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!

Time for a random update of great stuff! And some good stuff! And some stuff that would fall under another category!

Alrighty, finally trying to catch up on a bunch of stuff we have enjoyed (or not) over the last few months while I have been too busy with Okanagan trip reports to post them! Lots of spectacular stuff here.

Expect a few more of these "random catch-up" entries in the coming days/weeks as I still have pages and pages of notes to post.

Next up: Back to the Okanagan report, as I promised last time.....Gray Monk!

Okangan trip report Part Deux, our morning begins with a stop on the way to Lake Country at Ancient Hill !

Our first visit here, which is on the way to Lake Country but not really, kind of out of the way but not so far out of the way you shouldn't go visit. They have a charming tasting room and friendly staff. But was the wine any good? Well, let's see.

So the answer to the question above, "are the wines any good", is "Depends". The Gewurztraminer certainly is quite good, and many of the others are perfectly drinkable. And, hey, if you are one of those that likes to go off the beaten path, figuratively and literally, this may be the place for you. Where else are you going to get Baco Noir, Lemberger, and a Rosé with Baco and Gerurztraminer? I'll tell you where: Nowhere.

Next up: We arrive in Lake Country, and our first tasting of the day is Gray Monk!

To Kelowna we go, the start of another Okanagan trip, and we begin the day at probably the most recognizable name in BC WIne: Mission Hill!

I have a love/hate relationship with this winery. I love to hate them.

But everyone deserve a second, third, and maybe fourth chance. This is not on our "must-do" list, but we do like to stop in every few visits to Kelowna to see what's up. Since they hired eminently-talented winemaker Darryl Brooker as their chief winemaker for the 2015 harvest, I expect that the quality of the wines here will have improved since our last visit. Let's see if I am right.

That's it for today, although there is still some room for consistency across the portfolio, I am comfortable in saying there has been improvement. Here's hoping it continues! I'm sure it will.

If you've ever been here, you know that the grounds of the winery are second-to-none. The tasting room is beautiful, if a bit corporate. Still, if you get the right guide, you can have a good experience here.

From here, we left and went to The Hatch; and let me tell you, there were more customers at The Hatch than there were here. But since I've already written my report on the wines we tasted at The Hatch, my next report will be from our trip the next day into Lake Country, at a winery we had never previously visited: Ancient Hill !

Okanagan Trip, Part V, and we go up, up, up, up, way up the hill to Fairview Cellars!

Seriously, anyone ever been here? You just keep going up, up, up, up. And signage? Forget it. Without GPS you'd have a better chance of playing Pick-Up-Stix with your butt-cheeks than finding this place. Thank goodness for GPS!

We arrive and are warmly greeted by Honey, their Golden Retriever. Honey is a good dog. Honey is a very good dog! And she joins us in the tasting room, where she is much more interested in having her belly rubbed than in anything wine-related that may be going on. We accommodate her as best we can.

In between belly rubs, we manage to taste some wine.

On the way out, we are greeted by their other dog, who's name escapes me. He was out protecting the vineyards when we arrived; probably chasing away bears. Seriously, he chases away bears. He is a very, very good boy!

 The very last stop of this trip was at Rust, which I already posted out of order, so this wraps up this little trip from June. Next up: Still have Disney wine to report on, plus a ton of miscellaneous stuff, but I think I'll try to get to our last trip up to the Okanagan this year, which was to Kelowna a few weeks ago. Lots to report on, so we will start at Mission Hill!

Okanagan Wine Trip Part IV, we visit Lariana Cellars, and the blog gets a facelift!

We are no strangers to Lariana Cellars, a small little outfit run out of a garage, about 15 feet from the United States border. That is hardly an exaggeration, as crossing the road would take you into bushes that are right on the border. It's that close.

They have a very small portfolio of wines, choosing to excel at what they can do best. An exciting winery and there isn't a bad wine in the bunch. Let's get to the three they had for us this trip!

That's it for today! Love to hear what you think of the new format. So far I think it's a big improvement but I am sure there will be challenges when I come across really bizarre-sized bottle shots....but I'll jump off those bridges when I come to them. I had to make the images thinner than I liked or they bleed over into the wallpaper, but that might fix itself when I move the blog to a new platform (spoiler alert....still to come).

Next up: This trip continues with a winery I was somewhat familiar with but had never actually visited: Fairview Cellars!!