lainie, amanda, and i went wine tasting around niagara-on-the-lake in ontario. they are having a wine and herb festival type thing all month in may (kinda similar to the one the cayuga wine trail does each year). the weather kinda sucked (gray and rainy), but it was still fun. the weather did not dissuade many people from wine tasting, or perhaps it did; maybe the wineries are totally mobbed when the weather is nice.
for the wine and herb festival, each place paired one of their wines with a dish made with whatever herb was assigned/picked by them. we managed to hit thirteen out of the fourteen wineries. ordinarily, we probably would not have tried more than three or four at a time, but we were unsure if we could make it back in may. we ended up just tasting the highlighted wine in most places (with perhaps one or two others) and took a break for a light lunch after eight or so.
in general, the wineries were markedly different than the finger lakes ones that i have been to. the most obvious is that the land is very flat, so the vineyards seem huge. most of the wineries themselves (tho not all) are also quite huge and have large wine boutique/tasting/tourist areas. they seemed to stick solely to the classic vinifera varieties; i did not see many hybrids, tho baco noir popped up a few times. most/all of the places charged for tastings ($1 or more), tho one place waived it for us since we bought some wine (the wine-and-herb festical was already paid for). there also seemed to be a limit of four tasting per person via some canadian law. as for the wine-and-herb fest, they did not give fresh herbs to people as the cuyuga wine trail does. the food were a bit more elaborate, and some places actually served stuff to you (sit down style). all the wineries were very close together, so it took no time at all to go from one to another.
anyways, perhaps i will go into a blow-by-blow account later, as i am currently taking a break from working right now.
even though we left buffalo at 930am, we did not have enough time to get to the last one before 500pm, when they stop serving. regardless, we were quite stuffed with all the food and wine. on the way home, we stopped by the outlet place in niagara falls more to walk around than to actually shop or whatnot. we were going to go out to dinner with erika, but had to decline as we felt way full. we were also going to exercise with lainie later, but she fell asleep and we were too wiped out anyway. erika ended up getting indian take out and came over to our place. we all ate as although we felt stuffed, we probably just needed to have a “real” meal rather than all the party foods he had during the wine tastings.
i really need to get some work done, but am uninspired. there are weird noises coming through the walls from one of our neighbors. i can’t really identify the noises or the neighbors, tho now i think multiple neighbor units are involved. maybe its time for a nap. amanda is asleep on the couch. i should get her to move to the bedroom where she would be more comfortable.