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

New to Old - Two Very Different Okanagan Wineries

It’s been a crazy, busy summer.

But I’m happy to say that I have successfully moved from the coast (Maple Ridge) to the Okanagan (Kelowna).

We dealt with the usual things of packing, unpacking, figuring out where the hell everything is going to go, and then making the place livable - the most difficult part being getting rid of a bunch of big, old pots and plants and preparing big, new pots and plants and bags and bags of dirt.

It was a welcome change, then, when we went on a very nice wine tour today, with the first and last of the day

We left Kelowna and headed south - to Checkmate Artisanal Winery just outside of Oliver. This winery is the brainchild of Anthony Von Mandl, owner of Mission Hill and many other wine related ventures. They only make Chardonnay and Merlot.

I had been to Checkmate two years ago and was eager to see how it was growing. Back then, we basically did our tasting in an office - this time, it was in their pop-up tasting room - a temporary building that has been open almost two years but will be replaced by an appointment only tasting room.

The tasting was $20 per person - but you do get the money refunded if you buy a bottle of wine. Mind you, while we were there, a couple came in for a tasting, blanched at the price, and hurriedly left.

It’s a bit different - we were at a table and could sit down. We were tasting four different wines and so had four glasses each in front of us. Our pourer (didn’t catch the name) was friendly and knowledgable.

First up was the 2015 Queen’s Taken Chardonnay ($125). This was an oaked Chardonnay and had a nice, smooth taste. There were stone fruits such as peach on the nose and palate as well as a hint of tropical fruits. There was also a definite mineralogy about the wine. Very Good.

Next was the 2015 Knight’s Challenge Chardonnay ($85). This was a less oaked Chardonnay - and had stronger tastes of citrus fruit as well as butter. It was quite lively on the palate, something I don’t usually mind, but this did not like as much as the first one. Good

The first Merlot was the 2014 Silent Bishop ($85). I have a 2013 vintage of this wine in the cellar and it was easy to see why as this wine had powerful fruit tastes of blackberry, blueberry and black cherry as well as underlying tastes of coffee, vanilla, and tobacco.  Outstanding.

The final Merlot was a 2014 Opening Gambit. This was all black fruits like cassis and blackberry with medium tannins and integrated oak. This was a wine to age, as is the other Merlot, and, since it was my wife’s favourite, we bought a bottle. Very Good.

As a bonus, we also got to taste the Bear’s Move Chardonnay ($60). This wine is natural, open ferment. The first year it was made, a bear opened the top of the fermenter but got scared off by the venting gasses! This is a wonderful, funky wine that has the stone fruit that you associate with Chardonnay but has a whole bunch of other, earthy, funky flavours intermingling with the wine. In fact, I bought two bottles! Outstanding.

After visiting two other wineries on the way back towards Kelowna, we stopped in at Hainle Winery in Peachland.

My wife and I had visited Hainle Vineyards about 30 years ago so it was interesting to see what it was like now. ]

When they opened in the 1970s, I believe it was one of the few wineries that actually knew what they were doing and made good wines. They were the first winery to make ice wine in Canada and were the first certified organic winery in Canada in 1988.
The original owner, Walter Hainle, was originally from Germany, and was winemaker and owner until his passing. In 2002, Walter Huber (the other Walter), bought Hainle Winery and combined it with Deep Creek Winery to make one winery. Walter Huber sold the winery in 2006 but has stayed on as winemaker ever since. He is a very charming man and we were privileged to have both Walter and our pourer, Barbie, for our tasting.

We had many different wines there and I don’t quite recall everything about all of the wines but here are my notes

2009 Deep Creek Ehrenfelser  ($30)- A very aromatic wine with some stone fruits. A bit subdued in taste, overall. Acceptable.

2016 Gewurztraminer ($25) - Another very aromatic wine. This one did not disappoint in the fruit as the tastes of stone fruit, tropical fruit and roses. Good.

2016 Estate Zweigelt ($31) - This is a crossing between Blaufrankish and St. Laurent in Austria. The wine had definite red and blue berry tastes balanced with high acidity. A good food wine that would satisfy a number of people at a dinner party. Very Good.

2008 Reserve Pinot Noir ($477) - This was an amazing Pinot Noir! There were wonderful aromas and tastes of cherry, strawberry, and even some tropical fruit. There were also underlying earth flavours as well as leather and tobacco. The price was a bit high but the 2009 Reserve Pinot (regularly $370) was on sale for $99 so I bought one (which is why the 2009 is pictured here). Outstanding.

We also tried some fortified wine (OK) and some Madeira that was more of a barrel taste (has potential). I think that’s all we tried….

Overall, it was a good tasting day with our two bookends, Checkmate and Hainle, contrasting as one of the newest wineries versus one of the oldest in the Okanagan. Both of them were well worth the visit.

Cheers