go wine-tasting

Finally, after many years of hoping, I finally got off my lazy butt and have succeeded in going wine-tasting! On our vacation, my wife and I visited four different places that brewed and sold alcohol; not all of them technically wineries, but all of them worth mentioning.

On Vancouver island we visited Merridale Cidery and Tugwell Creek Meadery. At Merridale we went on a self-guided tour around the orchard and through the ciderworks, and were treated to a tasting of six different ciders at the end. We weren’t able to walk around Tugwell Creek as the bees were being moved around and were, as the proprietor said, “grumpy”, but we still were able to sample four meads and talk with the proprietor for a while, who was very entertaining and informative. Needless to say, we purchased a little cider and a little mead.

Then in the interior we toured two different wineries, Quail’s Gate and Mission Hill. We did a $5 tour in each winery, which was quick and informative, and then followed that up with some quick tastings as well. (I thought it was interesting that I was the only person at either tasting to use the pour-out buckets. I like wine, sure, but I needed to be safe.) My wife liked the wines at Quail’s Gate better than the ones at Mission Hill, but we still brought back a few bottles from each winery.

Overall I thought it was really worth it. We got to see some of the distilling process, learn a little more about wine, and of course, taste some delicious – and sometimes not-so-delicious – vintages. Well worth it, and whenever we go back to either the Okanagan or the Island, we will be hitting up a few more wineries (or cideries or meaderies…).

Wow, 19 months and no wine tasting. (I did do some beer and whiskey-tasting, but no wine.) Ah well. I can make up for it this summer.

Initially during this summer vacation, I was hoping to do an epic tour of Okanagan wineries that would have lasted all day, and would have had someone else other than me drive from place to place, but then we had a slight hitch in our vacation plans, so now I’m planning the wine tour myself. There are two wineries relatively close to one another (Quails Gate and Mission Hill), and if I can swing it, I’m going to try and hit both in one afternoon (don’t worry, I’ll be sipping and spitting the whole time, no alcohol will pass below my oral cavity). If not, then I’m just going to have to pick the best one. Plus, my wife and I are hitting a meadery on Vancouver Island a day or two beforehand, which should be nice. It’s not what I’d originally planned, but I think it’ll do.

Since I just turned 21 I can finally take advantage of summers on long island – I live in wine country! The ride along the north shore is scenic and beautiful, and you pass a lot of vineyards. I plan to visit them all. It’s so much fun! My boyfriend and I went to a few and we decided on a number rating system for the wines. The highest rated wine for me has been duckwalks southampton white at a 7.5 and the blueberry port I gave a 000 lol (I gave a blush wine a zero, but the port… omg it was much much worse. I thought “Where do we go from here?? This is worse than a zero!! It’s a triple zero!”)

Mostly all long island vineyards have verandas and very nice sitting areas where you can buy a glass and listen to live music. There are a few big events sometimes too, like swing dancing at pindar or something of that sort. You meet a lot of people there, it’s usually very friendly atmosphere though everyone we met was not from NY.

I do this as often as I can. The liquor store here (largest in OK) does one every month and it’s not just wine…it’s beer and other things. I actually went to a Sake Tasting and that was a lot of fun! July 31, I am going to a Riesling & Cider tasting!

You meet lots of new people as well.

it’s just since i turned 21 (gah, almost three years ago!) that i’ve actually been able to drink the wine instead of grape juice.

and my fiance came last summer, which made it even better. :)

For my 21st birthday I went to an Italian Castle in Napa. That way beat Vegas!

I went to a wine-tasting a few weeks ago; it was a fundraising event, and there were many delicious wines and liquors to taste. However, I was also performing at the event, so I wasn’t really able to taste as many different wines as I would have liked. (I tried 3, one of them was a DELICIOUS port.) It would be nice to do one in B.C. and taste different wines as I travel through the region; I’ll have to check up on how I might go about doing that.

I went to a friend’s birthday party last month and it was pretty fun – except it was just one wine :). It was a bottling party, more. But still fabulous.

I can’t wait to visit Napa Valley and do a wine tasting. I’d feel like such a dork, though…never actually did something like that before except for that Ameriprise event I mentioned before.

I went to an event Ameriprise threw and it was great.

It was fun and I got to take home a bottle of Spanish Tempranillo red wine. There will be a wine bottling event on my friend’s birthday as it’s part of her celebrations so that should be fun as well. :)

I went wine tasting in central California a couple of years ago in the same area where the movie “Sideways” was filmed. It was fun, but expensive because if I tasted something I liked I had to buy a bottle. I think my alcohol tolerance must be low. One thing I don’t quite understand is how people can have the tolerance to go to one winery after another tasting and tasting and still have the capability to drive. I tried 3 seperate wines at two different wineries and I was wasted. Fortunately, I had someone else with me to do the driving, so I went tasting at a few more wineries and got even more wasted. I saw the same people at each of the wineries and none of them seemed drunk. Go figure…