A Viticultural Experience

The whole gang!

Well, on Saturday afternoon, a group of intrepid girls set out for a little holiday to Niagara-on-the-Lake, a most wonderful and culturally enriched little section of good old Southern Ontario. The girls were most excited to be on an outing and to be able to enjoy each other's company for an afternoon. They piled into a vehicular conveyance and made their way at high speeds down the main highways in the direction of south. Much joy was had in the car partaking of vruchten hartjes and chocolates whilst a certain member of the group, no names mentioned, was tormented by the noxious odors of certain despicable black licorice candies courtesy of the ultimate favorite store in Grimsby, the Dutch store! However, once the pungent smells had been vented out of the car by some quick draw action on the automatic car windows, the situation improved noticeably. Soon enough, the car pulled into the extensive grounds of the Pellar Estate Winery and the females eagerly stepped out into another world. This was the world of sommeliers and flutes, of wining and dining, of bottles and corks and all things viticultural. The girls joined a tour hosted by a rather bulbous and rosy proboscused (proboscied?) fellow who seemed to have indulged in a little more than was good for him of his stock in trade. However, he did educate our heroines on the finer elements of wine making and tasting. He encouraged them to follow the five "S"'s - let's see if they can be arranged in proper order here!

• Sight - is it cloudy or clear, what colours can be seen in its liquid depths - seen by tipping the glass on its side (without spilling it!) and peering through it on a light background - does it have legs, meaning assessing the viscosity of the wine
• Swirl - involving swishing the wine around in the glass oh so carefully so that the wine does not slosh out the top of it - a feat which was difficult for some members of the group who tend to be a little on the clutzy side!
• Smell - inhaling deeply in the glass and trying to determine what other smells could be hiding in the wine - most of the group had difficulty overcoming the alcoholic smell and merely agreed with the guide when he suggested hints of honey or blueberries and the like
• Swish - a sip of wine is taken and swished around the mouth to expose all those tastebuds to the wine and to cleanse the palate!
• Spit or Sip - depending on how much wine the drinker is going to engage in - the options are spit - unnecessary in our books or sip - gently allowing a small amount of wine to slip through the teeth and sit in the little pouch behind the teeth whilst attempting to softly inhale some air to make little bubbles and enhance the wine tasting experience - a supremely hard thing to do without making a fool of one's self!

The budding viticultural experts!

Once a sample had been had of both a nice red wine and a very oily and foul-smelling ice wine(isn't that stuff supposed to be Ontario's best?), the group was led back up from the cellars into the real world in the gift shop (of course!!) where three intrepid members of our quintent partook of a wine tasting flight - seven little part glasses of different wines - after a little while, they sorta all ended up tasting similar and the girls realized somehow that they enjoyed white wine better than red, smashing all previous likes! Feeling nice and warm and giggly, with nice red cheeks, the fivesome departed the winery (with their lovely designated and feted driver) and went in search of some sustenance to slake their hunger. Some high jinks to work out the wine!

Life imitating art???

A fun time was had by all as they strode down the lovely quaint streets of Niagara-on-the-Lake and a wonderful lunch was gobbled quickly down by the hungry females. They then went in search of some sweets to finish off the experience and were lured in by the Cows icecream store to purchase delectable flavours of icecream which were enjoyed as they shivered their way back to their vehicle in the 3 degree air! Never a bad time for icecream!!! A wonderful drive home was a fitting conclusion to a hele gezellig dagje uit! Thanks very much ladies!!

A moment with a fine bovine!