We began by tasting five of their fruit wines. They included a sheet which described each of the wines we were to try. The names for each of their wines are very creative and unique. They started us off with Ghost of the Bogs white cranberry. It was very crisp on the palate with a touch of dryness. The next wine we tried was the Valley Girl blueberry. I'm not a huge fan of blueberries; I'll eat them if they're mixed in with other foods, but I usually avoid them (or hand them over to hubby, who loves them). This wine was surprisingly tasty, and it almost tasted like a merlot. It had a dry spicy taste to it. The next two wines offered to us were both strawberry wines. The first was Bite Me, which was very tart with just a touch of sweetness. The second was Pick Me, which was very sweet and had the full strawberry taste to it. Our tasting concluded with the Keremeos Fruit Stand Pear Apple Wine. If there is one flavor that I love in wine, it's pear. This wine was just perfect: a lovely blend of pear and apple together to create a nice smooth wine.
Once we were finished sampling, we were told to pick one as our drink to accompany our cheeses we had selected upon arrival (brie and goat cheese with herbs). I chose the Pick Me, my co-worker chose the Valley Girl Blueberry. To our surprise, we found a platter which included our cheeses as well as three different kinds of crackers, jam preserves, apple slices, orange slices, dried cranberries, grapes, gherkins, and olives. Enough to call it lunch! Both cheeses went quite well with my wine, especially the brie. It was a nice balance between the sweet of the wine and the saltiness of the brie.
After we were finished with our platter, we were then offered samples of their dessert wines. We started off with Saucy, a cranberry flavored wine. Unlike the Ghost of the Bogs, this was pure cranberry with the tart and all. It was a touch sweeter and went down very well. The next was Finger Fruit, raspberry. I immediately thought of hubby as I had my sample, because he adores raspberries. It was very sweet and smooth, with a nice creamy finish on the palate. Next was Sweet Nothings, blueberry. Unlike the Valley Girl blueberry, I could find the blueberry taste in this wine, and it wasn't too appealing for me. Next was Isle Queen, a blackberry wine. I really enjoyed this one, as it had a nice balance between tart and sweet. The last wine we tried was Cold Snap, apple. This wine made me think of icewine; it had that same caramel-like finish to it and was easily the smoothest of all the dessert wines. They actually made Cold Snap in a similar way that icewine is made, but they are able to get more wine out of it compared to icewine production (which doesn't produce very much, thus the higher prices).
After our tasting, we were sent to the back for a "tour" of their winery. I use the quotes because they only showed us the wine making process and didn't take us out to the fields. The gentleman who did the talk was very informative, and cleary in love with his craft. Our package concluded with choosing a bottle of wine to take home. We each chose the Pick Me, and they gave each of us a half-bottle.
All in all, a lovely day was had at the winery! I love the cheeky names for their wines, and the labels too. Local readers, this is a place to visit for sure. Happy cooking all!