Last Sunday evening, co-owners Toni Hallgren and Shelby Peterson realized a dream ten years in the making as they cut the ribbon at Adventures Decanted in Fraser.

Located in the north side of the Crooked Creek Saloon and Eatery, the new establishment brings a third distinctive experience under one roof. 

“We brought the Enomatic system in from Tuscany, Italy,” said Hallgren. Enomatic dispensers allow the wine to be drawn directly from the bottle to the glass through a gas system, preventing normal wine alterations due to oxidation. 

Once opened and installed, a bottle of wine can last up to three weeks. Since their soft opening in late November, no wine has been discarded. In fact, the wines have been circulated much more frequently than was anticipated.

Each of the wines were hand selected by Hallgren and Peterson. The duo spent the past few years visiting wineries and tasting and they look forward to visiting more. The serving dispensers offer 8 or 16 options from France, Italy and Spain and categories such as Legendary Women in Wine, Location/Location/Location (all from California), Exotic & Erotic (because they make you go, “mmmm”) and Classy, Sassy & So Badassy.

Hallgren explains, “64 pours by the taste are available.” Using a card-load system, the customer can select 1 oz, 2.5 oz or 4 oz tastes by inserting the card into the machine and making their selection. “It is so nice to taste a wine before you buy it. We encourage people to take pictures of the labels of their favorites to have for future reference.”

Adventures Decanted co-owner, Shelby Peterson, demonstrates ‘sabering’ to the crowd in attendance at their ribbon cutting Sunday evening.

Adventures Decanted also features ‘Saber Sundays’. Sabering is a unique method of opening a bottle of champagne (Veuve Clicquot, specifically) using the blunt side of the blade to hit the lip, breaking the glass to separate the collar from the neck of the bottle. Peterson welcomes the opportunity to instruct willing participants in this celebratory technique.

“After ten years of talking about it, we felt the timing to open was right,” said Hallgren. “We wanted this to be adventurous, not pretentious. Great wines shouldn’t be found just in a stuffy steakhouse.”