La Frenz EstateWinery

Reviews

• ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
  Did not like the wine or the rude staff
  By r, March 14, 2017
• ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
  The vintage port wine from 2013, I opened in 2017 is one of the best wine I have ever tasted. Coming from a French man with an in-law with a winery named regularly in the Hachette guide of wine. Even the occasional drinkers will be able to taste the quality, and enjoy it.
  By Phil Montreal, March 09, 2017
• ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
  They always say don't meet your heros - follow this unless your hero is La Frenz. They lived up to their rep and provided me with the best tasting I have ever done. The proof is in the pudding (wine) and it's easy to support these great folks.
  By James Miziolek, December 18, 2016
• ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
  La Frenz Apparently, the best winery in Naramata is not located on the main road. It doesn’t feature a massive architectural wonder or a spectacular view (though said view is nothing to be ashamed of). On the surface, one would assume La Frenz to be a second stringer, not a first pick draft for the team…or however, that jargon works; I don’t do sports. We had visited La Frenz originally on our second day in Penticton, the last winery before continuing our wine journey in Kelowna. Over seven days, my girlfriend and I visited sixty wineries and brought back 120 bottles. Several were from La Frenz, and although I enjoyed the experience, we weren’t initially planning a revisit on our second wine tour with friends only a few weeks ago. And then La Frenz won a boatload of awards from some international competition, cleaning house so-to-speak, proving once again that Canadian (and more specifically Okanagan) wineries are not to be trifled with. It also proved irrefutably that quality vineyards are migrating slowly north to track the onslaught of man-made climate change. Nearly all the victors either came from the Okanagan or Columbia Valley in Washington State. La Frenz is not particularly attractive from the onset. You turn in from an off-road and follow a path fringed by vineyards until reaching the inclined parking lot. At the base of the hill is the less attractive production building while the tasting room sits at the end of the short path marked by flowers and gates. Inside is a rather unremarkable and snug tasting room dominated by a single rectangular bar. The artwork on the wall is spectacular. This leaves the tasting experience, another high point given the quality of the wine. If you don’t want to cram you or/and your group into this space, you can decide to go outside and have a personalized tasting experience, which few wineries offer. Despite the appeal, we elected for the standard tasting. Returning to those awards, the irony is that most of their traditional wines didn’t impress me. They weren’t bad; I am just a weirdo that likes ports, liqueurs, and ice-wines. There was one exception, the Malbec, which remains unopened in my cellar. I also own the tawny fortified and a pair of liqueur muscats. Both bottles are extremely pleasant and not very expensive. I’ll admit that on our second trip only a few weeks ago, we added La Frenz on the docket based purely on their recent recognition. We don’t regret it; the experience matched the quality of the last, and I can see making such a visit a tradition. Is such acknowledgment justified? I don’t have the refined palette or experience to counter such the acknowledgment. Within Naramata, it’s near the top, but over the entire Okanagan, I can’t personally agree. Personally, there are wineries in Osoyoos with better bottles. But this is not a competition, and La Frenz is a great winery nonetheless, accolades or not.
  By Chris Dias, July 07, 2016

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