Enchanted Evening at Mission Hill - Okanagan Spring Wine Festival Part 3
Where to for dinner? RauDZ? Waterfront? La Boussola?
That's one thing about Kelowna, there are a great deal of restaurants that serve great food and are reasonably priced.
One of the restaurants at the higher end of the budget is The Terrace at Mission Hill. Although the price is a bit high, we thought we'd splurge and enjoy a meal before heading back to the coast the next day.
Before I get to dinner, a little history lesson, class....
Mission Hill was founded and is owned by Anthony von Mandl who bought the land wayyy back in 1981. The winery started winning trophies for their wine back in 1994 and never looked back. The current winery building was completed in 2002 and cost $35 million! They started using their own grapes in 1996 and now have vineyards all over the Okanagan. The Terrace, by the way, was given the moniker of one of the five best winery restaurants in the world back in 2008.
Speaking of The Terrace, there were four of us for dinner. The menu changes regularly and there are a limited number of items on it - a sure sign that the food is the freshest and best prepared.
My wife and I split the ham hock and foie gras appetizer. It was amazing. I love foie gras but rarely have it because it is difficult to find great foie gras (like we had in France) and it is very rich so should be had in limited quantities. I think it had been about 12 years since I had it. The foie gras was presented on a crispy piece of ham hock and was wonderfully delicious. One thing I like about The Terrace is that the server gives you a thorough description of what you are having once it is served. Unfortunately, I can never remember the descriptions....
To accompany our appetizers and our meal, we had a bottle of 2013 Mission Hill Prospectus. This Pinot Noir was perfect - light enough for all of our foods but complex enough to match the rich and tasty food. I'm not sure how much it cost or even how to buy it as Mission Hill has a rather complex arrangement of wine clubs and tiers of club which you have to join to buy certain wines. However, the wine was available at the restaurant (however, Cait's fiancé Dan, picked up the wine bill, so I still don't know how much it cost!) .
For the main course, I had the duck breast which was another fabulous meal. It was moist and rich and tasty. It came with a nice variety of puréed and cooked veggies as well as hazelnuts! My wife had shrimp linguini and she said that it was amazing - notably, she didn't offer to share any but, to be fair, neither did I!
That's one thing about Kelowna, there are a great deal of restaurants that serve great food and are reasonably priced.
One of the restaurants at the higher end of the budget is The Terrace at Mission Hill. Although the price is a bit high, we thought we'd splurge and enjoy a meal before heading back to the coast the next day.
Before I get to dinner, a little history lesson, class....
Mission Hill was founded and is owned by Anthony von Mandl who bought the land wayyy back in 1981. The winery started winning trophies for their wine back in 1994 and never looked back. The current winery building was completed in 2002 and cost $35 million! They started using their own grapes in 1996 and now have vineyards all over the Okanagan. The Terrace, by the way, was given the moniker of one of the five best winery restaurants in the world back in 2008.
Speaking of The Terrace, there were four of us for dinner. The menu changes regularly and there are a limited number of items on it - a sure sign that the food is the freshest and best prepared.
My wife and I split the ham hock and foie gras appetizer. It was amazing. I love foie gras but rarely have it because it is difficult to find great foie gras (like we had in France) and it is very rich so should be had in limited quantities. I think it had been about 12 years since I had it. The foie gras was presented on a crispy piece of ham hock and was wonderfully delicious. One thing I like about The Terrace is that the server gives you a thorough description of what you are having once it is served. Unfortunately, I can never remember the descriptions....
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| Prospectus - the fancy fingernails belong to my daughter, Cait. |
To accompany our appetizers and our meal, we had a bottle of 2013 Mission Hill Prospectus. This Pinot Noir was perfect - light enough for all of our foods but complex enough to match the rich and tasty food. I'm not sure how much it cost or even how to buy it as Mission Hill has a rather complex arrangement of wine clubs and tiers of club which you have to join to buy certain wines. However, the wine was available at the restaurant (however, Cait's fiancé Dan, picked up the wine bill, so I still don't know how much it cost!) .
For the main course, I had the duck breast which was another fabulous meal. It was moist and rich and tasty. It came with a nice variety of puréed and cooked veggies as well as hazelnuts! My wife had shrimp linguini and she said that it was amazing - notably, she didn't offer to share any but, to be fair, neither did I!
For dessert, the four of us shared mini ice cream sandwiches. They were macrons (my current favourite cookie) with ice cream in the middle on a bed of crushed up wafer. It was the perfect end to a wonderful meal.
But that was not the end!
After dinner we went on a fantastic tour of Mission Hill. The hands down winning moment of the tour was the cellar - one of six under the mountain at Mission Hill. The smell and feel of the cellar was amazing. I wanted to curl up between some barrels and slurp back a glass of wine while I drank in the environment.
There were some great features including the 'vault' where vintages or Mission Hill going back to the early nineties were kept and, on the other side, bottles that owners and winemakers from other wineries around the world had left as a present to the owner. Perhaps a bottle of Domaine Romanée Conti was amongst the gifts?
There were other highlights of the tour including the symbolism of the many outdoor features, the wonderful art that was everywhere, and the architecture of the buildings. But the cellar was my absolute favourite part.
After a day of partying at Hester Creek, tasting at Road 13, and eating and touring at Mission Hill, I was very happy. This was a day to remember! And all that more meaningful thanks to my WSET education.