Had a great day touring round the Okanagan yesterday. It’s a very scenic wine region. We began at Mission Hill, the really impressive winery owned by Anthony Von Mandl.

Then it was a visit to Tantalus, who are making super-impressive Riesling and very good Pinot Noir. Kiwi ex-pat David Paterson is the winemaker here.

Next visit was Cedar Creek, which since February this year has been owned by Von Mandl. Block series Pinots impressed, as did a precise Ehrenfelser. Von Mandl is building a five story gravity fed cellar next door to this property which will be home to Martin’s Lane, one of his high-end labels, with a focus on Pinot Noir.

We then took the remarkable unpaved Chute Lake road with some stunning views of the lake, ending up at Naramata. We stopped to look at the 650 acre property, previously known as Paradise Ranch, that Mission Hill now own, and which has some lovely vineyard parcels.