Cedar Creek - Renovated, Re-Opened, and Refined

Cedar Creek winery in Kelowna just re-opened - and it is well worth visiting!

Apparently the soft opening (for wine club members only) was last weekend but lots of other people caught wind of it and there were line ups out the door and down the path of the wine tasting room! I wasn't there that day but did go mid week and, I have to tell you, I was impressed!

In the whole Okanagan wine picture, I had previously considered Cedar Creek to be sort of in the middle to lower bracket. I hadn't tried a lot of their wine because of that and really didn't have an accurate reading on the winery.

Cedar Creek is owned by the Mark Anthony group, Anthony Von Mandl's company which also owns Mission Hill, Road 13, Checkmate and Martin's Lane, among others. The restaurant at Cedar Creek, Home Block, was also recently given a facelift but has been open for a while. I haven't eaten there but people that have are very positive about the food and service.

We were lucky enough to have both a tasting and a tour around the vineyard. Going through the vineyard was fabulous but it was a rather special opportunity that is not part of the standard wine tasting!

Cedar Creek has two levels of wine - their Estate series and their Platinum series.We had mostly the Estate level with the exception of our first tasting.

Courtesy Cedar Creek website

We started our wine tasting with a wonderful 2018 Block 1 Pinot Noir Rosé ($29.99). I love a good rosé, and this one was one of the best of summer. This had tastes and aromas of grapefruit, strawberries, cherries (those yellow and red Rainier ones) and watermelon and was made with two different pickings of grapes. Some was placed in neutral oak and was on the lees as well. This wine was not too sweet - it had good acidity but was still nice and fruity. This was my favourite wine of the day, perhaps enhanced by our racing along the vineyards in a golf cart while I was sipping on my rosė. Outstanding.

We then tried the 2018 Estate Sauvignon Blanc and the 2017 Gewürztraminer  (both were $18.99). I enjoyed both of these and thought the price point was pretty good. The Sauvignon Blanc was not too citrusy and had some grapefruit flavour that didn't overpower this bone dry wine. The Gewürztraminer was off dry and had a wonderful nose of pear and peach. It would be great with Asian food as well as slurping on the patio with your friends - or even by yourself! Both were Very Good.

Courtesy Cedar Creek website

Next was the 2016 Meritage ($24.99) which was Merlot dominant with about a quarter each of Cab Sauv and Cab Franc. I was quite excited to try this as the price point seemed rather reasonable but I was a little disappointed with the wine. There were flavours and aromas of cassis, plum, blackberry and vanilla but there was also a bit of roughness to the wine that I didn't enjoy. Maybe a year or two in the cellar might round out this wine a bit. Acceptable to Good.

The final wine was the 2016 Syrah ($24.99). The grapes for this wine are grown in the same place as the grapes for the Meritage (Haynes Creek Vineyard near Osoyoos) but these grapes were destined for greatness! The Syrah is made in a Rhone style, with a small bit (1%) of Viognier added. This wine had wonderful aromas and tastes  of violet, blueberries and plums. There were some vanilla notes amongst the explosion of red and black fruit. You could probably age this 5 or 6 years but I would be hard pressed to do so as it is so wonderfully tasty right now! Outstanding.

Next time, I think I'll have to cough up for a Platinum tasting - by the way, the Estate tasting has no charge!

By the way, I have started a wine touring business in the Okanagan. I do have this blog on my company website, but it just doesn't look as good as it is here! Please feel free to check out my website at wineandthensommwinetours.com !

Cheers