Volcanic Hills Estate Winery

Summer weekends on the west side often turn into an impromptu winery loop, one stop leading into the next along the bench roads above the lake. What separates one stop from another is rarely the view, since the benches share that in common, but the pace of the room and how it handles a Saturday crowd.

Visiting a winery well takes a little planning. Summer is the busy season on this side of the bridge, and afternoons along the bench roads fill with tour vans and cars over from Kelowna, so an earlier arrival or a weekday tends to be calmer. Ask what is pouring at the moment rather than what you read about last year, since wineries release on their own schedule and older vintages sell through. If you want to sit down, bring a group, or arrange anything beyond a quick tasting, phone first and say what you have in mind. And if you are driving these roads afterward, plan for a designated driver: the routes are narrow, they climb and turn, and through the warm months they carry cyclists and walkers as well as cars.