How we selected this winery

For reasons unknown to us, people do not exactly dish out pointed critical opinions, even if it is their job to do so. That’s most unfortunate, as many of us rely on these reviews when planning wineries visits. Search for information about Sandhill Wines, and you will undoubtedly find a lot of articles touting Sandhill as a pioneering winemaker in the Okanagan area. Supposedly this is the winery that not just survived but thrived in this challenging business for many years. That fact alone put Sandhill Wines on our “must-visit” wineries list.

Here’s a curious fact about Okanagan wineries. Talk to any seasoned wine educator at any winery, and you will get recommendations for other wineries to visit in the area. It is a local thing not to speak ill of others who operate in the same business.

We did not heed that advice. Determined to form our own opinion, we made our way to Sandhill Wines instead.

Sandhill Wines, a brief history

There’s a generally held misconception related to Sandhill Wines’ history. It is not uncommon to have the history of Calona winery conflated with the history of Sandhill Wines. This is not entirely accurate.

Shortly after that, Peller established Sandhill wines which got positioned as a producer of small lot single vineyard wines. According to some reports, Calona ceased to exist as a brand at about the same time. Sandhill Terroir Series and Small Lot Single Vineyard Selection are all made at what used to be Calona Vineyards property. A Calona winemaker, Howard Soon, is the name behind the creation of Sandhill’s portfolio of wines.

Sandhill Wines winery visit. What to expect

Located in Kelowna downtown, Sandhill winery and a tasting room is one of the few wineries and tasting rooms to be found in the city core.

Billed as an “urban winery”, reportedly, the vision behind the new building was for the people to walk into the wine tasting room and feel like they have never been to a place like this before. Arguably they achieved that vision.

From the outside, the place looks every bit like a modern restaurant. If not for a gift shop and wines stacked neatly along the walls, this could easily be one of the new Cactus Club Cafes, plentiful in the province of BC.

From the inside, this place is too vast to be called a tasting “room”. It tries very hard to pass as an education center, but it does not have staff, either passionate or knowledgeable about wine or winemaking. It tries to encourage togetherness but feels empty. So much so that the last thing you want is to stay there for a long time. Instead, it evokes the ambiance of a convention center hall, meant to provide a space for hundreds of people to congregate over cheap drinks and finger foods before they dash to their dedicated conference rooms.

Our visit to Sandhill winery coincided with one of the busiest long weekends in Canada. Most other wineries in Kelowna were packed with people. We had to line up to get into some of them. We were turned away from the others. Very different story at Sandhill!

Except for a couple of visitors and about the same number of floor staff, Sandhill Wines tasting room was eerily empty inside.

After a short wait inside the wine tasting room, we were greeted by a mildly irate employee who escorted us to our table before passing us to a young kid, a.k.a. our assigned wine educator. Here lies the irony and the awkwardness of the situation. Our wine educator was, in all likelihood, too young to be allowed to legally drink, let alone advise on the wines to taste. After a couple of questions, we felt that continued quizzing of our young wine educator would be unfair. With that thought, we pressed ahead with our chosen wine tasting.

Wine tasting at Sandhill Wines.

To taste or not to taste?

There are three wine tasting options available to Sandhill Wines visitors:

• White Label Portfolio Tasting $16 +tax (as of April 2023). This is the wine tasting that we selected.

The wines we tasted were 3 White wines and also White Label Rosé. To candidly and politely opine on these wines, we’d like to borrow the words of one Italian sommelier who smartly remarked: “Simple wines need few words. If they are good, the pleasure they give is real enough, but what they contain that merits description is very limited.”

Taking a cue from this sommelier, we will describe all four wines in two words: simple and tired. While undoubtedly simple, the question of pleasure they give is up for debate. But don’t take our word for it. Most White Label wines are listed with BCLDB and can be purchased at BC Liquor stores. Most of these wines will cost you $20+/- As always, we love to hear about your experience with these and other Sandhill wines.

• Small Lots Portfolio Tasting $25 +tax (as of April 2023). Exactly what it says, this is a wine tasting of Sandhill’s small lots wines and single vineyard wines. You can sample five of these. Small Lots Portfolio tasting primarily includes Red wines and Red wine blends, such as regular Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Cabernet Franc blends and the more unusual, Italian-inspired blends, such as Sangiovese, Cab Sauvignon, and Barbera blends. This wine tasting option also includes Rosé and Viognier for those interested in sampling their White and Rosé wine offerings. After a disappointing experience with the White Label Portfolio Tasting, we decided against doing this one. Was it a mistake? Perhaps. If you did do Sandhill’s Small Lots Portfolio tasting, please share your experience with our readers and us. If you are not keen to visit Sandhill but are curious about their wines, two of their small lots wines, Syrah and Small Lots One, are available through BCLiquor. Both will set you back $40.

• Member Collection Experience $28+tax (as of April 2023). By far the most expensive of all available wine tasting options, this one allows you to taste four wines from their Wine Club Exclusive and Harvest Series portfolio. We did not do this wine tasting and cannot opine on it.

Sandhill. The wine we did not take home with us

Even though the tasting fee was applied to the wine purchase, we chose to forgo that option and did not buy anything. The wines we tasted at Sandhill were unremarkable. So much so that none of the wines we tried warranted a hustle of protecting them from the sun and heat in a hot car on our way home.

Bottom line

The usual question that people ask when planning the winery visit is if it will be worth their while. While the prospective visitors’ needs may vary, here’s our candid opinion and an honest answer to this question.

• Are you one of those who wants to learn about the winery, wines and the winemaking process? Other wineries in the area will likely be a better fit for you.

• Are you seeking out affordable and quality wines? This place may not be the best fit either. One must be hard-pressed to combine “affordable and quality” when describing the alcoholic beverages sold at Sandhill Wines.

• Are you looking for inexpensive wines to serve to your guests after they have had one too many and may not be able to tell the difference between the wine and the vinegar? You will likely find better-priced, same-quality options at the liquor store nearby without having to make a trip to downtown Okanagan.