With friends outside the gorgeous view at Cedar Creek

We recently opened our bubble a little bit more and had friends from Vancouver stay with us for a few days. It was wonderful to have some semblance of normality with visiting, sharing wine, having dinners together, and going on wine tastings.

We went to a few different wineries over a couple days but I wanted to highlight two of the wineries that made an impact.

Cedar Creek is always a great stop and, I think, is the future of wine tastings. Not only have they recently renovated their winery, they have continued to innovate by changing their tasting format to a seated tasting - for Covid time and beyond. 

After booking a reservation, we arrived for our Farm to Glass wine tasting which cost $22 per person. This sort of fee may come as a surprise to Okanagan regulars but Napa and Willamette, to name a couple, have been charging equivalent prices or a lot more for their tastings for years.

You can choose either a tasting based on Northern Okanagan wines such as Riesling and Pinot Noir or on Southern Okanagan wines like Merlot and Viognier. We chose the latter. We sat on a comfortable leather sofa and Darren, our wine associate, brought the wines to us and knowledgeably explained the different wines including stories of where the wines were grown and how they were made. 

Briefly, the wines were...

The 2018 Platinum Haynes Creek Viognier ($35) was a wonderful expression of the Viognier grape. This wine had wonderful floral aromas and an almost oily, textured body with fruit and spice. This was a Very Good wine. 

The 2018 Border Vista Sauvignon Blanc ($30) was a good, crisp wine with lots of acidity, citrus and gooseberry flavours, and seemed to call out for some food. This was a Good to Very Good wine.

The 2017 Estate Merlot ($21) was OK - it did taste a bit plummy for me and - for my wife - that is a big turn off. Still, it had a fairly complex aroma and tasted fine. This would be between Adequate and Good. 

The 2016 Platinum Desert Ridge Merlot ($50) was a stunner! This bold wine had a complex aroma and a full flavoured taste of dark fruits and secondary flavours such as mushroom, cedar and tobacco. This was my favourite wine of the tasting and I would rate it Outstanding. 

Finally, the 2016 Platinum Desert Ridge Meritage ($50) was a silky and smooth wine with black fruits and spices, I would happily down this with a nice rib eye steak and would rate this as Very Good. 

We continued our tastings over the course of the two days stopping at Frind (a new winery that is becoming one of my favourites), the Hatch (a must see for their great wines as well as their irreverent spin on tasting), Rollingdale (the best quonset hut wine tasting experience in the Okanagan). Meadow Vista (a refreshing break with their distinctive honey wine and bistro), and the Vibrant Vine (with a new winemaker, there are excellent wines both old and new in a psychedelic environment). 

Our final stop after two days of tasting was recommended by Hamish, the wineshop manager at the Vibrant Vine. 

Priest Creek Estate Winery has only been open for two weeks but I think they will do well if their opening wines are any indication. 

Our tasting started with their Decota bubbles ($19 - current promotion - 2 for $25) which was a very nice, traditional sparkler made with a blend of two mystery grapes. I need to taste this one carefully at home and email the winery with my guess. Very Good. 

Next was their Pinot Gris ($23) which was a fresh, crisp wine with flavours of citrus and apple that would be enjoyable on the patio whenever the sunshine returns. Good.

Their Estate Gewürztraminer ($26) had a wonderful floral aroma is made from older vines - I'm not sure how old but I would wager over 20 years. There were tastes of lychee and grapefruit and would go well with Asian or spicy food as well as a patio sipper. Very Good. 

The 2018 Pinot Noir ($36) was the only wine that I really didn't love. It was a very light Pinot Noir that had lots of fruit on both the nose and the palate but didn't seem to have many secondary elements. However, it might be one to age and could develop over time so I rated it as Adequate to Good for its potential. 

The 2017 Merlot ($33) was stellar. We loved this. Again, my wife, the Merlot hater, said that this was a definite winner. This wine spent 30 months in new French oak and there are wonderful flavours developing such as cedar, mushroom and leather. This is one to put down for a couple of years. Very Good to Outstanding.

The final wine we tried was their Bordeaux blend, 2016 Hat Trick ($46). It was a tasty blend that really featured Merlot similar to what we had tasted in the last wine. I enjoyed this one as it had some complex flavours but, for a bold wine, it still couldn't beat the 2017 Merlot. Good to Very Good.

We were fortunate that the husband and wife were both in the winery when we visited. They are originally from Saskatchewan and have come to the Okanagan to make wine. The tasting room is very nice inside and there is a courtyard where you can purchase a bottle of wine and enjoy with a couple of glasses amongst the vines. I see good things in the future for this winery. 

It was wonderful to have friends visit and it was great to be able to do some serious wine tasting. Slowly and cautiously, the province is opening up .

Cheers!