Wineries & Microbreweries

Wineries

Vancouver Island is rapidly becoming known for its wines and the climate produces many award-winning selections. For a taste of the grapes, sample the fine vintages produced at local vineyards on Vancouver Island. Cherry Point Vineyards is located in the Cowichan Valley and produces award winning wines. Tours, an art gallery and picnic grounds are available. Nearby, Merridale Ciderworks produces cider from 100 % undiluted fruit juice. Saturna Island Vineyards feature a lodge and restaurant situated on sixty acres of vineyards. Meet the experts and sample the fruits of their labours.

Cowichan Valley Gourmet Cycling Wine Tour
Do you enjoy gourmet cheese, oven-fresh baguettes, fine wines and the sights and smells of the countryside? Visitors can join the Oak Bay Beach Hotel and Marine Resort's guides to enjoy the warmest climate in Canada as they cycle through Vancouver Island's Cowichan Valley in search of the perfect glass of wine. Connoisseurs first sample gourmet cheeses before picking up organic sourdough baguettes fresh from the oven. They then don backpacks and enjoy a 45 minute moderate cycle through the countryside, passing turn of the century churches and farm animals along the way. Once at the vineyards, guests sample wine straight from the barrels while enjoying their cheese and baguettes. The tour culminates with a riverside gourmet lunch and an opportunity to prune the vines or participate in the great stomping of the grapes! The Gourmet Cycling Wine Tour runs year round. Cycling is optional.

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MICROBREWERIES

Victoria has gained a reputation over the years for pubs and microbreweries. The first commercial brewery in Western Canada was opened here in the 1850's and was in operation before the first lighthouse was constructed. Meet each of the brewmasters for a personalized behind-the-scenes tour and discover the secrets of making unique beers.

Spinnakers Brewpub
Spinnakers is somewhat unique in its pursuit of traditional, artisan methods producing ingredients carefully made in Canada's oldest on-premises brewery, a separate Malt Vinegar Brewery, a brick oven bakery and full Sausage Kitchen & Smokehouse complete with walk-in hot and cold smokers. We partner with growers on the lower part of Vancouver Island who take the spent grains from the brewery to produce locally farm grown turkeys, highland beef cattle, pork and lamb, all of which are then brought back and served in the pub & restaurant. Many of these meats are also used in our smokehouse to make old-world smoked sausages, salamis, hams and bacons. Spinnakers was developed on the premise that in 1982 there was no place to get real ale short of hopping on an airplane and crossing the Atlantic to England or Europe. What John Mitchell had shown was that it was possible to make good beer, at the brewpub scale. The challenge was to do it consistently, and to provide good food as an accompaniment, and package it all together in an environment that would recreate the ambiance of an "old world" pub in a West Coast North American environment in the 1980's.

Vancouver Island Brewery
Vancouver Island Brewery began in Victoria in 1984, when a group of "Islanders" responded to the fleeing of all national and independent breweries on the island. Recognizing the tradition that these breweries had established, Vancouver Island Brewery began brewing handcrafted lagers and ales with fresh, distinctive flavours for the West Coast palate. Public tours of the brewery play an important role in providing beer lovers an understanding of the craft brewing process. As a "craft brewery", all our ales and lagers are unpasteurized and are brewed according to time honoured traditions complimented by modern quality control techniques to ensure consistency. Guided tours include a sampling session and each participant receives a souvenir pint glass. Duration of this tour is one hour.

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