Summerhill Pyramid Winery — Attraction in Kelowna

It does sound like two locations. Summerhill. Pyramid. One is original, the other not so much. After some research, I concluded that it is not called Summerhill Pyramid. It is called Summerhill, and it is a Pyramid Winery. I honestly don’t know what that meant, and given Summerhill is the only one with the title, I decided to look up their claims.

And I need to preface by stating the next five sentences are completely insane.

The man behind Summerhill, Stephen Cipe—considering himself a spiritual visionary at "Canada's most visited winery”—attributes the winery’s success to the unique process of utilizing the sacred geometry of their signature pyramid, designed as a perfect scaled replica of the larger one in Giza, to instill their wine with the same positive essense naturally occurring in all life forms. Lacking any ferrous components and placed to face True North, this platonic solid rests on a region devoid of interference energy and is placed on dirt compacted to 100%. This results in the pyramid acting as an interface between positive and negative space-time, a bridge between matter and anti-matter, and becoming the gate through which two realities meet and interact. This is related to Einstein’s theory of relativity, specifically his predictions on the existence tachyons (faster-than-light particles). Time and space are distorted within the pyramid and would most likely explain how the builders of the great pyramids in Egypt were able to employ negative space-time to levitate huge stones and build the pyramids in the first place.

And somehow this also make wine taste better.

By the way, I was not exaggerating or interpreting implications—most of that above was near verbatim on Summerhill’s website, which I invite you to explore. If that sounds insane to you, congratulations, you’re still a rational human being; you can read on and hopefully be wavered on your decision to visit this winery. If you believed it all reasonable and lucid, be warned, because I’m about to make you very upset.

This is an example of data mining pseudoscientific sources and combining them with numerology and astrology along with long debunked theories that serious science left behind a very long time ago in hopes of selling overpriced alcoholic beverages already fighting dubious claims about their benefits. Here’s the uncomplicated truth about humans, we evolved as pattern recognition machines, finding answers in chaos. Our desperation to explain everything when we knew almost nothing gave rise to the mythologies of antiquity. Summerhill attempts to weave confirmation bias, ignorance, and good old-fashioned quackery into a soup of utter nonsense to justify their business.

You don’t even have to search long to find verified evidence debunking every single point made on Summerhill’s website. The data they “cite” isn’t even accurate—they list dimensions of the Giza pyramid to justify numerology, but then list incorrect numbers. There’s no doubt the pyramids at Egypt, and other locations are amazing historical monuments. And the designers were intelligent in constructing them. But they didn’t employ magic—they used their brains to solve problems. They are tombs to narcissistic despots, and anything more than that is just a plot point in Stargate.

I won’t waste any more of my word budget into the absurdity Summerhill attempts to sermonize. I have issues with their over-priced wine, a result of them justifying their bankrupt spirituality. They claim themselves the most visited winery in Canada, and like everything else, it’s unverified. If you search for the best wineries in BC or all of Canada, Summerhill fails to top any of those lists. Can I name better wineries? Having been to over 90 wineries in BC alone, I can think of about thirty, ten...

Writing this review in terms of having our wedding there:

When we wanted to do a wedding on a winery for over 120 people in the Kelowna area, there weren't that many options. Thankfully, Summerhill was one of them, as the views were breathtaking, the food was amazing, and the service was fantastic!

The venue is absolutely gorgeous. It overlooks their vineyard which overlooks the lake and the mountains. They have a beautiful lawn for the ceremony, and the reception was in their hall which exudes a lot of warmth. They provided beautiful white chairs for the ceremony, the reception hall was air conditioned for the Okanagan summer heat, and the guests can also visit the vineyards as they please (apparently not all wineries do that when they have weddings!)

Foodwise, they are fantastic. Every vendor we spoke with, when we mention Summerhill, they all mention the view and the food. And it did not disappoint! Great flavours and also very accommodating. Only thing though, is that they don't offer a tasting of the wedding food in advance (I'm guessing because of the volume of weddings they have?), but they do offer a tasting of their bistro's food. Luckily, they were able to cook something that was similar to what we'd have at the wedding, thus we were able to make some adjustments, which they did accordingly.

Livi is the main event manager we worked with. She is extremely knowledgeable and she makes great suggestions when we didn't know what to do (ie. how much food for the cocktail hour, Cipes toast, etc.). She was also very accommodating to some of our requests (specifying the wine types, food adjustments). They do a LOT of events and weddings there, so it's important that you do read through the events order when they send it back to you (ie. food, etc.) thoroughly, as there were occasional small mistakes/typos, and each time we mention it, Livi updates it accordingly. With their volume, they can at times be a bit slow to respond when the wedding was far out, but Livi becomes extra extra attentive when it's crunch time. She attended to all our questions, and she was there the day of the wedding to ensure everything ran smoothly!

Overall, we were so happy that we did our wedding there! All the guests LOVED the venue (as it was beautiful and warm), the food, and the service. Livi was a true professional and a pleasure to work with (accommodating and never losing her cool), and the cost was very reasonable for...

Summerhill winery is best known for its sparkling wines… Specifically their brut. The gal who was pouring wine for us, mentioned that it has now won 30 years in a row, the recognition for being Canada’s best sparkling wine. This is quite an achievement… Although I didn’t inquire who, or which organization was giving out the award. Regardless, our tasting experience was flawless. Their wines are all 100% organically, sourced, and produced. The owner of this winery seems to be on a life mission to produce quality in both his wines and their restaurants food. This winery and Vineyard have gone through great lengths and pains to ensure sustainability, and best organic practices to produce and provide the best wines possible in this region, and the amount of awards that are on display are proof of this tireless endeavor. I really enjoy the red wines, specifically the Keter and the toadstool Syrah. When you select your wines for the tasting, which is complementary, by the way, you are given the choice to include an ice wine at the end. We chose two separate vintages of their Merlot ice wine, 2012, and 2016. We shared these so we could compare the two. Holy smokes is this amazing ice wine. If you are a fan of sparkling wine, red wine, or ice wine… What am I saying? If you’d like wine visit this winery.

Second review: Feb 2024: Summerhill winery: Daniel Poured our wines today, this man is a wealth of knowledge about this wineries offerings. If you’re able to, consider visiting the wineries during the off-season. This afford you extra time with the tasting room, staff, where they sometimes spend more time with you talking about the winery, how things got started… What set them apart, or makes them unique more special, amongst all the other wineries out there. For instance, Summerhill wineries commitment to organically produced wine and sustainability. They take pains to do things right here, and the amount of metals that their wines win are a testament to their tremendous efforts.

Wine tasting included their Chardonnay, followed by their pinot Noir, then their Cabernet franc, then the Keter wine whose label includes the cabal tree of life. This is also a whose label includes the cabal tree of life. This is also a very good wine very good wine. We ended up with a very good Spadefoot Toad Syrah this is one of my favorite red wines in this region. Consider this a must visit winery when you visit...