Jasmine A.
Yelp
The second stop on our trip was Quails' Gate, another larger, well-known winery. However, the experience was nothing like that at Mission Hill. It was crowded and chaotic, and the people there were.... colorful, such as the basketball jersey-clad guy whose face and head were covered in tattoos and the 20-something year old girl wearing a tight leopard print dress, socks, and fuzzy slippers. Some people had also brought along their young children. Unlike Mission Hill, where groups had private tasting rooms, the setup at Quails' Gate was that of a typical tasting -- you stand at a long counter sampling the wine, although due to COVID, each group was separated by a plexiglass barrier (which is a good idea even during non-pandemic times, as it gives a sense of privacy).
I wasn't impressed with our host, a middle aged man named Glen, or some other such middle aged man's name, especially when I saw him pull off his mask and rub his finger underneath his nose (presumably to scratch an itch). Yuck. We sampled four wines: Chenin Blanc; Gewürztraminer; Rosé; and the group's favourite, the Old Vines Foch, a smokey, spicy, peppery red (I didn't care for it, as I do not like those types of wines, but everyone else loved it).
The wine tasting was $10 a person, and you received a voucher for $10 off a bottle of wine, so essentially your tasting was free with a purchase, which is standard at wine tastings (not at Mission Hill, though, in which there was no discount on the tasting with a purchase). I didn't buy any wine, although my husband and friend did, including several bottles of the Foch. All of us agreed that Quails' Gate was an overall poor experience (especially compared to other wine tastings), but we were happy to have tried the Foch. While there's nothing wrong with Quails' Gate wine, I wouldn't recommend going there for a tasting, especially as there are so many other wineries.
[Yelp collections: Kelowna 2020; Wine Time!]