Wine tour extravaganza

It's a cool, though sunny day at the farmette. Should be good for fall cleanup later.

Trump is now blaming Zelensky for the war in Ukraine. Never mind that it was Russia who was the aggressor in the first place and the one that is illegally trying to take over another country. Also, there are three hurricanes battering the U.S. and enormous mudslides in Nepal, among many other disasters. The world is going to hell in a handbasket.

Here in Ontario, though, it's the grape baskets that are filling up with fruit that will be fermented into tasty wines.

Last week, I had the good fortune to go on a wine tour of Niagara. I don't actually belong to the Probus wine club. Sandy does, but she had an all-candidates meeting during the municipal election in which she's running. So she asked me to be her substitute. Poor me. HA!

Sandy had invited her oldest friend to go with her on the tour. About six months ago. So, an added bonus for me was to catch up with Leanne, who lives deep in southwestern Ontario, where we all grew up.

We started on Tuesday night, with a fabulous dinner at AG Cuisine restaurant where we had an octopus tentacle for a starter, followed by a half Cornish hen and crème brulée for dessert. Double yum.

Here she is at King and Victoria, the second stop on the four-stop tour.

Besides the tastings, at this venue, we were treated to touring the vineyard. Rob Harold owns it with his wife Liz, her brother Joe Schenk and his wife Tracey. The four started by selling grapes more than 20 years ago to other wineries and moved on to start one of their own. Cool.

We also visited Featherstone Winery, Redstone Winery and Restaurant and Tawse Winery.

Each had unique offerings, and at Redstone, we had a gourmet pizza lunch with our tasting. It was a bit of a whirlwind, but I was so thankful for the incredible organizational skills of Heather Miner, who took good care of all 20+ of us.

We are lucky to live in a place where we can enjoy the fruits (fermented and not) of our land.

Gratuitous cat photo courtesty of Rob napping with Hobbes on his head, Wilma at his right hand and Calvin at his feet. Bliss.