CedarCreek Estate Winery — Attraction in Kelowna

I must be losing my mind. I clearly remember visiting Cedar Creek Estate Winery. But in reflection, I can’t tell you anything about it. I remember us driving up to it. I remember the construction to one side impeding a normally spectacular view. I have photos of the exterior, as does my girlfriend.

We found photos online of the tasting room, but they do not jog my memory. My girlfriend claims the photos on Google inaccurate, and they must have renovated since then.

Still nothing.

I must have been zapped by a neutralizer from Men in Black. I know you might be thinking that perhaps we walked up and decided for some insane reason to turn around, except I have bottles I bought from Cedar Creek, including a 2015 Platinum “Block” Single Vineyard Riesling sitting in front of me.

It’s real, in my hand, and it’s good, confirming I bought the bottle under my own volition and was not kidnapped and brainwashed to think so. It’s not like they pried my eyes open and forced me to watch bottles breaking while being unable to blink. I remembered Oak Bay, Summerhill, Tantalus before we arrived, as well as Monto Creek after. The photos we did take of the exterior reveal a breathtaking winery. Sure, the weather wasn’t the best that day, but that didn’t detract from the construction.

Upon deeper reflection, I seem to remember diamond shelves behind the counter like those seen at Mission Hill. Did I suffer trauma? Seriously, this is weird. This must be one of those situations where because I forgot to take photos, my mind blanked on the event because it’s so used to relying on them for mnemonic recall. I actually want to remember this place, unlike Summerhill, which I would have preferred blocked. The building looks amazing, the restaurant appealing. However, what I respect the most is their desire to sell actual wine, not their label or novelties or pseudoscientific mysticism. I’ve never seen, and I do never, a wine maturation chart on a winery website before. Every single bottle that is worth a damn is laid out with a recommendation of how long to wait in the cellar before opening. Seriously, why don't more wineries do this? We had been told that the deeper the punt, the longer it should age. Naturally, my Riesling has no punt, is not located on this chart, so I assume I can open it immediately and enjoy.

By the way, I’ll reiterate that I was “told” that, but that doesn’t mean it’s actually true. I do research these things.

And you can also download images as zipped files from their website; have they thought of everything? They haven’t thought of a mnemonic deceive so I could remember their damn tasting room. I will believe my girlfriend in that I entered said room and enjoyed a tasting. The bottle in my hand proves that, but I could not recall the gender or age of the host. Maybe it was The Shadow, and he altered my memory with some Jedi mind trick. Perhaps this is how they keep their secrets. You walk in, enjoy yourself, get sold on wine, leave, but then not remember why you enjoyed it, necessitating your return.

There is a small chance, upon reflection, the location might have been boring; I must admit that is a possibility.

Nah, much more logical to assume something...

Came here for the 3 course dinner and it was everything you hope it to be and more.

Atmosphere: industrial chic with a quirky personality. Spacious, luxurious. Concrete and steel with high ceilings, and huge windows. Eclectic decor with proper doors on each of the bathroom stalls for excellent privacy but old school subway-station round white floor tiles. I definitely enjoyed the feel of the place. You drive up a winding road to the gates and there are lights all around for a very charming walk as you enjoy the gorgeous view.

Service: Very attentive and genuine! I know servers make small talk as part of the experience but some do it better than others. Joel was excellent.

Food: It is everything you expect and more. I really appreciate how this fine dining establishment gives generous portions.

We had the burrata to start and the flavour pairings were a perfect match. There were 4! wedges of focaccia, a lot of perfectly charred red onions (enough to bring out their sweetness and to get rid of the oniony smell when raw, but still crunchy - this was magic), the perfect amount of cherries. I wish we had more prosciutto because it was so good, I forgot to ration it to last through the whole dish.

My mom had the bone-in pork chop (think tomahawk, but pork) and honestly this is a little bit of a flex that the restaurant could cook it so part of it was a little raw. This means that from farm to table, each step of the meat raising and processing was good enough quality to do this. Of course it made the texture so much better and the way the flavours could stand out so much more intense.

I had the petit beef tenderloin with giant fries. The cool part about the giant fries is that you get the texture and aroma of fries but also that of baked potato in the middle. Your brain is confused, in a good way. They also give you an entire bowl of roquette with grated parmesan on the side so you feel like you've definitely gotten your (raw to boot!) veggies so you don't feel bad about the giant fries and meat you've / you're about to devour.

Dessert : I was so full, I only had my half of the tiramisu the next day, at the end of a long drive to my next destination. It was still very excellent and perfectly balanced after a night in a hotel fridge and a day's car ride in a questionably cool cooler. I also ordered the jelly and custard, and normally I really don't like custard. This was different. It made me rethink every past instance of custard and realise that I just never had real or good custard until now. It was thick and just the right amount of creamy and paired perfectly with the intensely fruity duo of jelly on the bottom and fruit sauce on top. Both the jelly and sauce tasted minimally processed with the fruit sauce being just the right amount of sour so the red berries could shine through. This dessert is not showy and sounds deceptively simple and yet, would be the sort of thing you ask for as a last meal. It is the kind of dessert that you...

My dad came here previously having had a great experience a year ago, and was specifically looking for a wine from the Platinum M line, a dessert line. He brought us, his family, to the winery this past weekend for a wine tasting and dinner.

While unfortunately it wasn’t available for purchase, the wine tasting staff let us know it was available for purchase during dinner at the restaurant. It was during the restaurant portion of our visit that was the most disappointing part of our experience.

Our waitress was Hannah that evening, and when we asked for the wine, she did let us know there were bottles of the Platinum M available for purchase with dinner. She let us know that it would cost $59. We asked again to confirm because we were surprised that this bottle of wine only cost $59. To my dads recollection, based on the taste and exclusivity, he expected it would cost more. But Hannah said that the bottle of wine was priced at $59, so we ordered the bottle of wine. She also asked us if we wanted to start off the meal with some focaccia bread, which we said yes, and when she asked later if we wanted a refill of bread, we also said yes.

The issue was mainly regarding the bill. We found that the $59 bottle of wine was actually $159 on our bill. And we were unaware that the bread was not complimentary, and cost $6 per basket. On our part, we could have confirmed the price of bread before accepting at the beginning of the meal, but we were surprised by the wine, as we were told at the beginning of the meal that it was $59.

After we paid, we asked Hannah what the difference in price was due to. She told us that “there must have been some miscommunication”, as she stated that $59 was the retail price. We were bothered by this explanation as we were told multiple times that we could not purchase at retail, and it was very clear we were eating and drinking in restaurant. We felt misled as she did not state that $59 was the retail price, even as we confirmed the price a couple times before ordering. We are concerned that this was intentional on Hannah’s part to influence our choice to order the wine and end up paying more.

Aside from our waitress, our experience was alright, but because of Hannah, our experience was a very poor one in the end. I hope that anyone that visits in the future will have a better experience...