Silver Sage Winery — Attraction in Area C (Inkaneep/Willowbrook)

Hey, the one with the beard & mustache oil who thinks graffiti is ironic…this is not your time to speak up about what defines a wine. This is my turn—I get to talk.

My girlfriend and I were on vacation through Okanagan wine country. Over six days, we visited sixty wineries. You can follow our various locations with this disclaimer. That’s sixty wineries, not an exaggeration. What’s the biggest lesson to take back from it? For one, don’t feel pressured to buy wine from every winery, because you end up trying to squeeze almost a hundred bottles into a tiny Nissan versa note. Once you include the boxes we had shipped, it ended up being 120 bottles. Now that the Wines of BC department of Save On is found basically across the province, there is no reason to purchase outside of those unique bottles found only at the wineries. We don’t regret our purchases; they just made transportation rather difficult.

That being said, this is that one exception. Silver Sage CANNOT be found at the Wines of BC at Save On. You would have to acquire a bottle from an independent liquor store, or you just stop into the picturesque winery and have a case shipped no charge, which is what we did…which is what I did because the girlfriend was passed out in the car.

Here’s the thing, we’d just come from Black Hills and had taken in their VIP Cabana tasting, which involved six very generous portions of wine. And maybe it was the heat, but the girlfriend waved the white flag not long after, remaining in the car while I took in one of my personal favorites of the entire trip. Silver Sage offers no personalized tours I could fine, no avant-garde decor. The winery doesn’t resemble a Spanish colonial monastery. The grounds looked amazing, and I enjoyed the single lane road with blind corners leading in. I wanted to take a walk around the fields, but…you know…passed out girlfriend in car…priorities.

While inside the mansion, I found one of the two tasting bars, and squeezed my way beside a group of elderly tourists. The flight of wine would have taken me to Cuba—they offered ten samples. They were thankfully small, but in retrospect, I wished there was just a splash more. These wines are amazing, and I know someone wearing thick-rimmed oversized glasses, a flannel shirt, suspenders and Doc Martens will correct me in that Silver Sage wine is not technically wine because of their use of infusions. First of all, those people can stuff it.

Yes, you, I see you, the one dressed like a 1930’s hobos. Sit down, no one cares about your bruised palette. Oh dear, this sweet wine was too much for your sensitive stomach? You think you’re a wine expert because you saw the documentary Somm and someone told you wine isn’t wine unless it puckers your tongue and tastes like you licked a two-week old ashtray. Silver Sage makes good wine. The selection is wide, and I’ve yet to know someone of respect that didn’t enjoy their selection.

NA-NA-Na-na…I see you there, the one with the bowtie scoffing so loudly, you’re actually spitting on the person in front you, you don’t count.

The host was friendly and funny, and every listener was glued until the end. With free shipping on twelve bottles or more, I took the liberty to acquire a mix of reds, whites, and dessert wines. Silver Sage is an amazing location and the numerous positive reviews have it in the right. Ignore the pretentious judgements from people trying to find a lofty perch to look down on. Silver Sage stands tall regardless.

I returned to my car to a waking girlfriend, willing to tackle the next location. She doesn’t know what she missed. Of all the wineries in Okanagan, Silver Sage is the top on the list for a return visit, the absolute mandatory visit for anyone...

We booked two rooms here to enjoy before having to get the bride ready for her wedding the next morning. We arrived later around 9:30 pm (People running the place weren't too impressed with the late arrival) and found the place to be very comfortable and spacious. They left us bottled wine to enjoy which was nice. We booked the passion room and the sunset room. The passion room has a bigger area with a seating arrangement. The sunset room has a nice terrace that overlooks the vineyard. We called it an early night because we had to be up for 5:45am the next day. We then spent the rest of our time in this bed and breakfast with issues. In the sunset room the A/C constantly dripped behind the bed and the noise was so loud and close to our heads that we couldn't fall asleep. We tried turning it up, down, off and nothing worked. Needless to say, I got about an hour of sleep all night. Upon awakening, we decided to make breakfast and there is a decent amount of ingredients available, bread, eggs,yogurt, cereal, etc. The unfortunate part is that most of these ingredients were expired. Thankfully the bride looked at the expiration date before consuming or I am sure she may have thrown up all down the aisle. The next issue was that we wanted to check out the terrace in the sunset room. The door is literally hanging on the hinges. I worry for the safety of the next guests that stay here because I think it is one screw away from falling off. There are some pluses, the bathroom areas look pretty luxurious but would I stay here again, probably not. Too expensive for what we got. I recommend that guests stay here if the B&B pays more attention to the food in the fridge and the maintenance of the rooms. Just not...

We booked two rooms here to enjoy before having to get the bride ready for her wedding the next morning. We arrived later around 9:30 pm (People running the place weren't too impressed with the late arrival) and found the place to be very comfortable and spacious. They left us bottled wine to enjoy which was nice. We booked the passion room and the sunset room. The passion room has a bigger area with a seating arrangement. The sunset room has a nice terrace that overlooks the vineyard. We called it an early night because we had to be up for 5:45am the next day. We then spent the rest of our time in this bed and breakfast with issues. In the sunset room the A/C constantly dripped behind the bed and the noise was so loud and close to our heads that we couldn't fall asleep. We tried turning it up, down, off and nothing worked. Needless to say, I got about an hour of sleep all night. Upon awakening, we decided to make breakfast and there is a decent amount of ingredients available, bread, eggs,yogurt, cereal, etc. The unfortunate part is that most of these ingredients were expired. Thankfully the bride looked at the expiration date before consuming or I am sure she may have thrown up all down the aisle. The next issue was that we wanted to check out the terrace in the sunset room. The door is literally hanging on the hinges. I worry for the safety of the next guests that stay here because I think it is one screw away from falling off. There are some pluses, the bathroom areas look pretty luxurious but would I stay here again, probably not. Too expensive for what we got. I recommend that guests stay here if the B&B pays more attention to the food in the fridge and the maintenance of the rooms. Just not...