Gray Monk Estate Winery — Attraction in Lake Country

When imagining estate wineries, I often fathom small intimate operations where you discuss the matters of winemaking with the winemakers directly. It’s not common that you gawk mystified at the utter gorgeousness of an avatar of viticulture, something Dionysus would look down at approvingly and bless his disciples with a fertile harvest.

Too much? Fine, the winery looked pretty.

Most tourists, like us, approach Gray Monk from a road with a long right-hand loop down a steep hill, allowing you an extended view across fields to a mustard colored basilica, a common color with wineries I’ve noticed (Burrowing Owl, Cassini Cellars, Gold Hill, Ruby Blues, Perseus…you get the idea). This is a mere sliver of what awaits.

The wineries in Kelowna are mostly not in Kelowna—they fringe the edges with clumps in every compass direction. A strategically placed meteorite could obliterate the town and all that would remain would be a dozen wineries on the rim. In the North, Gray Monk can probably be considered the king…the King of the North. Yes, I went there. The winery is a multiple level building with paths and stairs cascading behind to further buildings below. These include production facilities, a laboratory (no, seriously, there’s a wine lab down there), and a restaurant, the latter of which I’ve yet to see even after two visits.

On our first trip, Gray Monk sat near the end of our journey, after sixty wineries and 120 bottles purchased, from Osoyoos to here. And yet, we still bought wine. Not only that, but it was one of the few locations that earned a repeat visit ten months later. Gray Monk is one of those extravagant locations that puts wine making and wine selling front and center. Their personality is their brand, and the cavernous wine store is replete with bottles. The tasting lounge is relatively small for such a building, but we never had an issue with tastings. The experience (on both visits) was efficient and satisfying. The hosts, though not winemakers themselves, knew their bottles.

As for the wines themselves, I appreciate the unique selection offered at Gray Monk as well as their magnificent bottle designs. We are still sitting on three bottles from our last trip, the 2014 Pinot Auxerrois, the 2015 Kerner, and the spectacular looking 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon Odyssey. I’d buy these wines just for the bottles. But we all know you can get most of those anywhere. You visit for the location and the experience, and Kelowna wineries have raised their game, necessary given the amazing wineries nearby like Arrowleaf and Ex Nihilo nearby. Gray Monk is worth a visit even if you don’t buy, just for the journey, both there and through. And no, using the virtual view on their website doesn’t do it justice. Gray Monk is a proud member of the upper echelon of Kelowna wineries and should be on...

Update- incredibly disappointed with their wine club information this year. Was there on 3 separate occasions in 2 weeks. Was approached about joining wine club more then once. Got the full spiel twice. There was a 50% off promo that made it even more enticing. After having it explained and clarified MULTIPLE TIMES both visits we were told you would get 50% off a case for joining. We clarified if it was 6 or 12 bottles and were told either. The lady who signed me up even said to make sure I get 12 to better benefit from the deal. Now I go to actually get my case and it’s only on 6 bottles. I contacted the wine club membership and they said it was explained incorrectly. This was extremely misleading and disappointing. Not a good business practice for Grey Monk.

We've been coming here for years and it's normally my favorite winery. This was the first visit I was quite disappointed in. There was no one at the desk greeting when we walked in. We watched the tv with the different tasting tours on it and it referred to their food menu which never came up on the board. When we were finally greeted by someone 10 minutes later she was clearly new and inexperienced, frankly we knew more about the tastings and the winery than she did. We were finally seated for a tasting and the whole thing was underwhelming. It took forever to find the food menus and when they did there were two menus with different prices on them. The poor lady doing our tasting had a full bar of people plus was running drinks outside so we were incredibly neglected. I was doing the same tour and another in our party and I got my small tasting of wine and hers didn't come for 20 minutes. The tastings of wine are also very small considering what you pay per tasting menu. There was another gentleman filling glasses behind the bar and his pours were so inconsistent with volume. Some glasses had twice as much as others. When we were done it took forever to get our bill. We wanted to purchase some wine but several shelves were almost empty. I took the last two bottles of two different wines. I did get the arancini with my wine tour and I do have to say it was very delicious! Will definitely be back for just those.

If this was my first experience at Grey Monk I probably wouldn't return. The service was also more disappointing because most of our party is part of their wine club and the service did not...

I’ve been coming here with family for the last 10 years, for lunch or dinner, and a few bottles on the way out. It’s always been excellent previously, but this last lunch experience was very disappointing. Makes me very sad, as coming to Grey Monk has been a tradition of ours, but if they don’t respect the customer and try to pass off mediocre food at premium prices, I won’t be back for food OR wine.

The seared tuna was bland and lifeless. The flavours fell flat and the accompaniments did not mesh well with the fish. I routinely have better seared tuna at chain restaurants like Cactus Club or even a run of the mill izakaya in Vancouver for half the price.

The bread share plate was pathetic. 4 wedges of bread that was starting to go dry with flavour that could be found at Superstore for $2. The spreads were laughably bad, and in such small quantities they didn’t even cover the limited amount of dry bread. Last year, the bread plate came with 2-3 different types of bread that were fresh, with various butters and spreads. Today was a far cry from that. A plate of this mediocrity should just come with the meals, not cost extra.

The mains were just as forgettable. The duck, verging on dry with nothing on it except salt. Sitting on the same cabbage slaw that came with the tuna. Clearly a cost cutting measure to share accompaniments between vastly different dishes; and it didn’t taste good with either. Carrots and asparagus were OK, just plain with some olive oil.

The chicken tagliatelle mains were equally mediocre. Shredded chicken mixed into a sauce on pasta with mushrooms. Edible, but boring.

The regularly $24 bottle of Brute for $60 was just an extra slap in the face.

The food has gone downhill drastically. Obviously something has changed recently and it’s clear that management is optimizing for short term profit and taking for granted the goodwill and brand equity that the previous staff built through quality food and wine.

With the vast range of other beautiful dining options in the area, I suggest just trying somewhere else unless you’re happy paying for the view and don’t care about the food. Unless I hear that Grey Monk gets back on track, we won’t be...