The winery and vineyard is located near Wood Lake close to Oyma. They began in 2008 planting 6.9 hectares mostly with Riesling

The winery is named Intrigue because there is "something" about wine that can make us think about the vintage year, the vineyard, the soil and the people who made it.

Joie Farm Winery - Naramata, BC

JoieFarm is one of the Okanagan Valley's premiere boutique wineries. The winery has consistently earned national and international acclaim for their wines since the first vintage release in 2004. Production has steadily grown annually 18,000 cases. .

Joie (zh-wah) – means “joy” in French and it expresses the pleasure that wine and food bring to life. Internationally renowned for aromatic white wines, mouth-watering rosé and award-winning Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.

Kitsch Winery - Kelowna

Krause Berry Farm and Winery - Langley Township

La Frenz Winery - Naramata Bench

This winery opened in 2002 with Jeff and Niva Martin owners. Jeff had worked as the winemaker at Quails' Gate for five years before starting his own winery. He has a degree in Eonology/ Wine Science, from Charles Stuart University, Australia resulting in 30 years of winemaking and viticulture experience in both North and Southern hemispheres.

The Martins named the winery after Jeff's Grandfather. His ten acre vineyard on the bench includes Shiraz, Merlot, Viognier and Schönburger. Another vineyard also ten acres, is located on the Golden Mile near Oliver. A second vineyard on the Bench was planted in 2008.

Lake Breeze Vineyard -Naramata, BC

The winery is located on the eastern hillside overlooking Okanagan Lake. Historically an orchard, the first European vinifera were planted in 1985. Lake Breeze Vineyards is proud to be the first winery in Canada to grow and produce Pinotage, the native South African variety. Pinotage was developed in South Africa in the 1920s and is a cross between pinot noir and cinsaut (often referred to as hermitage).

Larch Hills Winery - Salmon Arm, BC

The first winery in the north Okanagan. It won most popular wine for its Ortega ant the Okanagan wine festival numerous times.

Liquidity Wines - Okanagan falls,BC

Situated midway between Skaha and Vaseux Lakes upon the "Vaseux Bench", the most narrow region of the Okanagan Valley. Liquidity resides in ideal conditions for grape growing. The vineyards here have been producing grapes for over 20 years.

Little Engines - Naramata Bench

Located on the picturesque Naramata Bench in the heart of wine country. Their reputation for quality wines as grown quickly!

Martin's Lane - Kelowna

Located along Kelowna's Lake Shore Rd just past St Hubertus. Anthony von Mandl assembled a team of experts from around the world to design his new winery A six-level gravity winery,carved and hidden within the steep Landscape. The Stunning six-level gravity-flow winery was designed by Seattle architect Thomas Kundig, with some interior features designed by Barcelona architect Antonio Puig. The winery has been constructed over the last three years just north and slightly uphill from CedarCreek Estate Winery in East Kelowna. Both wineries are owned by Anthony von Mandl, the proprietor of Mission Hill Family Estate. Kundig is one of his favourite architects: he designed the redevelopment of Mission Hill a few decades ago. The winery is designed to produce between 12,000 and 15,000 cases annually, focused just on Riesling and Pinot Noir.

Maverick Estate Winery - Oliver

Okanagan partners Jan Nelson and Winemaker, Andrew Windsor, are thrilled to announce their purchase of award-winning Maverick Estate Winery from owners Bertus and Elzaan Albertyn.

Meyer Family Vineyards - Okanagan Falls

Meyer Family Vineyards has been crafting premium wines in the Okanagan Valley since 2006 and in 2010 they opened our tasting room in Okanagan Falls

Millstone Estate Winery - Vancouver Island

A family run winery located on the banks of the Millstone River. The owner and winemaker is Dale Shortt . Dale obtained the property in 2001. After clearing the land, Shortt realized his property literally soaked in sunshine – in summertime it often registers several degrees warmer than other parts of the city. He purchased 6,000 grapevines and planted them on 2.5 hectares.

Mission Hill Family Estate - West Kelowna

The majestic winery proudly sits atop of Mt Boucherie. One of the largest and fastest growing wineries in Canada, the winery was founded in 1980 by Anthony von Mandl. Today it produces over 200,000 cases of wine, with a world wide reputation. The Winery was recently rebuilt and features an underground cellar. It sits at the top of Boucherie Mountain with a magnificent view of the lake. Mission Hill was named winery of the year in BC by Wine Press Northwest The winery has numerous vineyards throughout the Okanagan.

Monte Creek Ranch - Kamloops

Located just east of Kamloops, the Sidhu family has planted British Columbia’s largest acreage
of winter-hardy Minnesota hybrids . The Sidhus are immigrants from the Punjab in India who have succeeded in horticulture in Canada. In 2001, the Sidhus expanded to blueberries, becoming one of the largest producers in the Fraser Valley. Soaring land prices sent Gurjit, who has a diploma in horticulture, looking for cheaper farm land in the interior to plant more blueberries. In 2007 he bought Monte Creek Ranch, a historic property on the south side of the Thompson River and at the junction of Highway 97 and the Trans-Canada Highway

Mt. Boucherie Estate - West Kelowna

New facilities and a new winemaker. Watch for this winery.

Noble Ridge - Okanagan Falls

After taking his family on a 3 month sabbatical around Europe, and looking at properties in France, Jim D'Andrea, a Calgary lawyer, decided to purchase a property in Okanagan Falls in 2001. The original 3.5 acres of planted vines has now grown to 22 acres in plants. Located at the northern end of the Osoyoos desert over looking Vaseux Lake. The name of the vineyard is inspired by the ridge and by the noble grape varieties being grown. Jim and Leslie D'Andrea established Noble Ridge Vineyard & Winery in 2001.The wine shop opened in 2006.

Northern Lights Estate Winery - Prince George

Northern Lights Estate Winery (NLEW), a division of Family Fast Foods Ltd. started construction in 2013 with the Winery scheduled to open in the summer of 2015. The winery is named for the impact the Northern lights had on the history of the area it is built, along with the history of the local first nations culture, and the cut banks in which sits

Painted Rock Estate Winery - Penticton, BC

One of the Okanagan's most renowned wineries. Owned by John Skinner and family. The tasting room was a winner at the 2014 Architecture Design Awards. John Skinner was named entrepreneur of the year in 2013 by Ernst and Young.

Phantom Creek Estates farms

Blacksage Road has a new state of the art winery, Phantom Creek. Owned by the Bai family who have major plans for the facilities.

Poplar Grove - Naramata Bench

Founded in 1993, Poplar Grove Winery is one of the original five wineries on the Naramata Bench. Tony and Barb Holler purchased the winery in 2007. Their sons, Chris, Andrew, Matthew, and Eric farm more than 100 acres of estate vineyards with care. The family is widely recognized for crafting their outstanding signature red blend

Quails' Gate Vineyard Estate Winery - West Kelowna

Dick Stewart and his son Ben opened Quails' Gate Estate Winery in Kelowna, in 1989. Their passion was Pinot Noir and the desire to prove red wines could flourish on the south-facing slope of Mount Boucherie, the soil been a mixture of volcanic rock and clay.

In 1997 they rebuilt their winery incorporating modern technology with its heritage theme. The Wine shop is situated in a carefully restored log cabin which was the original home of Okanagan Valley pioneers John and Susan Allison who arrived in the area circa 1873. The shop is open daily from 10am until 5pm and carries a full range of wine related products and accessories.

River Stone Estate Winery - Oliver - J Brompton Photography

River Stone is a small, family owned and operated winery in the South Okanagan. Located on a small knoll in the middle of the valley, just south of the well-recognized McIntyre Bluff and just north of the town of Oliver, BC, Canada's Wine Capital.

Rust Wine Co. -Oliver

Opened in 2017 located on the famed Golden Mile Bench They also have vineyards in Osoyoos, Okanagan Falls, and Similkameen. Why Rust? : the evolution of Rust is unscripted. Its colour emerge from nature and blend in unpredictable forms. Rust therefore serves as a perfect metaphor for wine.

Seaside Pearl Farmgate Winery - Abbotsford

The tiny winery with the perfect tasting room and really good wines

See Ya Later Ranch - Okanagan Falls

Five Kilometers southwest of Okanagan Falls high on the mountain side sits the historic farm house made of hand-split stones. It commands the same unbelievable view it did 100 years ago when European settlers first turned the soil of Hawthorne Mountain. The vineyards' site was settled in the early 1900's by the Hawthorne Brothers, and wine grapes have been growing here since the early 1960's. Hawthorne Mountain Vineyards as it exists today, was incorporated in 1995. The winery was originally opened in 1986 as LeComte Estate Winery

SpearHead Winery - Kelowna

Spearhead Winery is located on the benchlands of South East Kelowna. Our focus is on premium quality wine which we produce from grapes grown on our estate vineyard and from selected Okanagan Valley vineyards. The hand harvested grapes are sorted at the winery and fermented in small lots.

Stag's Hollows Winery and Vineyard - Okanagan Falls

Named winery of the year by Wine Press Northwest 2012
2013 BC Lieutenant Governor Award of Excellence. 2016 InterVin International Wine Awards Gold – 2014 Renaissance Syrah. The winery recently sold the new owner is Eric Liu, the proprietor of Bench 1775 Winery on Naramata Road.

Terravista Vineyards - Naramata

The winery was founded by Okanagan wine pioneers Bob and Senka Tennant. They have been key players in the industry for the past 23 years. They recent retired ( but still consult) and sold the winery to Dallas and Eric Thor.

The View Winery

Located in south Kelowna with spectacular views of Kelowna and Okanagan Lake. The wineries name reflect he magnificent view from from the winery. Owners are Jennifer and Kent Molgat, and Chris Turton The vineyards have a northern exposure. The wineries name reflect he magnificent view from from the winery.

Time Winery - Penticton.

TIME Winery & Kitchen is a fully functioning winery with a tasting bar and restaurant, located in the heart of the Okanagan wine country in downtown Penticton. Excellent cellar of wines.

Tinhorn Creek Vineyards - Oliver

Situated on the Golden Mile Nestled on the hillside of a former gold mining creek, Tinhorn Creek Vineyards sits unrivalled on top of the "Golden Mile" in Oliver, "the Wine Capital of Canada", and offers a truly unique wine experience. Tinhorn Creek is rapidly establishing themselves as one of the premiere wineries in BC. Visitors will find a lush vineyard with views of the grape crush pad, and impressive interior galleries overlooking the stainless steel tanks, oak barrels and cellar.

Vanessa Vineyards - Cawston

Vanessa is owned by two Vancouver businessmen: real estate developer Suki Sekhon and retired stock broker John Welson.

They purchased the land in 2006. The vineyard sits on a hillside above Highway 3, south of Cawston. It is almost diagonally across the highway from the Seven Stones Winery. Vanessa Vineyard's grapes are cultivated on 75 acres of sloping, well drained, rocky terrain. The vines grow in rows of rocks, absorbing the day heat and imparting that warmth during the cooler nights. Planted in a west to southwest exposure, the rocky vineyard basks in the afternoon sun. Ideally situated, the vineyard benefits from a long growing season, with low yields of intensely ripe fruit. The unique stony site produces fruit with complex flavours and minerality that are truly distinctive.

Wild Goose Estate Winery - Okanagan Falls

Located near Okanagan Falls founder Adolf Kruger was one of the leaders in persuading the BC Government to support farm wineries. The Kruger's operate a true family winery of 20 acres. It all began in early 1983 when founder Adolf Kruger purchased a barren piece of land east of Okanagan Falls. Upon his return to his newly purchased property he discovered a large flock of Canada geese feeding in amongst the tumbleweeds, boulders, and rubble. As he approached, the birds took flight. From that time on the property became known as Wild Goose Vineyards.

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©2020 Robert A Bell

Welcome to Robert Bell's Winesofcanada.com ! This is a personal website. We do not represent the wine industry or any aspect of the Canadian Government. We have been promoting Canada's wines and wineries since 1992. We do not sell or purchase any products. Please enjoy the website. Your comments are welcome.