1730 Mission Hill Road
Westbank, BC
Perched on the brow of Mount Boucherie, Mission Hill has occupied the best Okanagan winery site from its inception in 1966. However, the winery only flourished after Anthony von Mandl bought it in 1981. He has rebuilt the winery since 1998, turning it into Canada’s most visually stunning winery.
Visitors enter the property through a keystone arch and step into a plaza dominated by a 120-foot-high bell tower and bordered by a dining terrace overlooking the Okanagan Valley. In 2011, the winery plans to undertake an $80-million development to add a 104-room inn, 30 guest cottages and a full-time restaurant, all set into the south-facing slope of Mount Boucherie, below the winery’s demonstration vineyard. Mission Hill’s theatricality is well matched to a range of polished, sophisticated wines and elite tastings. Von Mandl’s ambition is that Mission Hill should be one of the world’s 10 great wineries. To get there, he even engaged Michel Rolland, the French winemaking super-consultant.
Rolland’s counsel and the sophisticated equipment installed in the winery for the 2005 vintage have made a big impact. The flagship Oculus is bigger and more polished. Quatrain and Compendium, super-premium red blends, and Perpetua, a super-premium chardonnay, have now joined Oculus at the top of the Mission Hill quality pyramid.