Tuesday, October 2, 2018

Okanagan Trip Report, Part Trois, and the Monks wouldn't be Gray if they ate here.....

Grapevine Restaurant at Gray Monk is a "must-do". Seriously, we have never had a bad meal here, and the scenery is fantastic.

Well, it's USUALLY fantastic; today there is a huge, billowing cloud of smoke that is impeding our Zen. I guess we can't blame them for the forest fires.

At lunch we enjoyed this:






































After our terrific lunch, up to the very crowded tasting room to see what they had to offer. We have been here many times, and our opinion is generally pretty consistent: Sweet whites are delicious, dry whites are OK, reds are pretty average. Let's see if that holds true on this visit.














































































































 


So there you have it: we found a new favorite in the Ehrenfelser and all of their off-dry to sweet whites are excellent as always. Their Kerner, which we didn't taste here, is fantastic every single year. They also have an always-decent Gewurztraminer and a Siegerrebe, a German grape you almost never see outside of Deutschland.

As for the reds, they are too far North to grow great red grapes, but that doesn't mean they can't source great fruit from elsewhere. Ironically the Pinot Noir, the one that needs the least heat, always seems to be pretty average.

We are always treated well here, and we love the restaurant, so we will never come to Lake Country and miss these guys. As they were one of the wineries that was purchased by Peller last year, we will see if the infusion of capital helps them source higher-quality red fruit. Time will tell.

Up next: a short break from the Okanagan trip to report on our latest "theme night". The country this time? "Other". What does that mean? You'll just have to read the report to find out!

When we get back to the Okanagan trip, it will continue in Lake Country, just down the road at Arrowleaf!


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