Tantalus Vineyards

We’re down to the last handful of cases of our 2021 Syrah online and at the tasting room, an inaugural release for us here at Tantalus and the first wine to emerge from our Further Afield Series.

As wine writer shared upon its release: “by far the biggest wine I’ve seen from Tantalus, and very much Similkameen wild.” ✨

We’ll be sad to see this premier vintage go, but thrilled to announce there will be a 2022 bottling emerging shortly, sourced from the same famed Blind Creek vineyard and a Gold Medalist at ’s National Awards this year.

Join our enews to be the first to know when it lands. The link is in our bio.

Yesterday we shared that our primary Old Vines Riesling block (“Block 5”) has been tenderly nurtured by our team this season and is in quite healthy shape all things considered. We are feeling very hopeful for a nice recovery for the 2025 vintage in this beloved block.

The even better news is that the 2022 and 2023 vintages are bottled, resting, and still to emerge from our cellar over the next two years. ☺️

In the meantime of course, our current release 2021 Old Vines Riesling is available at the winery and online—with a recent trifecta of 93 points from a bevy of respected palates. Don’t miss out!

93 points – ,
“..consistently one of Canada’s top wines..”

93 points – Anthony Gismondi,
“Dry and sophisticated, this is riesling at its best.”

93 points – ,
“This wine will live for years..”

Find it online via the link in our bio.

With some cooler, less beachy weather arriving over the next couple of days, this just might be your sign to join us for a slowed down visit to the winery. 😉

Enter our Bees & Barrels tour – with a budget-friendly hack that we offer this experience complimentary on Wednesdays!*

Hosted by one of our knowledgeable associates each weekday at 10am, the experience includes a guided stroll through our vineyard, followed by a behind-the-scenes walk through our LEED-certified winery facility, wrapping up with a seated small lot tasting, overlooking the lake and valley vistas below.

Advance prepaid reservations are required, and as an interactive group tour, we may combine multiple groups as we explore the vineyards and cellar in-depth.

Find out more via the link in our bio and feel free to contact the winery for larger group sizes or to customize your visit.

We look forward to touring with you soon!

*with a Small Lot Tasting purchase.

We just opened the doors to a beautiful day in the valley. We’re open today from 11am to 6pm for seated tasting experiences and drop-in purchases.

Online bookings available via tantalus.ca with walk-in tastings available based on availability. Hope to see you in wine country!

Back in stock! Our Riesling market totes are back, AND for the first time, available online to order*

Lovingly made in Kelowna by and printed by our pals at , these over-sized canvas totes are a year round essential in our books.

Help us spread the gospel of Riesling with yours today. 😉

Special thanks to Kim for the modelling prowess!

*Can be added to an online purchase of 6 bottles or more.

A sneak peek at one of the rare wines we’re pulling from our library for our Riesling Retrospective tasting - this Thursday with winemaker Dave Paterson.

Only made in certain vintages from our precious Old Vines Riesling fruit, and a traditional method endeavour that remains quite unexpected from the BC sparkling landscape. We can’t wait to share this decade-old bubbly and more Riesling gems with guests.

The last handful of tickets are available online – link is in our bio.

A new release of our flagship Pinot Noir from the stunning 2022 vintage is here and summer ready!

Aromatic profile: sun ripe plums, Bing cherries, graphite and wet earth combine with subtle raspberry cola and a lovely savoury herbal character from the stem inclusion over ferment.

Palate: great freshness at first sip. As it opens, blackberry and fresh cranberry with red apple and rhubarb pie feature on the palate. The texture has a wonderful length and a grip and release to the tannin profile.

100% wild fermentation and aged in oak barriques (25% new) for 15 months. Bottled unfined and unfiltered.

One to watch evolve over the years..

*Available in-store, online and rolling into our retail and restaurant accounts in the coming weeks.

Amid all the busy summer days of the growing season and events and planning for what may come for vintage 2024, it’s a quietly paced week of tasting, racking, and blending our 2023 reds for winemakers Sam and Dave.

This is a collaborative process as glasses of proposed barrel compositions venture to the office, tasting room and break room throughout the day so our team can weigh in. What’s missing, what’s good, what needs tweaking.

Once refined, these reds will be tucked back into barrel for a little longer while they await bottling early next year. The next iterations of our beloved Pinots and our newly emerged and total crowd-pleasing Cabernet Franc. Cheers, friends. 🍷 🍷

Our 2023 Riesling is here! ✨

Always a momentous release for our team here at Tantalus, our latest vintage of this thirst-quenching flagship Riesling is now available online, at the tasting room, and rolling into retailers and restaurants in Western Canada in the coming weeks. As this was a much smaller vintage from lower yields in 2023, we recommend stocking up early!

Aromatic profile: big aromas of bergamot flowers, jasmine, chalk, mandarins, and persimmon.

Palate: lush and juicy with lemon peel, wet rocks, and orange blossom.

2023 rides the line between citrus, stone fruits and sub-tropical notes just beautifully.

The stats, for all our fellow Riesling geeks out there: 🤓
Alcohol: 12.2%
Residual Sugar: 14.9 g/L
pH: 2.79
Total Acidity: 9.45 g/L

We are honoured to share a new addition to our tasting room by renowned Canadian photographer and longtime friend of Tantalus, Edward Burtynsky – a striking piece capturing British Columbia’s majestic Tantalus mountain range, and as such, a piece with a profound connection to our namesake.

As part of a new collection first unveiled at London’s earlier this year and photographed in 2023, Coast Mountains #1 Tantalus Range conveys the essence of Burtynsky’s remarkable photographic depictions. For over 40 years, he has dedicated his work to bearing witness to the impact of human industry on the planet, chronicling major themes of terraforming and extraction, urbanization, and deforestation. In this latest series, he examines the profound state of our coastal mountain range in the wake of our changing climate.

We’ve included a link via our bio to a series of interviews with Edward to learn more about his EXTRACTION / ABSTRACTION series and how he considers his life’s work as “reflecting pools of our times”.

We invite guests to the winery to take in the art on site while you enjoy your tasting experience with us and to inquire freely with our team about any of the pieces on display, including several other feature photographs by Burtynsky.

More on the artist:

Edward Burtynsky is regarded as one of the world’s most accomplished contemporary photographers. Burtynsky’s photographs are included in the collections of over 80 major museums around the world, including the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa; the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Guggenheim Museum in New York; the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid; the Tate Modern in London, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in California.

Trying to keep up with All. That. Growth. 😅

It’s all hands-on deck in the vineyard right now as we tuck, trim, and then tuck some more.

Hernan and Tony (pictured here), alongside our tirelessly hard-working vineyard crew, are working across our home acreage to straighten up and trim those tangled and wandering shoots this week. Despite the affected crop this season, our vines require more TLC than ever, as we work to nurture them along in a recovery year.

With higher than usual precipitation in the Spring followed by the blast of July heat we’ve just moved through, it’s a bit of a beautiful jungle out there. 💚

Captured on camera! Finally!! 🦡 🙌

For those of you who have been following along with the tracing of our resident American badger’s burrows in the vineyard, you will know how long we’ve been waiting for this moment. Our vineyard manager .d.woody had a chance encounter just this week and managed to snap these quickly from a safe distance.

The American badger is considered an endangered species and as their habitats become increasingly threatened, badger populations have declined rapidly in Canada. There are now reportedly only 25 to 30 left in the Okanagan and Similkameen region (!!) and it’s estimated that only 300 or so remain in the entire province.

For us, this is such a lovely reminder of the natural biodiversity that exists here on site, and to the precious, fragile life this land we farm supports.

We’re headed to Whistler this summer! 🏔️ 🚠 🥂

Mark your calendars for Thursday, August 8th, as Chef David Hawksworth and his talented culinary team return to Whistler for an unforgettable outdoor dining pop-up event atop .

Join us at the Roundhouse Lodge on the Valley View patio from 4:00pm to 8:00pm, where guests will be greeted with live entertainment, a signature cocktail crafted by Hawksworth’s bar team, and a selection of canapés. The evening will continue with a four-course menu, thoughtfully paired with our wines, and presented to guests by winemaker David Paterson.

Tickets and more info available via the link in our bio.

A poolside toast to today’s BC’s sparkling feature in the highlighting our small lot 2021 Blanc de Blancs bubbly (92 points!). Available online and at the winery while it lasts.

Seek out this piece from wine columnist .gismondi as your comprehensive summer guide to BC bubbles. 🍾🥂

“I’m a big fan of Blanc de Blancs, which, at its best, pours with complexity and finesse, as this does. The Tantalus BdB comes off an aging 11-year-old Chardonnay block on the home East Kelowna estate. Winemaker David Paterson ferments it in older neutral puncheons (larger oak barrels). It spends seven months on its lees before heading to bottle and its secondary fermentation. It spends another 22 months on lees before it is disgorged and topped up with some still Chardonnay, setting the residual sugar at a modest 3.85 g/L. Expect a creamy palate with intriguing textures mixed with early morning ocean notes. Citrus and oyster liquor fill the back end of an enticing sparkler that should live well through 2030. Oh, and I love the price.”

Moving through the heat wave with Rosé in our glass and daily trips to the lake! 😅

Hope everyone is staying cool and hydrated this week! We shared a few tips about visiting us during the peek summer weather in our last post - including that we are dog friendly. ☺️ On leash and friendly pups are welcome to join you at your table while you taste.

And, if you’re seeking out intel on our fave off the beaten path beach spots - be sure to ask one of our team! 🤫

We’re about to open the doors to a gorgeous day in the valley! 🌞 🥂

As the forecast is calling for some very high temps, we wanted to share a few heat wave tips for guests.☺️

🕰️: We’re open daily from 11-6 for tastings and drop-in purchases with plenty of chilled wine available.

🐕: Friendly and on-leash pups are welcome in the tasting room. Please do not leave them in your car. We will have plenty of fresh water available to help keep them cool.

💻: Reservations are encouraged to avoid a potential wait. We have plenty of indoor seating with AC, and shaded outdoor seating until around 5pm. You can book via the link in our profile.

🚘: Please be careful of storing wine in your car in high temps. A cooler is recommended to pop those precious bottles in after purchase. Or ask us about shipping wine home.

Reach out to our team with any questions - we can’t wait to welcome you this week!

If you’re seeking a more immersive and slowed down experience when visiting us here at Tantalus, we highly recommend our Bees & Barrels tour – sneaky hack: it’s complimentary on Wednesdays*!

This tour kicks off at 10am on weekdays and includes a guided stroll through our vineyard, followed by a behind-the-scenes walk through our LEED-certified winery facility, wrapping up with a seated small lot tasting, overlooking Lake Okanagan and the valley vistas below.

Advance prepaid reservations are required for this experience, and as an interactive group tour, we may combine multiple groups as we explore the vineyards and cellar in-depth.

Find out more via the link in our bio and feel free to contact the winery for larger group sizes or to customize your visit.

We look forward to hosting you soon!

Happy long weekend! ☺️🥂 Our doors open at 11am today for indoor and al fresco tastings. Please note we are closing a touch early today (Saturday, June 29th) at 4:30pm to accommodate a private event.

Drop-in purchases are always welcome if you’re seeking some chilled wine or a new summer release ready to go for your long weekend table. See you in wine country, friends!

June, where’d ya go?? We are moving into a busy long weekend here at the winery and we can’t wait to welcome visitors to the tasting room.

A few notes about visiting us this weekend:

🕰️ We’re open daily from 11am to 6pm, with the exception of an early closure at 4:30pm on Saturday, June 29th. Thanks for your understanding!

💻 Although not required, we recommend making a booking online with us to avoid any potential wait times. A link is in our bio to book directly.

👧 We are family friendly! Don’t hesitate to bring the littles along for your visit, we have colouring pages and kid-friendly drinks available.

🐶 Pups are welcome to join you during your tasting, provided they are on leash and friendly. We have bowls of freshwater to help keep our furry guests cool. ❤️

To know us is to know our deep, deep love of Riesling.. our slight obsession with it really. 😉

As part of our 20th anniversary celebrations this summer, our winemaker Dave Paterson is dipping into our library to share a retrospective of our Rieslings - at the winery on August 15th!

Here’s a sneak peek at some of the back vintages we’ll be sharing in the line-up, alongside a personal charcuterie plate to play foil to Riesling’s raciness.

Guests in attendance will have the opportunity to purchase featured wines from our “vault”. ☺️

This is going to be an intimate evening, with only 36 seats available and tickets are on sale now, via tantalus.ca

As we commemorate our 20th anniversary this year, we are also celebrating 20 years of having the privilege to feature the carvings of Tahltan-Tlingit artist Dempsey Bob on our labels.

This collaboration stems from a decade’s old friendship between our proprietor Eric Savics, Dempsey, and his family. As many who have followed our journey over the years know, Dempsey’s art is deeply woven into the identity and character of our wines, and we are profoundly grateful for this connection.

On this important day of acknowledgement - National Indigenous People’s day - we’d like to take pause to thank Dempsey for his remarkable contribution to the landscape of Canadian art and for his dedication to fostering future generations of artists via the Freda Diesing School of Northwest Coast Art, of which Dempsey is a founder and senior advisor.

Our team had the fortune of meeting with over two dozen students from the school last year at the Kelowna Art Gallery’s opening of Dempsey’s cross-country retrospective tour. It was a profound experience to see such multi-generational talent. Feel free to check out some of the student’s inspiring works via: or use the hashtag

Happy summer solstice, friends! 🌞 🥂

We’re toasting the longest day of the year by reflecting on how fortunate we are to be doing what we love, surrounded by such an abundance of life each day - and in such a beautiful place no less.

Our team is feeling thankful and energized by a cooler spring and a slightly more subdued pace in the field this growing season - we’ll take the silver lining! ☺️

Taste of the West | Botanist Restaurant Vancouver, British Columbia

This weekend Dave and Scott from our team are heading to the Island to dive into all things Pinot Noir at NOIR FEST - June 22/23.

We love this event so much for its gorgeous Cowichan Valley location and incredible hosts at : Courtney, Brent and Andy. 🤗 Not to mention the uber idyllic setting to engage with guests and our fellow producers in all things Pinot. (With bites from this year!)

Roughly 20 tickets are left for each day – don’t miss out and we will see you there! 🏝️

This Father’s Day, we’re honouring dads and father figures of all walks, with a flagship tasting experience – on us!

Pop in this Sunday from 11am to 6pm to toast dad – we’d be honoured to celebrate with you and your family. ☺️🥂

Please note, our tasting room and wine shop are closing today at 1pm for a private event.

Thank you for your understanding, and we will see you tomorrow with our regular hours, now open daily from 11am to 6pm!

A little bird told us it’s . ☺️

Goodness do we ever love this noble variety, in all its expressive styles – from the gently oaked to the traditionally tended to sparklings. 🥂

Please join us in raising a glass to Canadian Chardonnay tonight, and feel free to scope out our three current releases online: 2022 Chardonnay pictured here, 2022 Bear Chardonnay and our 2021 Traditional Method Blanc de Blancs.

Some replanting is underway this week for our vineyard team, primarily in pockets of our Riesling blocks after winter damage.

We’re feeling very grateful for the cooler weather and decent precip to help these young ones settle in.

We can’t help but see the heart-shaped vine guards as omens of hopeful growth on the horizon. 🌱 💚☺️

Some of you may know that our very own proprietor Eric Savics is a proud Latvian expat, and the Honorary Consul to Latvia here in British Columbia. Yesterday, he was invited on the CBC to discuss the rallying fan support that is being thrown behind goalie and Latvian national, Artur Silovs - who has unarguably stepped up in a huge way over the playoffs! 👏

Catch the piece and some of the Canucks fan magic via the link in our bio (at the 10 min mark) - and !! With a splash of of course. 😉