Time your trip to coincide with one of the regional wine festivals. The Okanagan offers an Icewine festival in January, a spring festival in May, and an extensive fall festival in October, around harvest time.
Find out when each winery offers tours and tastings. Most Okanagan wineries are open to visitors who drop in between May and October, but many require appointments during the off-season.
Visit the British Columbia Wine Information Center in Penticton, at 888 Westminster Avenue West, Penticton, BC; (250) 490-2006. This is an excellent starting point for any wine-related trip; tours, tastings and tickets to regional wine events are also available here.
Pace yourself. There are lots of wineries in the Okanagan, most of them around the cities of Kelowna, Penticton and Summerland, and it is impossible to visit them all in a day or two. Try to limit yourself to three or four wineries a day so that you can get the most out of the tours and the tastings.
Taste carefully, starting with white or sparkling wines, then moving along to the reds (from lighter to heavier) and dessert wines. Or, try to restrict yourself to a particular varietal or style of wine on each day. A careful approach will prevent palate overload, which can happen quickly when you taste a large number of wines in random order.
