TGCWC: A Year of Drinking Locally

So, three hundred and sixty-five days have come to an end. A full year of Canadian wine. Time to take a quick look back ...

Winemaker's Boots: Work, then Play

In addition to hanging out with John and Sasha during my last visit to the County, I did a quick tour of its southern tip, getting delightfully lost and off-track in the process, but still finding my way to a few wineries I had yet to visit.

In the Winemaker's Boots

My boots are pink. Pink-and-purple paisley, to be precise. Fairly flimsy rubber things that haven't seen more action than the odd puddle jump with the kids or a hasty walk from the parking lot in the pouring rain.

John Squair's boots are colour-of-earth, a dusty greyish-brown streaked with muddy high-water marks and purple splotches of grape juice. His boots have trudged through rows of vineyards, from their infancy to budbreak to harvest, year after year. His boots have steel toes and mean business.

They're big boots to fill. I'll try to do my best to keep up.

Last year, when John and Sasha Squair launched an online campaign to build Three Dog Wine, I didn't think twice about getting on board. That was my birthday gift: support a local winemaker, and as a perk, get to spend the day working with him.

That day came bright and sunny, and I arrived at their door in my pretty pink boots. Sasha gave me a wave and a smile. "John's not here yet," she said. "But he said you could get started with that," and nodded over to a worn-out pickup truck balancing on a jack, with one wheel missing. 

Um ...

Oh Canada!

The nation turned 147 years old today, but us Canadian wine fans have been partying it up for a few days now.

June 28 was the second annual Canadian Wine Day, the anniversary of Bill C-311, which brought an end to Prohibition-era restrictions on the inter-provincial movement of wine. Notwithstanding some provinces still balking at the idea (without actually having a legal leg to stand on) we celebrated with plenty of samples from coast to coast.

What the Truck?!?!

Shut the front door! Wine trucks? I'd heard of food trucks (who hasn't, really, they're everywhere and filled with far more than your traditional chips and hot dogs these days.) But a wine truck? This I had to see.

TWO-FOUR!

Happy birthday, Queen Vickie! Here in Canada, the summer season officially starts with Victoria Day, the third Monday in May. Historically it's all about celebrating the birth of the reigning monarch (so happy birthday to Liz, too) but really it's about opening the cottage, taking out the shorts and t-shirts, and firing up the Q. And pouring a few refreshing beverages along the way.

New deck overlooking vineyards at Three Dog Winery

Just *smell* the Somewhereness in that one

Somewhereness. That sense of place and time measured in a glass; the effect of soil and rocks, wind and water, and shifting seasons on the grapes. Flavours imparted by million-year-old shelves of limestone and clay. Sun and rain changing from vintage to vintage. The essence of terroir, right here in Ontario.

Fyne Wyne at the Yawt Club

Selections from Nova Scotia's
Benjamin Bridge

Me: So, you wanna come with me to a wine tasting?
Hubby: Sure. Where's it going to be?
Me: At the Britannia Yacht Club.
Hubby: Oh ... (delivered in his best Thurston Howell the Third voice) The Yawt Club? Bryllyant, lovey, simply smashing. Do have a lovely time, will you?

You have to admit, telling someone you're going to a wine tasting at a yacht club sounds a little high-brow, n'est-ce pas? But this tasting was far from being pretentious. The west- and east-coast hospitality of Ann Sperling and Peter Gamble just doesn't work that way.

#winebandnames

Here's what us wineaux do for fun on a Friday afternoon on Twitter:

We're having fun on a Friday, playing #winebandnames Who's in? > here's one: "Little Feet Stomping Grapes"
— Ken Alawine Waggoner (@alawine) March 21, 2014

Things very quickly went off the rails for me ... (Productivity what??)

Gold Medal Mimosas

#WeAreWinter.

Dominant hashtag all over Twitter from Canadians caught up in the Olympic excitement. We must be, with those eight-foot-tall snowbanks, windchill of -45C, and blizzard warnings coming every second day out of the WeatherNetwork. Canadians and winter? We be tight.

Maybe that's why we have such an affinity for hockey. Some might even go so far as to say it's in our blood. Hence the hashtag. We are winter, indeed.

TGCWC Cheat sheet

Just a disclaimer about that title: I have maintained my all-Canadian wine purchase/opening status without fail. I can't help it if someone shows up with something that isn't Canadian. (Like I'm gonna turn down free booze??) And Hubby isn't doing this challenge, so if he opens something, it doesn't count, right?

Smokie's Pride

It's early September, and I'm on board a golf cart with Paul Morneault, one set of hands in the close-knit team behind Smokie Ridge. We're taking a drive to what Paul calls "The Magic Corner", where four blocks of vineyards intersect. Swollen clusters of Sabrevois, Louise Swenson, Frontenac Gris and Frontenac Noir grapes dangle amid broad green leaves; harvest isn't too far off.

Dry Spell

Blogging, I mean. Over a month since my last post. The complexities of life meant I've had to put a few things on the shelf while I attend to my top priorities: Hubby, Doodle and The Smurf. Family first.

Not to say that I haven't been drinking. (GAWD no! How else would I get through this??) Distinct lack of time to write, yes, but the glass has always been full.

An #Untweetable Weekend - Hillier-bound

I can always depend on the wine when travelling in the County, and the tour of Hillier organized by Wine Country Ontario certainly didn't disappoint. Despite the deluge Mother Nature dropped on us (or maybe because of it) every tasting bar was packed with busloads of tourists. I suppose if it's rainy out and you don't want to be stuck at home, *why not* head to a winery?

An #Untweetable Weekend - the Waring House

You may recall a few weeks back when I had the good fortune of winning Wine Country Ontario's #Untweetable challenge with my photo of the dry-stone bridge at Karlo Estates. Well, what with it being our 10th wedding anniversary and all, Hubby and I decided to cash it in.

The package from WCO included an all-expenses-paid stay at the Waring House, just outside of Picton, along with scheduled stops at a few County wineries and lunch at Norm Hardie. Um, YES PLEASE.

TGCWC Week 2: Got something that goes with spaghetti?

Normally I'd reach for the tried-and-true bottle of chianti (usually Ruffino, or if I'm feeling particularly flush, a Brolio) when it comes to spaghetti night.

But this is the Great Canadian Wine Challenge. Italian wines need not apply for the next few months.

Canadian Wine Challenge - Week 1

Really, is it that hard? To drink Canadian wine for a whole year? Pfft.

(Of course, now that I've said that, some existential non-Canadian wine crisis will rear its head in the coming weeks ... zoiks.)

I've started off on the right foot, stocking the cellar with everything red, white and sparkling - even a few sweet wines in there. I've got selections from Jost Vineyards on their way, and just picked up a half-case of homegrown hybrids grown a mere 45 minutes south-west of Ottawa, at Smokie Ridge. (Keep an eye out for a full review of that marvellous afternoon ...)

Canadian Wine Three-Sixty-Five

The first Canadian Wine Day was on June 28, 2013—the one-year anniversary of Bill C-311 coming into force. The feds had finally made it legal for wine to move across provincial borders, from coast to coast to coast. (If the provinces would just follow suit, that would be great.)