Prince Edward County Wine Tour 2013
Another wine tour of the Prince Edward County region yesterday (Saturday August 25th, 2013).
Our aim is to visit new ones and a couple of old favourites every year. After 10 years we are very close to having visited and tasted our way through the county.
This year started with a trip across the Glenora ferry with our first stop at Devils Wishbone (https://www.facebook.com/TheDevilsWishbone)
They were up and running last year when we drove by, but were closed?
Another nicely refurbished barn and some good stuff. We tasted several but purchased only a bottle of 2011 Chardonnay.
The next stop, and the farthest drive, was Half Moon Bay Winery (http://www.hmbwinery.ca/. It was way out on the southeastern tip of the county.
There we picked up a single bottle of Half Moon Bay: 2012 Chardonnay unoaked
A stop at another winery along the way back to the western end of the country was disappointing.
Exultet was closed with a little sign in the door. Oh well.. on to our next stop, Sandbanks.
Sandbanks has grown from a small shop in the basement of the house to a huge sales centre with good parking and a lot of traffic. This was the busiest we have ever seen the place, and staff called it a normal summer weekend day. There were over 50 people along with a school bus tour and the place was just bubbling over with bubbly.
We picked up 6 bottles there, as it it still one of our favourites. x2 Dunes 2012, a 2011 Riesling, a 2012 Baco Noir, a new one for us a 2012 Mouton Noir and another new item “Love” a black currant aperitif.
Onwards to another new winery, Lift Haus (http://www.lifthauswinery.ca/). Right across the road from Lacey Estates, which we visited many years ago but have not yet returned to.
Lifthaus we left without any purchase after trying many samples.
The last winery stop was Sugarbush, a pleasant surprise, albeit a little hard to get around and down the stairs into the shop at the rar of the house.
We picked up a 2011 Chardonnay, and a 2012 Riesling there and will be back next year.
Some of the wineries will have another years batch ready to go in late September, early October and we are considering dropping by then as well.
The last stop of the trip was something new… a distillery. Gilead (http://www.66gileaddistillery.com/) does vodka and rum. We tested out the smaller samples (compared to wine) and I came away with icky tastes of flavoured vodka akin to moonshine. Hank liked the Rum but they were out until the fall. It was on the pricy side as well but it was still a new and good experience.
A stop at the Waring House in Picton left me with the first disappointing meal there ever, along with slower than normal kitchen service, especially since we beat the rush of a full house by at least an hour.
Home across the Deseronto Bridge and back to watch the start of the Saskatchewan Roughriders game, recorded earlier in the day. It wa a very long day and we did not make it through the whole game, but had to pick up in the morning over coffee. Strange that… watchign a football game with coffee instead of beer!
Good but scary game, Saskatchewan came out on top.. barely, against the worst team in the west. Gotta do better next week against the worst team in the East (Winnipeg) and the week after again against Winnipeg.