D-Day

My good friend Danny and I celebrated our birthday last night. Good times with great friends. I had a few beverages that I would like to share.

We started our evening at Salt Tasting Room for some wine and tasting plates. I ordered the Van Westen Vineyards, Vino Grigio (Okanagan Valley, BC). It is an excellent Pinot Gris from Van Westen Home Lot Vineyards. Van Westen ferments their Pinot Gris exclusively in stainless steel to capture the fruit. It had a crisp fruity, melon, green apple taste with a nice smooth finish. Van Westen Vinyards family has been growing grapes for over 50 years, cultivation the soil of the Naramata Bench. All of the Van Westen wine bottles are labelled with a "V" and the names of all their wines start with a "V"(hence Vino Grigio). That is excellent marketing, making all of their wines easily recognizable.

After Salt Tasting Room, we all went over to Chill Winston for a round of drinks. I ordered a cocktail called "The Believer." The ingredients were Absolut Vodka, Stewart's Ginger Beer, lemon and lime juice. Garnished with fresh sliced cucumbers. It was a very refreshing beverage. It had a subtle lemon and lime taste with a mild ginger finish that hits the back of your throat.

We then went over to Al Porto Ristorante for dinner. We had some wine that I won't even talk about because all I can remember was the horrible service that I experienced at Al Porto. I probably would have had a better dining experience if we all just went to The Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner instead.

We finished our evening off with karaoke. I tried a cold Korean Sake called Chungha. It taste disgusting. The ingredients were rice, yeast, purified water and corn syrup. Imagine "Twizzlers" red liquorice in a liquid form. That is exactly how the Sake tasted and smelt like. I just drank it for the sake of drinking.