Prince Edward County - Winetasting

In Picton, Prince Edward County, for the "Terroir Wine Celebration", an annual event that takes place in the Crystal Palace Fairgrounds building to promote very worthwile local wine.

Staying at the Waring House - had to drive to the Palace; nearest B&B not available for one night only!

Lunch at Portabella, before the tasting. Delighful food; tastely decorated - that flower pot strategically located where the ray of light was coming down from the ceiling window...

Returned for dinner at Blumen (see blog entry last year - had dinner there the year before when holidaying in PEC). Long conversations with owners - husband (Swiss, le chef) and wife (local, manages the service)- about food and wine (what else!)I remember making the point about availability of good local wine by the glass or in half bottles on their wine list...

Discovered the wines of Chadsey Cairns; see their very instructive website on wine and PEC (http://www.bychadseyscairns.com/) Tasted their Riesling at the Celebration; Cynthia particularly liked it. Which brought us to their winery on the Sunday morning, at their (the wife - a psycho-analyst if I recall correctly) invitation.

Winery on a farm; tasting room is a refurbished old barn or "dépendance" as we would say in French Canada.

Got to meet husband who is also owner with wife;Richard Johnston, former MPP in Toronto, who left the big city some 20 years ago to establish himself in the county and started wine growing, one of the pioneers; Vida Zalnieriunas, the wife and local psychotherapist (wine is part of the therapy, you see...)

Brought back a mixed case (Riesling, Gamay and we also discovered a (rather light) red made of St-Laurent grapes)

Picton, May 29 & 30, 2010

Crianlarich, Scotland

A story in the NYT this weekend (http://travel.nytimes.com/2010/05/09/travel/09footsteps.html?ref=travel) about traveling by train up in the Highlands of Scotland, reminded me of a trip I took up as a student in Europe... we traveled all the way to Crianlarich! This was Easter break in 1973 or 1974. We took a week off our studies in Leuven (Belgium) and a pass on BritRail. We crisscrossed Britain, from one end to the other: I will always remember the disbelief look on the face of the Youth Hostel keeper when we checked in, in Crianlarich: "Unbelievable: 2 Canadians, with Belgian Youth Hostel membership cards, who slept the night before in Exeter!" Yes, you could it, on the "Flying Scotman" train, all the way from the extreme southern tip of England!