A Day in The County

Growing up, my parents loved to do the Sunday drive thing – without driving like Sunday drivers I promise – so, at this point in my life, I seem to really like just having a quiet, peaceful nothing day. Sundays, for me, have been about kicking back and relaxing these days. I try to take it easy, have dinner with my boyfriend and, on the odd occasion, a birthday party pops up. It is a way of life that I really enjoy and can wrap my head around. So, when a friend invited my boyfriend and I to go on a road trip to Prince Edward County last Sunday, we knew it would be a change to our weekends and, in the end, we decided to pile into the van and head for Prince Edward County.

Now, it is not like this is my first trip to Prince Edward County – far from it as I am a regular visitor to the newest wine region in Ontario. We had only one “must stop” winery and were going to leave the rest of the day open to whatever happens so we made our must stop the first stop of the day. Lacey Estates Vineyard and Winery has long been a favourite of all of ours. They are the one winery I guarantee I will go and help out in at harvest time every year and the family is like a second family to me. Since opening in May of 2009 they have been consistently selling out of their opening release. Their Chardonnay and Pinot Gris are sold out, the number of available bottles of their Baco Noir are rapidly diminishing and their Gewurztraminer – their most recent release – is down to less than 80 bottles now. Check out the review below to get a real sense of just how great the Lacey Estates Vineyard and Winery 2008 Gewurztraminer really is…

“With their 2008 Gewurztraminer, Lacey Estates has hit another one out of the ballpark. Done in a true Alsatian style, the 2008 Gewurztraminer is a great balance of acidity and fruit. Aromas of stone fruit, slight rose petals with a very clear, refreshing, clean palate of lemon, quince and slight minerality. Spice is always a key component in any Gewurztraminer and you can detect it here but it is not predominant. It blends perfectly with the other flavours and aromas making it a nice base for the flavours, but not the overpowering big brother that some flavours are in wines. Kimball, the winemaker, has already been praised by some wine writers for “finally creating the perfect Alsatian style Gewurztraminer” in Prince Edward County and that is definitely an opinion I agree with whole heartedly.

This is definitely one of those wines that you need to get your hands on immediately. With only 80 bottles left as of the last weekend in August, you can be guaranteed that it will be sold out by the time harvest hits in a few weeks. To order contact Cynthia@laceyestates.com. $22 per bottle includes the bottle deposit and it is worth every penny.”

After a light lunch we decided to make our next stop Karlo Estates down on Danforth Road. Unfortunately, Karlo Estates is not yet open – that is coming this fall – but we had heard some great things about their Chardonnay and wanted to see if we could give it a try. Maybe the next time we’re out in The County. Since we were at the west end of The County, we decided to drop in on some old friends – Rosehall Run Vineyards – and boy, are we ever glad we did. You see, our company (Ontario Wine Guy Enterprises) is in the midst of planning a Cabernet Franc tasting and Rosehall Run makes some amazing Cabernet Franc, amongst other wines. Now, if you want to find out how their Cabernet Franc’s tasted, you will have to be sure to attend our Cabernet Franc tasting which will be later this year. However, Rosehall Run’s wines are so tasty that we enjoyed their Chardonnays, their Rose, most of the Cabernet Francs and all of their Pinot Noirs before making our purchases and leaving. If you want to check out a great review on their 2007 Estate Pinot Noir, go on over to TJ’s blog at http://ontariowineguy.blogspot.com and check out his most recent blog entry. I’ve added a few vineyard pictures from the trip as well. The Pinot Noir is almost completely done going through veraison (the ripening stage for grapes) and are getting ready to be harvested in the next few weeks. Cheers,