12 Best Okanagan Wines to Age

Cellar these amazing bottles until 2025 for an all-new tasting experience.

The idea came at a tasting last year when bottle after bottle of aged Okanagan wine made us rethink what we were tucking into the dark reaches of our cellar. We called up a baker’s dozen of the area’s most respected winemakers and asked them to contribute a bottle of wine that would come into its own in 2025. Here’s what they chose.

The Bottles

Summerhill Pyramid Winery Summerhill Vineyard Riesling 2014A biodynamic wonder of tart apples and citrus with an age-worthy spine of acidity.

Bartier Bros. Semillon 2013An unheralded grape with notes of dried apricot that truly comes into its own with some cellar time.

Haywire Canyonview Pinot Noir 2012Bold cherry notes paired with a surprising tannic structure ready this for the cellar.

Culmina Family Estates Hypothesis 2012This dense monster of Bordeaux varietals may still be young when this case opens. Exactly as owner Don Triggs planned it.

Blue Mountain Reserve Pinot Noir 2013In short, the only pinot maker in the Valley that’s proved, over the last two decades, that its wines age beautifully.

Tantalus Old Vines Riesling 2013This lean, pared-down take on minerality and off-sweet citrus is the area’s standard bearer white.

Black Hills Nota Bene 2013Our first cult wine made its name with its ability to age—and it’s better now than it has ever been.

Burrowing Owl Cabernet Sauvignon 2012Classic notes—cassis, cherry, tobacco—in a brawny package of soft tannins. Unabashed, unadulterated cabernet.

Laughing Stock Portfolio 2013Its mélange of grapes won’t get to know each other for at least four years—in 10, they’ll be getting along famously.

Quail’s Gate Stewart Family Reserve Chardonnay 2013One of the few chardonnays that can be called Burgundian: rich but still light on its feet.

Le Vieux Pin Ava 2014The Rhône varietals—viognier, marsanne, roussanne—meld to create a wonder of stone fruit and honeycomb.

Poplar Grove The Legacy 2012Sold mostly to insiders and made specifically for the cellar. This broad-shouldered fella should be tamed by 2025.

Mission Hill Compendium 2012One of the first B.C. wines to try to take on Bordeaux . . . successfully, we might add.

For more of Neal’s wine picks, click here.