Phantom Creek Estates — Restaurant in Area C (Inkaneep/Willowbrook)

Update - Phantom Creek reached out about my experience below and have definitely corrected the issues that occurred. I look forward to giving them another go in the future.

Views and facilities are absolutely amazing, love the ambient music playing in the background even in the parking lot! However… not sold on the wine yet and the service was so so. Here’s our experience: We arrived without a reservation so we were not sure if we could get in (plus we had our kids with us - 8 & 11)…. We also didn’t want to do the longer expensive tastings because of the kids being with us. I was hoping to get to taste a few of their offerings as I hadn’t on previous trips. The girl at the front was great… let us know that there was no room at the moment but if we took a seat, something would open up in about 10-15 min at the bar, and they had a 3 wine tasting for $15 that would be waived if you purchased wine. So we went and took a seat to wait for an open spot. 20 min went by and we were still sitting there. I noticed several people come in after us and were guided to the bar. I decided to go inquire as the reception had changed and perhaps they forgot about us. Sure enough, the new girl had no clue we were waiting, I mentioned we just wanted to do the 3 wine tasting and had been waiting quite a while. she ran off and few min later, she came back and said an ambassador would be right with us. A few more minutes later, the ambassador came and apologized profusely, and brought a couple glasses of wine over on the house. This was nice of them. The ambassador told us to stay at the table, we were in for a special treat and since we were waiting so long, that we could pick 5 wines to try from the list they had. she also asked if our kids would like a soda, which of course they did! We picked Chardonnay, then 4 of the red wines. About 10-15 min later she came back with a “treat”, brought 3 of the cuvées to try beside each other (even though we only picked two). We were left alone for 15 min… then she came back apologizing again and saying how busy things were. She asked our kids if they wanted another soda (of course they did!)… then told us she would be back with some crackers, water and the other two red wines we were trying. Off she went… 5 min later she came back, and asked us which were the two wines we wanted to try? another 5 min, came back with the soda, crackers and the water. 5 more min, and she finally brought the last 2 wines. We tasted the last two wines, and were ready to pack up as it had been well over an hour, but she said she had one more special treat for us… brought us one of the wine club wines and then told our kids they could have some sorbet. All in all, even though things took forever, and she forgot about the Chardonnay, we thought they had done a good job trying to make up for the error, and tried 2-3 extra wines over the 3 we were expecting. I decided to purchase a couple higher price point wines, since we would be getting the tasting free with purchasing wine, and they tried to make up for the early error. I went to pay and got a bit shocked… my bill was $220 after taxes! The 2 wines came to about $140, the tasting was $50 for two, and the 2 sodas for my kids were $10. Oh she told me that they would wave the sorbet charge for the kids……… What?!? Somehow we were upgraded in our tasting from the $15 to $25 tasting, fees were not waived, and they charged us for our kids sodas (even though they made it seem they were free). Plus I had bought two of their higher end wines. The money doesn’t bug me as much as the transparency of it all (and I didn’t want to seem cheap by complaining). It seemed like a lot of things were “special treats” and free when they were definitely not. Mix ups can happen, but this...

Phantom Creek is a truly beautiful location, the view is absolutely stunning and the complex is gorgeous and modern, clearly no expense was spared in the goal to create a luxurious space and experience.

The tasting experience was bizarre and very confusing. Our host first brought us two white wines each, and blazed through the tasting notes for both of them without leaving us much time to explore the wines ourselves. Information about the winery and the vineyards was not very specific and focused a lot on the pedigree of their winemakers and how expensive some of the land was, as if we should be impressed. Soon after we were presented with a rose, and three reds at the same time, so we had a flight of four wines each and the table became cluttered and confusing. It was difficult to remember which wine was which, especially without written tasting notes for us to follow along or refer to throughout the tasting. Our host again rattled off the tasting notes for these 4 wines, often repeating how "fruit forward" they are or praising the "smooth tannins". Somehow all three of the reds seemed to have almost identical tasting notes according to our host.

In future I would suggest each wine be brought out individually, the host can then go through the tasting notes with the clients and then allow 5ish minutes for the clients to taste and experience alone before returning with the next wine. This will eliminate confusion and allow for a much more guided and personalized experience.

Now onto the wines, sadly we found them to be very boring. Only the Rose had much flavour at all. The reds curiously lacked any nose whatsoever and were so dry on the palate as to make discerning any subtle flavour almost impossible. Thankfully a jug of water is provided as you will certainly need it to combat the horrible case of dry mouth that will result from drinking the red wines. The whites were equally boring, inexpressive on the nose and flat in flavour. Finally they are all expensive, with the rose being the cheapest at $30.

The tasting fees are very expensive at $20-$25 and are not waived upon purchase, leaving us to feel as though they have overstepped on their budget to build this magnificent space and are footing their clients with the bill. Overall the whole place has a sense of "faux luxury" about it, not very genuine.

In conclusion: Stunning views in a beautiful location, although somewhat pretentious and disingenuous. Boring, lacklustre wines that curiously lacked both flavour and aroma. Confusing, rushed and clearly very rehearsed tasting experience. Very overpriced and clearly all...

Old review at the bottom.

4 months later - Edit to add: I would like to thank the winery management for getting in touch and being true to their word and working to provide amazing service. We had an opportunity to come back and have another tasting and it was absolutely wonderful. We got to try 6 wines instead of 5, learnt so so so much about the vineyard, the process and differences between wines that can be made from the same plant but grown in different parts of the valley. Our sommelier was Tanya - she is amazingly knowledgeable about the wines, the estate and the production process and she made sure that we enjoyed the visit. We appreciate the effort that went into it and will be happy to come back once we can afford to buy a barrel of our own (iykyk) or any time we feel like having a wonderful evening with live music and the gorgeous view of the valley. Thank you!

Hello! Thank you for asking for feedback. Unfortunately we did not have a good experience. We arrived on time and were shown to our table. After waiting for 20min we went to look for somebody to inquire about the wait. Turns out the sommelier (?) was not aware we arrived. We were brought complimentary glasses of wine. Unfortunately the glasses were dirty. As in not washed at all with lip impressions on the rim and finger prints. That was not nice. It was suggested that we pick the wines we want to taste. Which is hard to do without context or without any explanation what’s the winery famous for or strives to achieve with its wines. We did not learn anything about the wines themselves as the sommelier gave a brief explanation of the notes but did not describe where the grapes were grown or tell us anything else besides a “balanced bouquet” of the wine. That was disappointing. I believe we got more attention at the burrowing owl that does tastings for $5 at the bar for drop ins. As we were hesitant to pick what we want to taste (really not clear from the list what’s is available and we were not told what is on the tasting menu and what’s out of bounds) our sommelier offered a glass of a more expensive wine and offered that we cleanse the palate with some crackers and charcuterie before trying. He never brought it over and after waiting for 15 min or so we drank the wine and left. I wish it was a different experience and I am sad it was...