Kismet Estate Winery, Oliver

Fantastic wine, amazing food, lots of vegetarian options. Service friendly. Atmosphere is casual. Would give it 5 stars if they were not in the middle of construction. Nail gun in the back ground not so wonderful but waitress makes up for it.

The anniversary party with a live band and tasty food was happening! Next party July 1st. Maybe the restaurant will be open yum

My girlfriend and I were on vacation through Okanagan wine country. Over six days, we visited sixty wineries. You can follow our various locations with this disclaimer. That’s sixty wineries, not an exaggeration. We ended the trip with 120 bottles acquired. It was fate, destiny even, that Kismet Estate Winery would be our penultimate visit on our second day of our wine tour. See what I did there? Yeah, I know, it wasn’t clever at all. Kismet was in truth our first winery this day, but it had yet to open, so we ended up passing by on our way back to the hotel. I enjoyed Kismet immensely, for a reason which does not appear immediately obvious. In a sea of repetitiveness where the majority of wineries all share the same shade of mustard seed paint, I applaud Kismet for embracing a rusty red coat. It also boasts a very nifty logo dominating one wall, a cross between a skeksis from The Dark Crystal and the door-knocker from Labyrinth (double Jim Henson reference for the win). And finally, and I know it’s not entirely appropriate to bring this up, the owners and staff are members of an ethnicity rarely seen in the region. The name of the restaurant, Kismet Masala Bistro, should be a giveaway. I think this is fantastic, a refreshing shift in both presentation, manners, and cuisine against the customary French/Italian fusions. Alas, the restaurant, presently open and welcoming, had yet to open last summer when we arrived. The interior is not as impressive as the exterior, just a simple bar with shelves of wine. However, it was here we discovered bead trails. Some of you laugh, and others need an explanation; basically, nearly every winery from Osoyoos to Kelowna sells their own uniquely shaped bead, which can only be acquired (so goes the claim) at the winery. Most are designed to relate to the winery in question—some even have two. My girlfriend, who was discovering quickly that she cannot handle wine in large quantities without passing out for eight hours and waking up with a chip larger than Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction, discovered her purpose. While I drank, she would collect these trinkets, probably the motivation behind visiting sixty wineries. From this point on, we wouldn’t visit a location unless it had a bead, and would go out of our way, detouring for thirty minutes in some cases, to acquire a single one. Dedication. It started at Kismet. The problem was, it was the end of day two. It was 5:00, with most places closing at 5:30. And with that, we loaded into our car and raced around every winery we had been two in the last two days to pick up beads, a habit we would not break. As for the wines, Kismet is a strong player in the region, though I admit breaking from traditional in claiming their strongest bottles are their dessert wines. I mean, seriously, their cabernet franc icewine is to die for. So yeah, Kismet, great place with great people. Hit it up. You wouldn’t normally think Indian food pairs well with wine, and you’d be wrong. It works.

Wonderful experience, they make use some of the lesser grown varietals in the valley ie: Orange Muscat in the Safid white, yum :). Be sure to check out the Masala bistro while you are there, an unexpected pleasure enjoying great Indian food while overlooking the vines!

This was a quiet surprise. Host was wonderfhl and genuine. It was nice to be asked what we thought of what we were tasting. Really great history of the winery a d great tasting wine.