Cedar Creek's Winemaker's Dinner returns

Photo: Contributed

This year's CedarCreek Winemaker's Dinner will be held April 19 at the winery.

CedarCreek Estate Winery welcomes spring with the return of its annual Winemaker’s Dinner on April 19.

This North Okanagan wine-inspired feast of terroir to table dining will showcase side-by-side Pinot Noir comparisons and flavourful classic spring ingredients, taking place in the winery’s award-winning rustic and refined Home Block Restaurant. Top new releases from recent vintages, including the Platinum 2021 Home Block Pinot Noir Rosé, will be highlighted.

Winemaker and Foodie of the Year nominee Taylor Whelan, who will co-host the dinner, says the 2021 vintage is shaping up to be outstanding despite a lower than usual crop yield due to several climate-related challenges last year, including the heat dome and smoke in the valley.

Whelan, who has been with the winery for 11 years—first as the assistant winemaker and then stepping up to the top job in 2016— says the 2020 vintage also contains some of the best red wines he has seen during his time at the Kelowna winery.

“We have some stunning wines coming out, including the Estate Meritage and the Estate Syrah,” he says. Other highly anticipated wines to be released by CedarCreek in the next six weeks include its Sauvignon Blanc, Rosé and Riesling.

CedarCreek is an industry leader in helping to put the Okanagan on the world wine map, despite it being one of the youngest wine regions in the world.

Whelan says with area vineyards now starting to mature and more wine-making expertise coming to the valley, Okanagan wines are continuing to attract notice worldwide.

“Considering we are such a young wine region, we are seeing more international recognition of local wines all the time,” he says.

Other wines to be featured at this dinner include the Platinum 2020 Jagged Rock Chardonnay, the 2020 Platinum Naramata Ranch Pinot Noir, the Aspect 2019 Block 2 Pinot Noir, as well as a sweet surprise for the end.

They will be paired with a potato, stracciatella and caviar starter, chilled fennel soup, wood-grilled local asparagus and slow-cooked halibut and saddle of lamb, followed by rhubarb fool for dessert.

The annual CedarCreek Winemaker's Dinner usually sells out but there are still some tickets available through the winery's website.

The winery invites you to reserve a seat at Home Block for this one-night-only special event. Limited seating available.

Photo: Contributed

The Winemaker's Dinner will take place in CedarCreek's Home Block Restaurant.

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