Sunday, Sept 6, 2009

Headed back up to Naramata today…weather was still cool and rainy. Here’s the rundown of the wineries and my perception of them:

Red Rooster- Came here on Ryan & Silver’s Excellent Adventure 2007, the Magical Mystery Tour 2008, and TRIED to come here last week (see earlier note). Service: 10/10…excellent (this time). Wines: 8/10. I’ve always enjoyed this place, and it was hard to pick ‘just one.’ I bought a Riesling. I would definitely come back again.

Laughing Stock- First time here. Service: 6/10. Wines: 6/10, but priced far too high. I didn’t buy any simply because of the price. Might go back if there was time and their prices come down.

Zero Sum- First time here. Service: 6/10. Wines: 6/10. Didn’t really think much of this place but I enjoyed their Malbec so I bought that. Would go back if there was time, but wouldn’t go out of my way.

Lake Breeze- First time here. Service: 6/10. Wines 7/10. Very busy place, got the sense it was quite popular. I was getting a little tired of wine by this point so I did something crazy: I bought a reserve Chardonnay. I don’t like Chards but they go well with oysters, so I bought one for that purpose. I would go back again.

Black Widow- Came here on the Magical Mystery Tour 2008. Service 6/10. Wines 7/10. They do some interesting fortified wines that are rare, so I bought one of those. Would go back if there was time.

Elephant Island- Came here on the Easy Rider Tour 2006, Ryan & Silver’s Excellent Adventure 2007, Magical Mystery Tour 2008, and a few days ago with Adrienne! Service 7/10…they even brought the wine to us as we sat outside. Wines 7/10- quite unique although there are some better fruit wines out there. The sample sizes in particular were quite generous! I already bought an apricot wine a few days ago so didn’t this time. Will come back again.

Hillside Estate- First time here for wine, second time here for food. We had a late lunch in their restaurant to celebrate Erin’s birthday. I highly recommend eating here. Service 7/10. Wines 8/10. Unfortunately by this point I had enough of wine and was ready to call it a day (so was everyone else). Bought a lovely Muscat Ottonel…it was very different than other whites I had bought…very lemony. It was hard to buy just one here and I would definitely come back.

By this point we had all had enough, so we returned to the motel to relax (I’m pretty sure we all had naps). It was a very cold and rainy evening, and later on we returned to the pub for a late supper, only to return to the motel for another early bedtime.