For this Member Exclusive Experience at CedarCreek Estate Winery, you had to book a time slot for your pickup, and it was nice that it was one household per time slot. We got a “tour guide” or ambassador to take us around to the various stations. We started on the 2020 vintage of Sauvignon Blanc. It was fresh, bright, herbaceous, reminiscent of Marlborough style SB. A small percent of this wine was aged in oak, which is not common for Sauvignon Blanc.

After the first tasting station, our guide took us by golf cart to the upper area of the winery. Here we got to visit the chickens and learn about the composting program at the vineyard. Then we headed into the vineyard to try Pinot Noirs from their new collection called Aspect. The last stop was in the building above the back parking lot where we got to try the Pinot Gris and learned about the beehives. We got to revisit one more wine, so we chose the Aspect Pinot Noir. They served us in the Aspect House, a members-only area.

It’s fun to reflect on how much CedarCreek has changed over the last few years. When we first joined, the tasting room was very rustic and quaint. Now, they have some giant structures like the new tasting room, restaurant, and Aspect House. I love the style and design, and definitely want to incorporate some of the elements into our own home.

Our other CedarCreek pickup party experience here.

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The Pickup Party

Since the winery is closed for the winter, CedarCreek was hosting this pickup party at a community center, and honestly, Justin and I didn’t think much of it. We figured it was going to be very casual, almost like a regular tasting where we would just stand about. We were wrong! We also had to pick time slots for our pickup, and we were late to the game and could only snag an 11am pickup slot! For a wine tasting! That gave us a bit of a laugh, to be wine tasting at 11am, but who cares really. But we when we showed up, we were greeted with glasses of bubbly, a new release. And we saw that it was a seated wine tasting! There’s nothing more I love that sitting down to have my wine.

The Setup

There were 2 long tables that we were invited to have a seat at. Every seat had 4 glasses of wine set up. CedarCreek’s Winemaker, Taylor Whelan, took us through the tasting. And the Executive Chef, Neil Taylor, gave us a preview of what was to come for the new restaurant to be opening at the winery.

The Wine and Food

There were 4 wine tastings, in addition to the Sparkling Brut. There was a Sauvignon Blanc (which is not available to the public until September), a 2016 Cabernet-Merlot, 2015 Estate Meritage, and 2015 Platinum Meritage. The scallop crudo was paired with the Sauvignon Blanc, and it was beyond incredible. Scallops are not normally the first thing I would pick on menus when we’re out, because it’s usually not done very well. But I should’ve known better that when scallops are specially prepared by winery chefs, that it was going to be amazing. It was phenomenal.

The Fabada, a Spanish Bean Stew was also served as one of the food pairings. I loved it. It’s a new dish to us, and it was spicy and delicious. To be honest, I wasn’t paying too close attention so I’m not entirely sure which red it was supposed to be paired with… and also I thought it went incredibly well with all of them! We were socializing with people seated around us, and taking our time from wine to wine. All of the wine was pretty tasty. The white will be a great patio wine. 2015 Estate Meritage needs some more time in the bottle, or perhaps some aeration. Justin enjoyed the Cab-Merlot the most, and I’d say I have to agree.

The tasting moved along fairly quick, because they were doing a seated tasting on the hour every hour. We were invited to take our glasses to enjoy at some of the standing tables. And some of us took to the lineup to pick up our shipment. That proved to be a smart idea, as it did take a few minutes. They had a ton of boxes around, and people like us were adding more wine to our shipment. We picked up our shipment and grabbed a couple bottles of the Sauvignon Blanc and the the new 2016 Senator’s Red.

We’ll have to do a throwback post on their summertime event when they released 3 Platinum Whites. Stay tuned in for that! It was an alfresco sit down food and wine pairing at the vineyard, with views of the lake during the summer.

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