Magnetic Hill Winery

This weekend, Greg surprised me and booked us a reservation for the “Tasting Experience” at Magnetic Hill Winery in Moncton, New Brunswick. He booked the tasting online on their website ahead of time, where you can select which time you like, what types of wine you would like to try and make your payment.

Magnetic Hill Winery, 860 Front Mountain Road, Moncton, NB

Experience

Magnetic Hill Winery is an absolutely beautiful spot. They are literally on a hill, with amazing views overlooking the Moncton tourist attractions of Magnetic Hill, Magic Mountain and Magnetic Hill Zoo. The main building is an old estate house, that they explained was as old as Canada itself from 1867. They have restored the house, and recently added on the beautiful new building in the photo above for more guests to have space to enjoy their wines. The atmosphere here is beautiful, the new add-on has beautiful rustic tones and is very modern and classy.

Main Estate House from 1867

When we arrived, we checked in by name and they passed us our two “buckets” of wine tasters and our cheese plate. Each bucket included our pre-chosen selection of the wines we wanted to try (four samples per person), mine was “White Delights”, a selection of their dry whites (since I prefer dry wines myself), and Greg’s choice was called “Mead me in the Middle”, because he is the total opposite of me and has a sweet tooth and prefers his sweeter wines.

Our wine buckets and cheese plates

Wine Selections

Greg and I filmed our wine tastings on our YouTube vlog (see below for link), but we genuinely enjoyed each of the selections in our buckets. It was so much fun to try different samples together (and then of course steal a sip of each other’s too – so really we got to try eight kinds each!)

My “White Delights – Dry” bucket included the following samples:

• Illusions, a pino grigio style wine made of rhubarb
• 2017 L’Acadie Blanc, a sauvignon blanc style wine with citrus and pear aroma
• 2019 Osceola, one of Magnetic Hill’s new wines, a dry white with stone fruit and lemon zest
• 2019 Lodestone White, another new wine from Magnetic Hill Winery, off dry but with fruity elements.

I really enjoyed each of the selections in my bucket, the Osceola is my favourite, followed by the Lodestone White, but I still enjoyed each one. Greg loved all of his sweeter selections too, I would prefer my bucket over his since I prefer dry, but I didn’t mind his choices either.

Greg’s “Mead me in the Middle” bucket included the following samples:

• Mystique, a cranberry wine, but not too sweet! This one is perfect for Thanksgiving!
• Reflections Rosé, a combination of strawberries, blueberries and rhubarb
• Queen’s Nectar Mead, a sparkling mead of New Brunswick honey and apples
• Spiced Fruit, a sweet dessert wine of spiced apples and pears, according to their website this wine is a Canadian double gold medal winning dessert wine.

Greg really loved his sweet wines, and also ended up trying a red wine afterwards (which he is starting to think he prefers reds over whites), he tried their latest red wine the Lodestone 2019 red” which is a blend of cherry, chocolate and spice notes and ended up being his favourite one! I also enjoyed this wine.

Vineyards at Magnetic Hill Winery

Prices

This was a great, budget friendly way to spend our afternoon! The tasting experience cost $10 per person plus HST, and then with the option to add the cheese plate for an additional $10 per person plus HST (which we did do and was a really nice touch to pair with the wines).

They have other experiences available too on their website such as a Picnic on the Patio, which is a cheese plate, fruit and a glass of wine of your choice, or even if you are looking to splurge a bit more, they also have a fancy “Luncheon at the Winery” for about $100 per person plus HST (but the description sure sounds lovely!)

For more details check out their website listed below!

COVID Precautions

Much like every establishment in today’s situation, Magnetic Hill Winery has lots of COVID measures in place right now. The staff was wearing either masks or face shields depending on what they were doing, there were markers on the floor to encourage social distancing and tables were seated 6 feet apart. While we were sitting and enjoying our wine, we noticed that as anyone left their table and were done with their experience, and employee promptly came over and sanitized all of the tables and chairs. There were cards on the tables to show you which ones that they were still sanitizing (therefore not to sit at). As always, it is important for everyone to follow the rules themselves, but Magnetic Hill Winery was doing a great job to help keep things as a safe as possible within the provincial guidelines.

Conclusion

Greg and I had such a LOVELY afternoon at Magnetic Hill Winery. We highly recommend this to anyone in the area (or not in the area and looking for an adventure!) We really enjoyed all of the wines we were able to try, the staff was super helpful and informative and were very welcoming! The estate house is also a Bed and Breakfast if you also wanted to spend the night here.

Make sure to add this spot to your Maritime Bucket list of places to check out.

Check out our YouTube Vlog below to see our afternoon wine tasting and make sure to subscribe!

 

 

Check out more information about Magnetic Hill Winery at www.magnetichillwinery.com

Let us know in the comments where we should check out next!

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