Lake Country, just north of Kelowna, is home to several wineries - some of which I have visited but others, I have not. It’s also an area that sometimes gets left off of visitors' wine touring. Recently, I thought I would remedy that by visiting some of the wineries that I had never been at before. The first one I visited was Gray Monk.
Gray Monk Winery was originally an orchard but when it was bought by the Heiss family in the 1970s, they decided to grow grapes and make wine. They imported Pinot Gris, Pinot Auxerrois, and Gewürztraminer grapes from Alsace, France - in fact Gray Monk is the English translation of Pinot Gris!
Gray Monk was one of the pioneers of the BC wine industry as they began producing wine in the 1980s. It was also an estate winery - meaning they made wine from their own grapes - and was a lot smaller than the other commercial wineries of its time. Since then, it has made a name for itself as a producer of excellent wines and even helped create the VQA (Vintners Quality Assurance) certification that most wineries in BC are participants. Eventually, the family retired from winemaking and, in 2017, sold to Peller Estates.
It’s a fairly common Okanagan wine story - little winery starts up, makes excellent wine, gets bigger and bigger, gets bought out by a giant wine conglomerate and the wine that was so wonderful and innovative becomes bland wine juice that has mass appeal to beginning wine drinkers. Or, at least, that happens sometimes.
And I was worried that it had happened with Gray Monk - which was why I had resisted visiting the winery.
The view of the lake is pretty spectacular from the parking lot. After parking we entered the medium sized tasting room which looks and feels a bit like you are in the inside of a wine barrel (in a good way). Our tasting room associate was lovely - friendly and very knowledgeable.
The first wine we tried was the 2019 Pinot Gris ($17) - interestingly, Gray Monk was the first winery in the Okanagan to grow Pinot Gris. This was a fruity wine with smells and tastes of apples and stone fruits. This wine was on the sweeter side of dry and was very enjoyable - Very Good.
Next was the 2020 Estate Pinot Auxerrois ($18). It was a very crisp wine which reminded me of a Viognier. I enjoyed it but my wife was not a big fan. There were flavours of apple, lemon and pear - Good.
Ehrenfelser is a grape that you used to see a lot in the Okanagan but not so much anymore. The 2020 Estate Ehrenfelser was a fruity wine with a bit of residual sweetness and flavours of mango and other tropical fruits. I was surprised how much I enjoyed this one. Very Good.
The 2020 Rosé ($18) recently won a gold medal in California so it was definitely worth trying. This is a blend of Rotberger, Gamay Noir and Pinot Noir. Rotberger is a German crossing of (probably) Trollinger and Riesling. This wine was very light in colour and was refreshingly light in taste with aromas of berries and melons. This was a super interesting and unique Rosé and I rated it as Outstanding.
The 2019 Monk’s Blend is a blend of Syrah (73%) and Cabernet Sauvignon (27%) and is sourced from both the Okanagan and Similkameen Valleys. This was a bold wine that had rounded tannins and tastes of both red and dark fruits. At $20 a bottle, this is a Very Good wine.
Our final wine of the tasting was the 2017 Odyssey Cabernet Franc ($35). This was an enjoyable wine with lots of black fruit and earthy flavour but I just wasn’t as impressed with this wine - especially at the price - compared to the Monk’s Blend. Rated Good.
Overall, I was very pleased with our visit to Gray Monk. The staff was knowledgable, they had a good range of wines, and the quality ranged from good to outstanding. Throw in the spectacular view and you'd be hard priest to find a better winery in Lake Country.
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