Wining and Dining at Okanagan Wineries

This breed of chef has the task of matching food with wines rather than the usual reverse.

Winery chefs know that by changing key ingredients in the food, a harmonious marriage can be made.  The secret is knowing which wine components can be enhanced by which ingredients.

Geoffrey Couper, Executive Chef of Mission Hill Family Estate Vineyard, says, "It's like looking through the other end of the telescope.  It's totally backwards but it simplifies your life as a chef because you're so focused on finding the simple bridges between food and wine."  Mission Hill has two other chefs on staff in their professional kitchens (and in their landscaped herb gardens), Michael Allemier, winery chef and Todd Adams, who is the Terrace chef and manager.
  
Robert Mondavi was one of the first winemakers to start a comprehensive program to educate North Americans about wine's role as a meal enhancer. His winery began sponsoring chefs from France to the Napa Valley in 1976. Mondavi believed that fine wine and food must be considered in each other's company if either is to be completely appreciated.

There are many reasons why chefs leave prominent restaurants in the city to cook at wineries in the Okanagan. As part of the public relations team, winery chefs have substantial marketing budgets that allow them to create dishes to be served with wine.  They also work in beautiful settings and don't have to venture far from their ovens to forage for top ingredients. And they learn a lot about wine and food pairing.  Says Couper, "Besides providing the perfect setting, I want people to know where food comes from, to taste just-picked heirloom tomatoes from Milan Djordjevich's Stoney Paradise farm and to enjoy simply prepared local ingredients paired with accessible wines."

Here's a list of winery restaurants with outstanding views and scenic settings to experience the food and wines of the Okanagan:

TERRACE - Mission Hill Family Estate
1730 Mission Hill, Westbank
800/957-9911; 250/768-7611
Open from May through mid-October, weather permitting
11:30am - 2:30pm Tuesday - Sunday
11:30am - 4:30 Monday
The sheer architectural scale of Mission Hill, with its homage to European style and grandeur, will take your breath away.  Sitting overlooking rows of chardonnay and pinot noir vines with a sweeping panorama of Lake Okanagan, the Terrace patio offers one of the Okanagan's premier al fresco dining experiences.  Chef Todd Adam's seasonal dishes are inventive, flavourful, and well-crafted and suited to winemaker John Simes' wines.  Start with an appetizer of organic greens and chick pea fritters followed by either a vine-smoked corn-fed chicken over a green olive tapenade or the Dungeness crab & ricotta ravioli with lemon & thyme foam.  Don't miss the white chocolate and honeycomb parfait dessert and cap the meal with the white wine or red wine cheese plate for a celebration of the best of the region's wine and food bounty.

OLD VINES PATIO - Quails' Gate Estate Winery
3303 Boucherie Road, Kelowna BC V1Z 2H3
800/420-9463 or 250/769-4451
Open from May through October
Lunch from 11:30am to 4pm
Dinner from 5pm to dusk
Quails' Gate can trace its roots to the early 1900s, when the Stewart family was in the tree fruits business. Its delightful site boasts an early 20th Century stone-house log-house tasting room and an exquisite vineyard that tumbles down the property to Okanagan Lake. The Old Vines Patio is a magical spot and talented chef Judith Knight allows the best seasonal produce to drive her wine-friendly menus.  Choose the curried scallops and prawns in a coconut broth with baby bok choy, a spicy Cajun halibut with fragrant rice or the fork-tender beef tenderloin with gorgonzola sided with an endive and walnut salad.  Finish with enchiladas stuffed with BC apples topped with ice cream and caramel.  Burgundian style pinot noir and chardonnay are the focus at Quails' Gate, but don't miss any opportunity to taste their chenin blanc, chasselas or dry riesling paired with Knight's menus.

PATIO GRILL Gray Monk Grapevine
1055 Camp Road, Okanagan Centre
250/766-3405
Open from April through mid-October
Lunch from 11:30am to 4pm
Dinners on Weekends June, July, August from 5pm to dusk
Gray Monk makes a blended white it calls Latitude 50, which celebrates its location 25 minutes north of downtown Kelowna. Don't miss lunch on the patio prepared by Chef Willi Franz, formerly of the Williams Inn.  Order the Picker's Lunch wild mushroom soup and a freshly baked Ciabatta bun piled high with smoked ham, tomatoes, lettuce and cheese or fork into the shrimp and spinach manicotti sauced with béchamel and baked with three cheeses. This prime location high above Okanagan Lake is proudly designated as an official Ogopogo Spotting site, believed to be home of the "lake demon" a myth widely accepted among the Okanagan First Nations.  Gray Monk is perhaps best known for its Alsatian-style, gewürztraminer, but other good bets include a fine pinot gris and an excellent un-wooded chardonnay.

SUNSET VERANDA RESTAURANT - Summerhill Pyramid Winery
4870 Chute Lake Road, Kelowna
250/764-8000
Open February to December
Daily 11am - 9pm
Surrounded by sweeping views of vineyards, Lake Okanagan and mountains to the west, the Sunset Veranda creates the perfect sensory backdrop for Summerhill's crisp, organically grown, pyramid-aged sparkling wines. Penne with house-smoked salmon, seared rare tuna on an Asian noodle salad with wasabi aioli and beef tenderloin medallions with forest mushrooms -- just a sampling of the Veranda's choices, all with one thing in common.  A hands-on, back-to-the-earth, Summerhill philosophy insures your meals on the Veranda include organically grown vegetables, from the winery's own certified gardens, and locally grown, fresh products.

VINEYARD TERRACE - CedarCreek Estate Winery
5445 Lakeshore Road, Kelowna
800/730-9463 or 250/764-8866
Open from May through October
Lunch from 11:30am to 5:30pm
CedarCreek Estate Winery, like the vines that surround it, clings perilously to the steep slopes of the historic Okanagan Mission District some 12 kilometres south of downtown Kelowna.  Stunning vineyard views and immaculately kept gardens form a scenic setting for a relaxed and informal lunch on the Vineyard Terrace with wines chosen by winemaker Tom DiBello.  Locally grown vegetables and Canadian cheeses figure prominently on both the tapas menu and the fresh sheet:  grilled focaccia with tomatoes and snow goat cheese paired with sauvignon blanc sémillon or pinot noir, a trio of peppered chicken, wild mushrooms and valley greens with an Estate Select chardonnay or the chef's customized cheese board.  Finish with a glass of icewine.

CELLAR DOOR BISTRO - Sumac Ridge Estate Winery
Highway 97, Summerland
250/494-0451
Open Year-Round
Daily 11:30am to 9pm
The Cellar Door Bistro at Sumac Ridge has one of the valley's best casual brunch, lunch or dinner stops.  Executive Chef Neil Schroeter's dishes match the diverse selection of varietal wines including a very tasty gewürztraminer paired with seared sea scallops and curried vegetables, a fine pinot blanc married with pan-roasted wild salmon and a lemon caper risotto and an oven-roasted chicken breast wrapped in prosciutto and goat's cheese matched with one of the country's best méthode-champenoise sparklers: Steller's Jay Brut. The wine is named after the brash, metallic blue tricksters of the bird world.   Red wine lovers can test out the best chocolate match with a blended (Meritage) and single varietal labels of cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, merlot and pinot noir.

THE SONORA ROOM - Burrowing Owl Winery
100 Burrowing Owl Place
Oliver, British Columbia
877/498-0620 or 250/498-0620
Open from May through mid-October
Lunch Daily from 11:30am to 5pm
Dinner Thursday - Sunday from 6pm to 9:30pm
The South Okanagan's newest fine dining spot is framed by desert flora, blue sky and peaceful hills.  The tiny, indigenous earth-dwelling owls for which the winery is named are endangered in this area.  Burrowing Owl produced its first vintage in 1997, concentrating on four grape varieties cabernet sauvignon and merlot for red wines; chardonnay and pinot gris for white.  A cabernet franc was added in 1998, pinot noir in 1999 and syrah in 2000. Executive Chef Dominique Couton uses simple ingredients to achieve bold flavours and his wine and food pairing is seamless. A summer meal might begin with a chilled musk melon soup scented with Pernod before an appetizer course of sautéed Salt Spring Island mussels in a star anise and saffron bath.  Entrees may include an oven-roasted lamb rack with a green tea jus and ratatouille; baked mahi mahi fillet with lemon risotto or a boneless game hen marinated in saffron, yogurt and cumin and served with couscous and a spicy ragout.  The wine list includes a selection of library wines that are no longer available publicly for sale.