Noble Ridge Vineyard & Winery — Attraction in Area D (Skaha East/Okanagan Falls)

Don’t dismiss Noble Ridge; it may be small, but it’s also adorable. 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. We ended the trip with 120 bottles acquired.

Two of those bottles were from Noble Ridge, a winery located a stone’s throw from a family of others also worth a visit (Liquidity, Stag’s Hollow, and Wild Goose), and even though Liquidity is by far the star of the region, I would place Noble Ridge as a firm second. Most of this credit falls on the talented servers behind the bar, who were polite, gracious, and delightful in both humor and personality. It could be said a winery rises or falls on the nature of its hosts, and Noble Ridge has hit a home run with these two.

The location itself is rather small, perched on an elevation overlooking wood and water. Inside, you’ll find a single crescent-shaped bar and a fridge of preserves, cheese, and meats. Oh yeah, and there’s wine as well. Outside sits another common attribute of wineries in the Okanagan—instead of a restaurant, they offer picnic tables, inviting patrons to take their purchases outside. It’s this practice we’ll advocate on return trips to the area (occurring sooner than you might think).

The scenery is majestic, with a splendid view, a picturesque walking path, and wine barrels punctuating the journey. It almost resembles a resort, and unlike Osoyoos, it’s not overlooking a desert.

Noble Ridge is a pleasant surprise, highlighted by remarkable hosts in a stately backdrop…

...and yes, for those paying attention, I did just burn through as many synonyms of the word...

Group of 4 of us showed up and they were busy, but able to accommodate us inside at the bar which we appreciated. Our server started off by explaining that the tasting had a fee, but would be waived with purchase (standard). She then added that there was absolutely no pressure to buy. Tasting started off alright, but when our group said we would skip the rose wine as we all aren’t fans, the server insisted we “live a little” and try it. Weird, but ok. As we moved to the red wines, she said we were going to play a game where 2 people get one of the reds, the other 2 people get another, and we were going to switch and see which one we liked better. “Switching” meant sharing glasses, not each of us getting our own pour of each of the wines. Weirder, and by then we were starting to wonder about this place. Finished our tasting and we decided to buy one bottle amongst our group, for a shared dinner we were having. Our server was visibly dumbfounded and made a comment about why we would only buy one bottle, clearly not upholding the no pressure comment she made earlier in our tasting. A very negative experience and we won’t be back, or recommending...

We've been going to Noble Ridge for the past 10 years. Next week is our parents' anniversary of 50 years, and I called to make a reservation for 9 people on a Wednesday. A lady named Natalie picked up the phone. She asked me if I went to the website (confused why that was a question), I said I did. She proceeded to say "And?" I said I couldn't make a reservation for 9 people on the website. She said I had to divide the group into 5 and 4, then book it on the website. I asked if I must book my reservations on the website and not over the phone now, she said yes, I needed to go to the website. I just wasted my time. Our group will not be visiting next week. There are countless options in the Okanagan that actually care about customers visiting. She could have handled this call many different ways, it was a disappointing reservation experience. We will not return...