adventures in wine

Hubby and I are on vacation.  It's fabulous.  We wanted to do something with these days that we had off, but we didn't want to spend a small fortune either.  I suggested visiting some local wineries and Hubby loved the idea.  So, on our first day off, Hubby and I packed a lunch and took a trip out to the valley and visited three different wineries.

If you live in the lower mainland and you've never checked out any of these wineries, I urge you to do so. Most of the tastings are complimentary (or super cheap - like $3) and the tours are very interesting. You don't have to buy any wine, however, we find the prices to be very reasonable, for the most part. All in all, it's a fun and inexpensive way to enjoy a day off.

Our first stop was Domaine de Chaberton. We first visited this winery last year and fell in love. They have a great tour and their tasting room is pretty awesome. Since we'd already done the tour, we decided to just stop in for a tasting and an light lunch. We each tasted three wines and, to no surprise, the wine that we liked the best last year was also our top choice this year. The winner was the 2009 Gewurztraminer. Slightly sweet, fresh and fruity. Delicious. We bought two bottles. One to enjoy with our lunch, and another to take home and save for another day.

After our tasting, we popped the cork and grabbed a couple of glasses from the tasting room.  Hubby went to the car to grab our lunch while I chose the perfect table for our feast.  We savoured the wine along with our homemade sandwiches, fruit, and meat.  The perfect lunch.

Our next stop was just down the road at Township 7.  We had also visited this winery last year and we needed to go back.  When we arrived, we saw that we were not alone.  There was an entire tour group doing a tasting as well.  Needless to say, we made our visit quick.  We did a tasting of six of Township 7's favourite wines.  They were all delicious.  I bought a bottle of the 2009 Viognier, the same bottle I bought last time.  I'm going to serve this with a rich pasta dish and some shrimp - can't wait!  Hubby, however, switched it up a little and bought a bottle of the 2007 Syrah.  I can't wait to try this one with a grilled steak!

With it still being so early in the afternoon, we weren't quite ready to head back home yet.  So, we decided to visit a third winery, The Fort Wine Company.  This winery is different from the other two as it's a fruit winery.  Instead of making wine out of grapes, they make it out of cranberries, strawberries, apples, and many other local fruits.  Intriguing, right?

We sampled three wines here.  I don't really know how I feel about these wines.  I'm not sure if I'm a fan or not.  They're definitely different, that's for sure!  We tried an apple pear wine, a strawberry wine, and a raspberry dessert wine.  Hubby's favourites were the apple pear and the raspberry.  I liked the raspberry.  As it's a dessert wine, we thought it would be delicious over some creamy vanilla ice cream, and garnished with some fresh raspberries and some shaved dark chocolate.  We bought a bottle to experiment with.  I can't wait!

The best part of the whole trip?  Spending an entire day together laughing, talking and holding hands.  I can't wait to share our bounty of the day with you, my love.