We have some lovely friends who have moved recently to the West Coast.  They’re trying to get to know British Columbia – so we decided to take them to some of the best spots.

That’s how we spent a week on the road together and a day wine tasting at wineries in the Similkameen Valley and on Skaha Lake near Okanagan Falls (OK Falls).

Our day started at Orofino Winery where Allison was our guide.  Orofino is an old favourite of mine, but I hadn’t been here for 13 years (2013).

It was time to catch up on what they’ve been doing.  We fell in love with the tetris pack Pinot Gris – perfect for hikes and picnics, and the Rousanne, 2024 made with Washington fruit because of that year’s BC deep freeze.

When Allison realized I’d done a review of the 2011 Riesling, she brought out a 2014 and we reveled in its development – petrol fumes, minerality and acidity, guava, pomelo and yellow grapefuit.

The Gamay, 2025 had been wild fermented and aged 2 years in old French oak.  Unfiltered and unfined it was a hazy ruby with cranberry and white pepper, while the Semi-Carbo Marechal Foch, 2025 was their first foray into that grape.  Highly crushable and with low tannins, this is a fabulous wine to drink with all sorts of things from pizza to burgers to ribs.

At this point, we had to get to our next tasting.  So we jumped into the car and raced down the road three minutes to Clos du Soleil – another of the original Similkameen wineries that I’ve stopped into many times.

They’ve really expanded since my last visit 13 years ago and we enjoyed a fabulous hands-on tasting with Amanda at the back of the winery, looking out at the mountain and vineyard. I highly recommend this experience if you have the time; book it in advance.

The Fumé Blanc made with Sauvignon Blanc was a big hit – and would be easy to pair with people and porches.  Also, a shout out to the Rosé, 2024 made saignée style with Sangiovese Yakima Valley AVA grapes on account of the killer frost.  What a seriously lovely wine – no hard corners on it, but instead a great mouth feel with nectarine and cranberry aromas and flavours.

We enjoyed everything but the most impressive red was the Winemaker Series Béton, 2o22.  Béton is French for concrete which is what the wine fermented and aged in before being bottled.  It’s a Cabernet Sauvignon-Cabernet Franc blend that has a beautiful blue and purple fruit palate underscored with lots of mountain minerality, black pepper and violets.

We dropped around briefly at Little Farm so I could buy some Chardonnay (3 different bottles), before heading over to Lake Skaha and Okanagan Falls for a rendezvous with Kelsey, the winemaker and one of the family owners at Echo Bay Winery.

Echo Bay is new to me, but it is a family owned property since the 1960s on which Kelsey, her family and her parents live.  Aunts and uncles also live nearby – and several friends work onsite as well.

It’s a beautiful property at which Kelsey began making the wine in 2017 after they built the barn and she returned from post grad wine studies at Lincoln University in New Zealand.  What a stellar set she has produced.

We enjoyed a tasting with her upstairs in the barn with the Else Pinot Noir, 2025 that spent two weeks on the skins and was wild fermented.  Translucent ruby, it smelled and tasted of red roses, strawberry, plums and star of anise.  The name “Else” refers to ‘something else’ as these grapes are ‘scavenged’ from a friend’s vineyard in nearby Oliver.

But Kelsey’s flagship red is the Synoptic – named for synoptic weather charts which represent the state of and changes in the weather which affect the grapes and consequently the wine produced each year. You can also see them on the walkway in the picture above.

I had used this wine for a special tasting and it was the one I was keen to learn more about.  A classic meritage Bordeaux-style blend, it is wild fermented, unfined, unfiltered and made with minimal intervention.  The result is a wine with fabulous structure, plenty of black and boysenberry, raspberry, fig, pepper and ginger spice.

We headed back to Osoyoos for a quick dip in the lake and some Mexican food at La Marquesa which has outstanding service and food.

Are you planning a trip to any of these wineries? Drop me a line and let me know if you’d like recommendations or more details.

Enjoy BC wine!