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Wine region

British Columbia

British Columbia is a wine region in Canada, home to 172 wineries, producing red, rose, white wines.

British Columbia at a glance: roughly split red/white.
On this page

British Columbia's 172 wineries make roughly equal red and white wine; Pinot Noir is the most common single-grape bottling; wines carry VQA designation.

About the British Columbia region

    Location
    British Columbia wine is Canadian wine produced in the province of British Columbia.
    Climate
    Although Canada has a reputation for having a cold climate, much of the British Columbia Interior has a mild or dry climate which is ideal for growing grapes.
    Soils
    British Columbia’s wine regions have diverse soils shaped by sedimentation, stream and meltwater deposits, glacial till, windblown deposits and colluvial action.

Region facts sourced from Wines of British Columbia, Climate & Soil, retrieved 2026-07-12. (Wines of British Columbia website terms; factual extraction with minimum necessary quotation), Wikipedia contributors, "British Columbia wine", Wikipedia, revision 1312649566, retrieved 2026-07-11. (Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International).

Most common single-grape wines

When British Columbia wines are made from a single grape (rather than a blend), these are the most common:

Wine profile

British Columbia is roughly split, making substantial red (51%) and white (41%) wine.

1,461 distinct British Columbia wines tracked, spanning the colours and styles below.

  • Red737 · 51%
  • White596 · 41%
  • Rose113 · 8%

Types: Sparkling, Still.

Representative British Columbia wines

Selected from stable product-to-region relationships for diversity — not a claim that these are the region's best wines.

  • Church & State — Meritage
  • Mission Hill — Jagged Rock Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc Semillon
  • 8th Generation Vineyard — Pinot Meunier Rose
  • Vanessa Vineyard — Meritage
  • Grizzli Winery — Muscat
  • LaStella — Fortissimo
  • Bench 1775 — Chill
  • Phantom Creek Estates — Riesling

Sub-regions & appellations

Within British Columbia, these appellationsA legally-defined smaller growing area within a wine region, often with its own grapes and rules. are smaller growing areas, often with their own character:

  • Okanagan Valley
  • Naramata Bench
  • Similkameen Valley
  • Cowichan Valley
  • Vancouver Island
  • Okanagan Falls
  • Golden Mile Bench
  • Skaha Bench
  • Fraser Valley
  • Gulf islands

Quality designations

Wines here carry VQA status — a controlled quality designation.

  • VQAVintners Quality Alliance — Canada's appellation system guaranteeing origin and standards.

Canada wine designations

BC VQA
BC VQA is British Columbia’s regulated appellation-of-origin certification system and includes minimum quality requirements.
IGP Vin du Québec
IGP Vin du Québec is the Quebec protected geographical indication recognised in 2018 for qualifying still, sparkling and liqueur wines sold under its approved specification.
VQA
Ontario VQA is a regulated wine-of-origin certification program covering origin, composition, laboratory testing, sensory review and label integrity.
Understanding the wine data
Designation
The protected-origin or administrative category associated with the wine, interpreted using country-aware rules. The same abbreviation can mean different things in different countries, so we only show the meaning approved for that country.
How this ranking is built

Producers are included when WhatDrink has a canonical producer-to-region relationship supported by the catalogue data. Display order may use represented wine count and relationship confidence to provide useful coverage; it is not a ranking of winery quality, prestige, production volume or critical acclaim.

Representative wines are selected from products with a stable relationship to this region, with preference for clear producer identity and a useful spread of producers, wine styles and designations. Inclusion is not an editorial score and does not mean these are the region’s best wines.

Explore British Columbia

Ways to browse British Columbia — each count is the size of that specific collection (a subset of the 1,461 wines tracked above):

  • Red British Columbia (71)
  • White British Columbia (61)

How to choose a good British Columbia wine

Look for the VQA designation — it signals a controlled-origin British Columbia wine.

FAQs

Where is British Columbia?
British Columbia wine is Canadian wine produced in the province of British Columbia .
What do the designation terms on British Columbia wines mean?
BC VQA: BC VQA is British Columbia’s regulated appellation-of-origin certification system and includes minimum quality requirements. These terms describe geographical or regulatory categories; they do not by themselves guarantee that one producer or bottle is better than another.
How are wineries and producers selected for British Columbia?
Producers are included when WhatDrink has a canonical producer-to-region relationship supported by the catalogue data. Display order may use represented wine count and relationship confidence to provide useful coverage; it is not a ranking of winery quality, prestige, production volume or critical acclaim.
How are representative British Columbia wines selected?
Representative wines are selected from products with a stable relationship to this region, with preference for clear producer identity and a useful spread of producers, wine styles and designations. Inclusion is not an editorial score and does not mean these are the region’s best wines.
How much wine data does WhatDrink have for British Columbia?
The current regional catalogue contains 1461 linked wines from 172 linked producers. Counts describe WhatDrink catalogue coverage and may change as source data is refreshed.

Regional data is aggregated from wine directory and product-catalogue sources; grape and style associations reflect characteristic varieties and may vary by producer and vintage.