Wineland at Hester Creek! Okanagan Spring Festival Part 1

This weekend, I was in the Okanagan as my wife and I visited our daughter (the one that works at Meadow Vista...)

It was a great visit - especially because of Saturday - but we'll get there in a moment.

On Friday, we went out for a nice little dinner at Bacaro Kitchen and Drink. They do great tapas, share plates and even meals and we had a nice assortment of chef's board charcuterie, cauliflower curry, prosciutto wrapped portobello mushrooms, Korean pulled pork sliders and duck confit spring rolls. The spring rolls were particularly amazing and the charcuterie is always an excellent choice.

With all of those different kinds of food, it was a challenge to select a wine for everyone. We ended up ordering a Viognier from the Okanagan which turned out to be just about perfect! It was a 2015 TH Wines (from Summerland) Viognier (their 2016 is $25 but I would guess the 2015 is only available in restaurants now).  It paired well with the spicy sliders as well as the rich spring rolls and had enough zip to it to meet the challenge of the meats on the charcuterie board.

Friday night, however, was just a warm up to Saturday.

Our first stop was Hester Creek. Last visit to the Okanagan, we ended up buying a case of their wine which made us a member of their Wine Club. That's it - no commitment, you just have to buy a case of wine.

Now,  as members, we were invited to their 1st annual Crush Pad BBQ party! We thought, why not, and booked a spot at the BBQ as well as a cellar tour. All free, mind you!

When we arrived, it was rather nice - a bit cloudy but definitely warm enough for a BBQ.

There was a fairly good turn out and we were a bit dazzled by all of the options. There were tents and tables set up in the courtyard and a live performer who did some killer covers of tunes by famous oldies such as James Taylor and the Beatles.

We were given a wine glass and two tickets each and headed off to the wine table to get a glass of wine. There was a choice of a Trebbiano white, a Cabernet Franc and a Character Red. I chose the Character for the first glass and it was a nice mix of Syrah, Malbec, Petit Verdot and Merlot. Ah, but I needed to pair it with something....

Why not the giant table of charcuterie?  There were crackers, toasts, bread, sausages, olives cheese, a tone of sliced meats and much more. It was the most amazing charcuterie display - basically a buffet - and was all excellent quality. It also paired well with the Character.

After the charcuterie, we crossed the courtyard to the BBQ station. The guy beyond the grill was Rod Butters of RauDZ in Kelowna and now runs Terrafina, the Hester Creek restaurant. He was cooking up some mussels, cheese flatbread, wild boar meatballs, and chorizo. It's a barbecue, so I wasn't expecting perfection but I found the mussels a bit bland. On the other hand, the meatballs and chorizo sausage were outstanding - and also paired well with the Character.

I was feeling that this was like a Wine version of Disneyland with food, wine, more food, more wine, music and sunshine. It was the Happiest Wine Place on Earth!

Next ride - the Library tastings!

The Library wines were all part of the Terra Unica series and were only available to Club member on the day of the BBQ. There was a Gerwürtztraminer (floral, nice wine), a Petit-Verdot/Malbec (good wine, fairly complex) and a Cabernet Sauvignon. I fell in love with the Cabernet Sauvignon - it had great complexity, medium tannins, and a great, one finish. I ended up buying 5 bottles ($32.95 each) and will drink a couple now and age the rest.

As if things couldn't get better, it was time for our Cellar Tour. This was guided by the two winemakers, Rob Summers and Mark Hopley. Incidentally, Rob was the person who gave us our wineglass and tickets at the beginning of the day!

We received a tour of the cellar including the giant tanks and the many, many barrels of wine. Then we gathered around one area of the cellar and began a vertical tasting.

Here come da' Judge!

A vertical tasting is when you taste the same wine by the same winery but with different years. The wine we were tasting was the signature Hester Creek wine, the Judge.

Cheers!

We started off with the 2011. It was good but actually tasted a bit young or at least not stunning. The second one was a 2013 and it was amazing. It actually tasted like it was older than the first one! It had a roundness and smoothness that the 2011 didn't have. I ended up buying a bottle of that vintage ($45). Interestingly, the 2011 was $65 but I thought it was not nearly as good. Finally, we tasted a 2014 that was going to be bottled in August. It was definitely fruit forward and a bit young but it was easy to see that it had great potential.

After the Cellar Tour, I had my second glass - a Cabernet Franc. I really enjoy Hester Creek's Cab Franc but unfortunately I couldn't drink the whole glass as I had to drive. Spitting and dumping wine was something I did all day as it is the only way to make it through a number of wineries.

We had another winery to visit so, after I grabbed a cracker and chunk of cheese,  we went to the wine shop, made our purchases, and headed on down the Golden Mile to our next destination, Road 13.

My wife and I wandering the vineyards of Hester Creek.