Friday, June 11th -Sunday June 13th, 2010
Yes, I did just butcher some Frank Sinatra in that title but I took a nice relaxing couple of days in Milton so I thought they were appropriate.
It is starting to really occur to me that my time here in the East......and in North American is starting to run out.....and very quickly. Because of that I am trying to accomplish a few things. One of them was a no brainer. I needed to head back to Milton to relax and visit with Steve and Heather. I managed to get 3 days off at work so it seemed like the perfect opportunity. The trip was quick but I really enjoyed it.....once I got there. I did lose an hour on my drive sitting in traffic on the way up but I made it eventually.
We had no plans for the weekend so Friday we relaxed and then Saturday (when we finally got up and going and stuff) we headed into wine country to visit some of the local wineries. It was a great day. Steve and Heather are a couple of winos so knew some good places to head and we found a few others along the way.
It turned out that we were using a Wine Country map that had recently expired and we quickly learned that there was a big difference between the old version and the new version. The first place we stopped......didn't look very promising when we pulled up. Turns out the place was in receivership. The just barely outdated map that we had, really did change in just a few months. There were some new wineries on the list and there were certainly some that have since closed down.
It was very pretty, but not producing any wine so not a productive stop.
From there we headed to a couple of places Steve and Heather knew well. I must say when we started out on this wine tour thing I had planned on buying a couple bottles of wine. Should have known I would buy more. It was 4 to be exact. It may or may not be a complete coincidence that we visited 4 wineries that day. I will let it be known however that Steve and Heather bought 12 bottles.
This is Angel's Gate Winery. A very nice spot and some very good wine.
Apparently there was a "nice car" reunion at Angel's Gate because these were all parked outside.
Some of the grapes growing at the second winery we made it to....Thirty Bench.
Not your traditional looking winery.....actually it kind of looks like an old barn......but they make good wine.
It turned out the third place we were heading doesn't exist anymore (we couldn't even find the signs.....they were really not in the wine tasting business anymore). But we found a great place just up the road.
This is Tawse Winery. We were very glad we found this place. They make some great wine and they use gravity in their wine making process (the winery has 6 levels). If anyone goes to visit Steve and Heather and goes to the wineries......there is a chance they will be a suggesting a tour of this place.
Our next stop was a planned stop....at least I think. Steve was in control of where we were going.....really I was just along for the ride.....and Heather was the designated driver. We seemed to drive into the middle of no where and then we came upon this........
......Flat Rock Cellars. This was probably one of my favourite stops. As we walked in we were offered a free tour and information session on the making of their wine. They do pretty much everything by hand and also use gravity during the wine making process. They also gave us some very good information about wine. And then we got to have a tasting. They make some very good wine. The whole visit at Flat Rock was very nice and just seemed a little bit more friendly and relaxed than some of the others.
Heather and I enjoying the view.
Eventually our wine touring was over and we headed back for some dinner. Sunday I had to get up and head back to Albany. Yes it was a very short trip but totally worth all the driving. Steve and Heather will have to come visit Deb and I in Australia so we can check out some wineries there.
Julie
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