BohoLove: Wine tasting...

I asked my sister what I could give my dad for his birthday because the Blogger Boyfriend got us all tickets to the Honduras vs. Canada soccer game in Toronto and it was practically impossible to one up that. My sister said "Worm, just take him out to eat all day". So that is exactly what I did. At first I thought "well how boring to just invite everyone out to eat for 3 meals", but we made a day of it going through the Vineyard trail in Picton, Ontario and it was actually a very fun day.

My mom and I have actually made a habit of wine tasting through wine trails for a few years now. The last one we did was the region of Niagara. While not the best wine (my most favourite wine has got to be from California), the Niagara region does have beautiful Vineyards. They look just like plantation homes except with endless rows of grapes instead of cotton. Needless to say that even though we have taken countless tours, tasting lessons, food and wine lessons, etc; I have still not learned two sh$%^ about wine. Every time the lady would swoosh the wine in her mouth and ask if we felt the peach and apple, I just felt tipsier and tipsier... - Except for Ice wine. I actually did learn a thing or two about Ice Wine in Niagara: the reason why this wine is so expenisve is because the grapes have to be picked at exactly -5 to -3 degrees Celsius, which means that if this happens at 3 A.M. then everyone must get out of bed and be ready to pick grapes at that time!

Anyhow, the Picton region Vineyards were obviously smaller than the Niagara region, but they were all so charming and personal, as smaller family owned businesses tend to be...

grape plant, not yet in bloom

This was rather new winery (I think grapes were planted in 1993), but since wine can only be made of mature grapes the first batch of wine game in 2001. The wine is not yet aged in barrels because it is a more expensive meathod. Although they have recently started to do so now that the winery is more recognized, the bulk of their wine is made in these stainless steel barrels.

While following the trail we came across an apple plantation that made cider. I actually had only recently tasted cider at a bar and was actually quite amused. For those of you new to cider like me, it is basically made from apples. It is a little bit stronger than beer in alcohol content, less than wine. It is not made with malt like beer so it is quite light. It actually tastes like carbonated white wine, and is sometimes used as a substitute for sparkling wine or Champagne (not all sparkling wine is called "Champagne" as you can only call "Champagne" that sparkling wine that comes from the region of Champagne in France fyi...)