We were visiting Kelowna for a day and decided to take the long way home, passing through Kamloops and lesser known parts of the Okanagan, that we don’t normally travel through. This gave us the opportunity to visit Monte Creek, a winery I have heard much of, but have yet to visit. And since we were making the drive out, we figured we might as well stop by for a meal at their restaurant while we were at it.
We came earlier and were seated by the very edge of their elevated patio. Behind a plate glass we took in the vast rolling hills and winding rivers that BC’s wine country is known for. And in this case, even a train.
Looking through the menu, all the food items come listed with the ideal Monte Creek wine pairing, but it was a hot day and their slush drinks that featured their sparkling and dessert wines called out our names. Not to mention, we intended on doing a wine tasting after; so, decided to save the wine portion of our day for later.
The piquette slush float with their piquette sparkling wine is like a Bellini with a sweet berry forward wine. Worth noting is that their piquette is bottled using sustainable wine making practices. Everything goes into it: seeds, stem, and the fruit. The drink as a whole gave me kombucha vibes with its digestive qualities and its effervescent bubbles.
The Frozen Backyard lemonade slushie is a mix of lemonade, vodka, and their haskap dessert wine. Another easy drinking cooler that chills you inside and out. Sharp and bright fruit against the tart lemonade.
For food their menu highlights plenty of familiar causal eats. Like the Pizza di fungo with Buffalo mozzarella, tomatoes, wild mushroom, onion soubise, black garlic miso, arugula, extra virgin olive oil, and fresh basil. You get plenty of earthy mushroom flavour from this one, but I could have used some depth from a chilli oil and/or a dusting of Parmesan. We also found the crust on the oily side.
The Mussels were served in a ‘nduja and green onion broth with tomatoes and toasted filoncino. Like the pizza, we too found this on the oily side, but salvageable with the great pungent and zesty flavours of the broth. Salty, spicy, and rich with the spices. The perfect dip with the bread provided. I was most appreciative of the generous portions.
And the Beef barbacoa tacos were your choice of corn or flour tortilla, pepita sauce, tomatoes, cilantro, and fresh lime. It also comes with your choice of side soup, salad or house made chips. We ordered the latter most and they turned out to be my favourite of all the dishes we had, mainly for their terrific crunch. As for the tacos themselves, the beef was well seasoned and carried the flavour, the sauce left things hanging, and could have used more salt.
From here we settled up and migrated to the adjacent winery’s tasting room. A space that was all glass, so you could sip your samples and stare out into the distance. We would work our way through the whites, sparklings, roses, reds, and even dessert wines. Sipping from all their available bottles to make our way home with 6 of our favourites. I can definitely recommend them as a lesser travelled winery worth the drive out for.
Monte Creek Winery
2420 Miner’s Bluff Rd, Monte Creek, BC V0E 2M0
(250) 573-5399
montecreekranch.com
