Winery Touring with Kids

There are three rules for successfully pulling off an Okanagan wine tour with young kids during The Fall Okanagan Wine Festival: 1) Don’t set out without kid-approved snacks; 2) Find the entertaining hook (pronto!) at every winery; and 3) Build in time for jumping into leaves, even if they get trampled into fish food-sized flakes on the minivan floor.

Still terrified? We’ve got your back with a family game plan for five fabulous stops along the wine trail from Osoyoos to Okanagan Falls. Rewards and bribes are in here, too.

So, no more excuses. Fall is the best time of year to visit the Okanagan, and to enjoy the autumn colours, crisp air, the grape harvest and 165 wine festival events in full swing Sept. 30 through Oct. 9. Here’s how to do it without complaints from the backseat.

Burrowing Owl Estate Winery

For parents

Get swanky for the winemaker’s dinner Oct. 5 to 6 ($159) with an underground candlelit reception, hard-to-find library vintages and five amazing courses you didn’t have to cook. Now that warrants a babysitter. Maybe even a winery guesthouse room. ($250-$350/night; bovwine.ca)

For kids

Even if you already own 137 stuffed animals too many, the wine shop’s plush little burrowing owl is hard to resist. Ask how the winery helps this endangered species. Who knew wine touring would be so, well, educational?

Blasted Church Vineyards

For parents

Midnight Service, Oct. 7 and 8, is the one late-night festival soirée well worth ditching the kids for. It pairs Southern-style barbecue and live gospel and blues with Swear to God Chardonnay, OMG sparkling wine and other bottles. Ready to come, all ye faithful? ($110 per ticket; blastedchurch.com)

For kids

Look up when you near the vineyard entrance—you might see osprey peeking out of their nesting platform. If geese are there instead, the Church staff is quick to shoo and excommunicate them from the fold.

Road 13 Vineyards

For parents

Catch a “Taste with a Thief” ($45) in Road 13’s new barrel room. Sounds like a new edition of Clue, right? At this event, smooth criminals get to use a wine thief (a siphoning instrument) to taste wines from the barrel. (road13vineyards.com)

For kids

Straight out of a fairy tale, this medieval stone castle winery is graced with turrets, huge doors and a faux drawbridge—a grand setting for a toy sword duel or a pinkies-up tea party.

Tinhorn Creek Estate vineyard

For parents

During the The Fall Okanagan Wine Festival (Oct. 3 to 5), Tinhorn Creek’s founder takes wine lovers, dogs and kids of all ages on sustainability and terroir hikes ($35). Refuel at Miradoro, the onsite restaurant run by Manny Ferreira, owner of Le Gavroche in Vancouver. (tinhorn.com)

For kids

Little eyes grow wide when mini chocolate cups come out from behind the tasting counter. (Mine do, too. Guilty.) Young tasters are treated to a sip of sparkling juice.

See Ya Later Ranch

For parents

Join several hundred dogs and their wine-swilling owners at the festival’s Dog Days of Summer (by donation) SPCA fundraiser Oct. 1. Raise a glass of Rover Viognier/Shiraz to the talent at the doggie fashion show or agility course. (sylranch.com)

For kids

R.I.P. Rover, Nelly and 13 other ranch dogs from the past century. The winery’s pet cemetery and canine ghost stories are enough to get you looking for happy puppy spirits running though the vineyard—in slo-mo, of course.

This article originally appeared in the September 2011 issue of up! magazine.