Great White and Grape Red

Our plan today was to go wine tasting in Prince Edward County.  The region, located on the north shore of Lake Ontario, west of the Thousand Islands, has been the scene for a burgeoning artisanal wine industry - predominantly Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs, but a number of other grapes that are amenable to this short growing season.  The wineries in Prince Edward County have joined forces to construct their own group web site, which features pages on each of the wineries.

We had spotted a number of wineries when we drove over to Sandbanks Provincial Park earlier this week, and then kayaking yesterday.  We checked them out on Yelp! and TripAdvisor and picked the four we were most interested in.

Today was going to be a great wine day.

Not.  Well, not entirely.

David took the opportunity this morning, before tonight's rains, to clean the truck windshield and check all the truck and trailer tire pressures before we move to Cardinal, Ontario tomorrow. In the process, we found that an inside dually tire was en"tire"ly flat!  Hmmm...change of plans.  Little did we know that this was merely Change of Plans #1. This could not be deferred, because when we move to Cardinal tomorrow, the extra trailer weight on the one tire could cause a catastrophic blowout.

We found a truck tire service center on our way to the wineries, called, and made an appointment.  We pulled into the service center and, true to their word, they took us right away.  But as we backed into the bay, they noticed we had a drip under our new radiator:  "You've got a transmission fluid leak."

Change of Plans #2.  We don't want a transmission breakdown on the road to Cardinal.

Luckily, the service center also had a truck repair facility.  So, after we had our tire repaired (nail in the tire - patched - $69), we moved it over to the repair bay, to find that, when our radiator was replaced a month or so ago, the Freightliner service people had reattached the transmission fluid line incorrectly, leading to a slow leak.   The proper connection was made only $298 later.

Still, we got to have a decent lunch at the truck stop while we waited, and we were back on the road by about 2:00 pm - enough time to salvage visits to three wineries.

The first winery we visited was the one we wanted to see most - it had the highest ratings on Yelp!.  Stanners Vineyard is a small volume winery that uses grapes from its own vineyards (about half of the grapes) and grapes from the Niagara region of Ontario.  Their Pinot Noir is very unusual - more French in nature than most North American Pinot Noirs. And their Cabernet Franc was quite tasty. So we bought a bottle of each.

One of the interesting features of Ontario vineyards is that, due to the long, cold winters, they must bury their vinestock in order to protect it from the subzero temperatures.  As a result, the vines are trained downward and the fruit is all borne on the lower 2 or 3 feet of the vines.  Here's a photo of their vineyard, with the winery in the background.  If you look closely, you'll see the fruit low on the vines, below the netting.  They expect to harvest in about two weeks - near the end of September:

We most liked the fact that the owner hosted us and handled the wine tasting, and spent an extended time chatting with us about wine-making generally as well as the challenges faced by vineyards and wineries in this region.

After Stanners, it was on to Hillier Creek Estates Winery:

This facility was much flashier than Stanners and appeared more retail oriented, but, in truth, we found the wine thin and uninspiring, and we weren't very impressed with the summary way the employee handled the wine tasting.  Still, the vineyard was impressive, and Great White had a lot of fun gazing out over the ripening grapes:

Our last stop was Harwood Estate Vineyards, which is a smaller operation like Stanners.  It rightfully boasts that its entire operation is powered by solar energy (well, that is, except for heating the wine tasting room in the winter, which is handled readily by a huge wood-burning stove in the back of the quonset hut that serves as the tasting room).  No flash - jest the facts, ma'am - but the wine was really good.   We picked out an "Admiral's Blend" wine that is a very tasty blend of Pinot Noir grapes and very rare St. Laurent grapes (originating in Austria and most plentifully grown in the Czech Republic), a Merlot, and, last but not least, a very tasty "Marquesa," which is an 18% ABV port-style wine from the Marquette grape.  Harwood has a very large vineyard, as we saw from the long driveway:

After all was said and done, we drove home with six very tasty bottles of great red wine, and rest a little easier that Great White won't give us any more "whine" tomorrow.