Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Indulge 2013 (contd)

So our Indulge Weekend continued the next morning with me walking Jasper first thing and then Brad and I having breakfast at the Inn. Nine times out of Ten I will go for the Eggs Benny, which is what I did both Saturday and Sunday mornings. Delish. Complimented by just a few homes fries and some fresh fruit. We then hooked up with Paul and Ron at the Market and walked around there, taking in all the sights and sounds and smells! After a bit, Brad decided he wanted to try to find a rental cottage that we might be interested in renting sometime in the future. We all parted ways and agreed to reconnect at the liquor store at 1:30, which was the time the wine trail started. A wine trail is similar to a pub crawl, except that it's done in daylight and generally, more wine than beer is involved. We decided to start at the liquor store as it was at the end of the street and make our way down from there. It was all kind of ho-hum until we happened upon a place with beer on tap (mostly Austrian), which was very good, and they also had some GREAT nibbles! Lots of great bread and yummy charcuterie (Shhh - some of us still pretend to be vegetarian!). Then it was off to a place where they had single malt scotch. Nice and peaty - yum! We then ended up at the best stop of all on the wine trail, where Mission Hill wines (from B.C.) were on offer. The pours were generous and the reps (Tyler and Jill) were great! Mission Hill recently won an award for having the best Pinot Noir (in the world, I think?). The white wine was also good. There were real glass wine glasses and, as I say, nice pours! We stayed for a couple of samples! Eventually, Brad left to go back to the Inn to let Jasper out and give him his supper. We agreed to meet up at the last stop on the wine trail, which was also the place where we would be having dinner that evening. In the interim, we also connected with some of Paul's friends and had a drink with them. Then, it was on to dinner! It was all set up in one of those gigantic tents with windows. Bales of hay with planks on top for sitting. Tyler and Jill, the Mission Hill reps whom we had met earlier in the day, ended up sitting right beside me. (Let me just say, as a result, the wine flowed freely all evening! :))The tables were beautifully laid out and the food was absolutely delish: Beausoleil oysters (done 4 ways) with Mission Hill Five Vineyards Pinot Grigio; Smoked salmon terrine with canadied Acadian Sturgeon (with Mission Hill Five Vineyards Pinot Noir); Roasted buttercup squash soup with spiced pumpkin (with Mission Hill Perpetua Chardonnay); Merlot slow-braised short ribs with purple shiso-chives blue cheese "gnocchi", parsnip crisps, nasturtium oil) (with Mission Hill Compendium - and man, I must say, if you get a chance to grab a bottle of this, by all means, go for it!); topped off by a dark chocolate mousse cake with hazelnut feuilletine for dessert (with Henkell Trocken sparkling rosé). Uh-huh...

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It was quite the weekend indeed and thanks for bringing back some great memories....PCJL