Holiday, Wine and Snow
I have a new hobby. I don't know how far it will go--we shall see. It could very easily be an expensive hobby, so I don't really want to do that.
You see, at the end of August, I took a one-week trip to Niagara Falls. I have some friends who live there, so I stayed at their house. I rented a car for the week and enjoyed a nice, leisurely, make-it-up-as-you-go-along kind of holiday which was just what I needed. I saw the Falls, of course, and did the little behind-the-Falls walk where you can look out of little tunnels and see the water roaring past almost in front of your face.
But that was one day. Half a day, really. What really became the unexpected focus and adventure for my trip was exploring the wineries of the Niagara region. For you non-Canadians out there (er, which is most of you...), the Niagara Peninsula (in Ontario) and the Okanagan (in British Columbia, the west side of the country), are the two main areas for wineries. Most of the rest of Canada just is too cold.
I went on a tour of Chateau des Charmes followed by a wine tasting, and so began my discovery of the world of wine. I also tried their ice wine and... oh my. I love ice wine. I've never really thought of myself as having a sweet tooth (save for my one exception of chocolate), but it seems that in the world of wine, ice wine trumps all.
Five wineries later and two tea houses for cream tea later, I have happily decided that I really do like wine country... Since coming home, I've bought a free-standing wine rack. However, I don't plan to start buying $1,000 bottles of wine. One, I couldn't afford it, and two, I'd need to know a lot, lot more about wine before I could ever trust myself to go beyond $10 bottles of wine.
So there really is more to wine than "drink the red stuff with red meat and drink the white stuff with white meat".
And that sweet, heady, rich ice wine should keep me warm in the coming days. You see, we have snow forecast for overnight Monday into Tuesday. Today was 26 C (79 F), and the high on Tuesday will be 3 C (37 F). Summer is over.
You see, at the end of August, I took a one-week trip to Niagara Falls. I have some friends who live there, so I stayed at their house. I rented a car for the week and enjoyed a nice, leisurely, make-it-up-as-you-go-along kind of holiday which was just what I needed. I saw the Falls, of course, and did the little behind-the-Falls walk where you can look out of little tunnels and see the water roaring past almost in front of your face.
But that was one day. Half a day, really. What really became the unexpected focus and adventure for my trip was exploring the wineries of the Niagara region. For you non-Canadians out there (er, which is most of you...), the Niagara Peninsula (in Ontario) and the Okanagan (in British Columbia, the west side of the country), are the two main areas for wineries. Most of the rest of Canada just is too cold.
I went on a tour of Chateau des Charmes followed by a wine tasting, and so began my discovery of the world of wine. I also tried their ice wine and... oh my. I love ice wine. I've never really thought of myself as having a sweet tooth (save for my one exception of chocolate), but it seems that in the world of wine, ice wine trumps all.
Five wineries later and two tea houses for cream tea later, I have happily decided that I really do like wine country... Since coming home, I've bought a free-standing wine rack. However, I don't plan to start buying $1,000 bottles of wine. One, I couldn't afford it, and two, I'd need to know a lot, lot more about wine before I could ever trust myself to go beyond $10 bottles of wine.
So there really is more to wine than "drink the red stuff with red meat and drink the white stuff with white meat".
And that sweet, heady, rich ice wine should keep me warm in the coming days. You see, we have snow forecast for overnight Monday into Tuesday. Today was 26 C (79 F), and the high on Tuesday will be 3 C (37 F). Summer is over.