Vigneti Zanatta - Cowichan Valley E

Can't wait to go back. We enjoyed many of the wines and the host was friendly and informative. We then had lunch which was yummy. Again we had great service. Beautiful house with spectacular views.

We arrived at 4:15 to check out the premises and try the wine and found the tasting room closed a half hour earlier than other wineries in the region. It was 15 minutes before closing time. The tasting room was more cramped than the other wineries we had visited, but tasting was well underway. We were friendly and open, trying to catch the eye of the person handing out glasses. She had obviously seen us but declined to offer us a glass. She worked the room serving every other patron except us. No acknowledgement whatsoever. After about 10 minutes of this, we decided to just leave. I don't understand random rudeness. We proceeded to the next winery and arrived also 15 minutes from closing as they closed at the regular time. We were warmly greeted and proceeded to taste all the wines they were offering that day, purchasing multiple bottles. It was a large tasting room at a very grand venue. We visited 4 wineries this day and found the venues were tremendous in this area. We found ourselves wishing we had skipped Vanatta and spent more time at the last venue. We ended up with a full case of mixed wines from this region and had a wonderful day with the exception of this little winery.

Very beautiful place, in the canadian nature! Very kind the owner and very good the reaturant and the wine

This is a memorable place because its the oldest winery on Vancouver Island and its setting is quite lovely--a century old house with a wraparound terrace. Because reservations are a must and opening hours quite limited according to the season, our expectations were relatively high. We started off with a wine tasting which was actually quite crowded. Then we proceeded to our table for six on the terrace. Our server started off well enough: we had wine tasters and water and then about fifteen minutes later some nice baguette with olive oil to dip. Unfortunately the small dish of olive oil was inadequate for six people and was quickly gone with no refill offered. I noticed at this point that two other couples had arrived after us and were already being served appetizers--never a good sign. When our appetizers finally arrived, they were just OK--fish cakes and salad. Our server was nowhere to be seen. Over half an hour later our main courses were served piping hot. Other servers were doing the pepper mill routine and offering more baguette and water--not ours. Appetizer dishes were left on the table. And the food: well the spicy meatballs were not spicy at all and were very dry; the two of us who ordered them could not finish them. The duck and the chicken dishes were better but not memorable.At the merciful end of the meal, I mentioned to the cashier that the meatballs were a problem but both she and our long lost server were quite defensive, mentioning that most people don't like the meatballs too spicy. A fitting conclusion to a very disappointing meal.

This estate winery is the oldest on Vancouver Island and many people make a point of travelling to Duncan to go there. The setting is quite lovely--a vineyard with an old farmhouse that has a wraparound Deck for dining outside, and a rather odd space out back that looks like it was going to have a fountain but never did.We started in the winery store and had a nice tasting -- several wines were sold out, including the bubbly wines we wanted. We started our lunch with 3 samples each of the bubbly wines (odd choice given none of them were actually available to purchase). Appetizers followed slowly. We were a table of six and we noticed that three couples who came in after us were served before us. Never a good sign when that happens. We were served a tasty bread and one small dish of olive oil--fine except the table was long and this was clearly inadequate.We ordered the main course and it was served 40 minutes later--much too long. The server had pretty much disappeared. The food: well, the fishcakes were OK, the duck confit just OK, the spicy meatballs were not at all spicy and were way too dry--we ate 2/3 meatballs even though we were hungry. We were never offered pepper from the pepper mill as other tables were and there was no salt.While paying I mentioned to the server and cashier that there was a problem with the spicy meatballs and they were quite defensive about it.Overall pretty disappointing and fairly pricey to boot.