An Intriguingly Interesting Winery in Lake Country

 I love smaller boutique wineries and Intrigue Winery in Lake Country is no exception. 

We visited there recently for the first time and had a very enjoyable experience. 

Located amongst the vineyards (and across the driveway from O'Rourke's Peak's tasting room), the tasting room is fairly small with two stations to taste wine and then another room for waiting, if needed, where you can purchase your wine or other items. 

The other items include cheese, charcuterie, and other food items as well as chilled wines. You are then welcome to take these out to their fairly large patio area, which had numerous comfy seating areas, some of them covered to provide shade from the sun. I love when I see this kind of thing in a winery as you can make a day out of just one winery visit. 

Meanwhile, it was time to try out some wines in the tasting room. Since my first visit, I returned on a tour (yesterday) and both times I was so impressed by the enthusiasm and friendliness of the tasting room associates as well as their good knowledge of the wines and the winery. I was able to find out that the winemaker originally worked for Gray Monk but came over to Intrigue a couple of years ago. I was also able to have my wine questions answered competently but in a friendly, relaxed manner. 

Onto the wines!

Our first wine was the 2020 I Do sparkling rosé ($17). This is a blend of Riesling, Gewürztraminer, Merlot, Kerner (a German crossing of Riesling and Trollinger) and Ehrenfelser. This was a lovely, fun sparkler with flavours of strawberry and stone fruits. It had a wonderful nose and was a bit sweet - but not too much.  There's a regular format bottle as well as a smaller bottle that is a mere $7 and would be perfect for solo imbibing. Rated Very Good.

They also have just released another bubble that I observed yesterday (I think it is the Social Bubbly) which I couldn't try (drinking and driving people around doesn't mix) but my clients enjoyed it. It is described as being a little less sweet than the I Do with more of an apple/stone fruit taste. 

Next was the 2019 Riesling ($15). This was a dry Riesling with that wonderful diesel aroma and had flavours of lime and green apple. A good, basic, Riesling, you certainly can't complain about the price! Rated Very Good. 

The 2020 Social White  ($13) is an interesting blend of Riesling, Gewürztraminer, Pinot Blanc, Kerner, Viognier, Muscat and Ehrenfelser.  Many of these grapes are grown in small quantities for this blend and it is just fine. You can really taste the tropical fruits of this patio pounder. There's a lot going on here, even if this is a simple wine, and, at 11%, you could sip this one all afternoon. Rated between Good and Very Good. 

Finally we tried the 2018 Merlot ($19). The grapes for this wine are sourced in Summerland which might be a bit cool for Merlot. This was an good wine but seemed a bit plummy to me. Still, you aren't going to find many $19 bottles of Merlot in the Okanagan. Rated Good.

I really enjoyed my two visits to Intrigue Winery in Lake Country. I am looking forward to trying some of their other wines in their portfolio. I will definitely make it one of my suggested stops for future tours to the area. 

And, oh, that enthusiasm!