
Terrace Restaurant at Mission Hill Family Estate
Food, drink, and Okanagan bliss.
The al fresco Terrace Restaurant overlooks the winery’s orchards of pinot noir and chardonnay.
The al fresco Terrace Restaurant overlooks the winery’s orchards of pinot noir and chardonnay.
Endless winery options and easygoing waterside vibes have long made Kelowna a go-to British Columbian getaway.
The latest venture from Mission Hill Family Estate proprietor Anthony von Mandl is a winery created in honour of his late father.
You may have heard of it: Canada’s desert, the South Okanagan, characterized by its sage-scrub and rattlesnakes and burgeoning status as one of the country’s most popular luxury playgrounds.
“You won’t believe you’re in Canada,” says food writer Jennifer Cockrall-King.
It seems the global weather system is getting weirder and less predictable. And on the contentious but important subject of global warming? The study of how wine will react to climate change is one small but telling piece of the larger story of how agriculture as a whole will endure.
At the base of Mission Hill Family Estate’s monumental bell tower is a cast-iron sculpture affixed to a rectangular block of granite. The sculpture is emblematic of the winery’s proprietor. Whether it’s ski jumping or empire building, with Anthony von Mandl, it’s all about how far you can fly.
Situated high above Okanagan Lake and sequestered behind 4,500-kilogram steel gates, Mission Hill welcomes almost 130,000 visitors annually, with good reason, as proprietor Anthony von Mandl built the property up around a foundation of, yes, award-winning wines, but also much more.
It began, appropriately enough, over an impassioned discussion during a restaurant meal in which several great wines were poured. “Wouldn’t it be great,” someone mused out loud, “if we could make our own wines, right at home, and have them with beautiful dinners like this one?”