As we all wait for wineries to open up in this new normal, there is a page that has collected Virtual Tours of a number of Okanagan wineries.

If you need your fix of vineyards and wine shops before they are open or if you are still a bit uncomfortable leaving the cocoon of quarantine, then these tours will give you a taste of the real thing.

But only a taste.

The majority are just Google Maps locations - the VR image is at the address of the winery but you don't actually go into the property. It's OK to look at the vineyards from the road but it's pretty far from immersive.

A few have made a VR point somewhere in the winery. Mission Hill, Painted Rock, and Bench 1775 are examples of this. You can see a 360° view from where you are but you can't actually move around the winery. Better but not ideal.

The best ones have navigable VR images connected together so you can actually take a tour of the winery.

The best Virtual Tours that I saw were Quails' Gate, Summerhill, Nk'Mip, House of Rose, Mt. Boucherie, Inniskillin, Jackson Triggs, See Ya Later Ranch, Sumac Ridge, and Therapy Vineyards.

The link is available here - some are well worth checking out.

Thanks to the Vancouver International Wine Festival for pointing me in this direction.

Cheers!