sideways in ontario: tasting the wines of niagara

ok, i know all of you wine snobs and sideways watchers are saying, "ewwww!" but the husband and i spent a precious day off touring around the niagara (ontario) wine country in our own personal quest for a bit of fall colour and a taste of the good life.

as a california girl used to a quick day trip up to napa, sonoma or mendocino, i can hardly believe my good fortune: beamsville, niagara-on-the-lake, jordan and the rest of the region are less than 2 hours away.

when i came here 11 years ago (yes, hard to believe but on nov. 2, it will be 11 years), the wines were not so drinkable. well, at least not by snobby me, used to picking up excellent bottles of california wine for under $15. now, ontario wines are quite good -- and on the pricey side.

we started our tour at cave springs in the village of jordan -- www.cavespringcellars.com

the village is very cute and i will highly recommend the first nations art gallery directly across from cave springs. i just wish i had a spare couple of grand to buy anything. still it was very inspirational and beautiful. maybe if i save my pennies...

after our window shopping, the husband and i enjoyed an amazing fall harvest lunch in cave spring's excellent restaurant on the 20. we last visited on our first anniversary so it was fun to see how the place had changed.

well actually it hadn't changed much. the food was as we remembered -- excellent. we each had a glass of cave spring's chardonnay musque to start, the husband a full size, while i had a 2 oz, based on a colleague's suggestion. it was delicious and much more fruity than a california chardonnay. no oak.

the husband dined on lobster bisque and pickerel (walleye for you americans) and i had a salad featuring pumpkin done three ways (oil, jam and dressing) and a beef long rib braised in cave spring's cabernet merlot, and i had a little tasting size glass of the cabernet merlot to go with it. it was a delicious meal and very cozy at lunch. they have wonderful breads and the dessert list looked amazing, but i wanted to be able to zip my pants and try several wines at the next winery.

unable to avoid the clutches of the gift shop/wine purchasing area, we left with a nice souvenir -- a barrel stave candle holder, which we just saw on a fine living network show based in napa, a tour book for the wine region which we decided we will mark up with our purchases and tasting notes, and a couple of bottles of wine, the chardonnay musque and pinot noir (ok, sideways comments are welcome).

during our drives from place to place, we were impressed by the fall colour display. all of our leaves are gone in toronto, so it was shocking so see so much orange, yellow and red. oh and the occasional bit of green.

after we headed to fielding estate winery based on the rave reviews of the same colleague who gave us the chardonnay musque tip. everything we tasted there was quite excellent and it was one of the most beautiful small wineries i've ever been to. very modern in its architecture and attitude.

i am not an ice wine fan but i am now sorry that i didn't pick up a small bottle of their yummy mango-y icewine. it would be great on those really cold winter nights when you need a taste of the tropics to avoid going completely insane.

we did not buy enough of fielding's delicious wines -- we cracked open the pinot last night at home (insert sideways comment) -- and we're definitely going back very soon. they have a bimonthly wine club which we may join.

generously, they also donated a tour and tasting for 6 to my company's united way auction. pretty nice, especially considering that they didn't really know me.

check it out --www.fieldingwines.com

finally, we stopped at malivoire –- a winery known for its sustainable agricultural practices and unique gravity fed pumping of the wine from tank to tank. their ladybug logo is pretty cute too and i actually bought some of their "Ladybug", a rose, after trying it. i am not a rose fan but i thought it would be fun, again for a mid-winter picnic by the fire.

see what i mean at www.malivoirewineco.com

the rest of the weekend has been rather chill. we have stayed at home, except for a round about trip (the gardiner, the main artery to downtown toronto is closed this weekend so the traffic was awful) to the famous cheese boutique for some nice cheese to accompany the wine that we purchased. yum!

being lactose intolerant it is diffcult to indulge in cheese and other dairy based food as much as i'd like, but that's ok, i'd probably be 200 lbs if dairy products didn't make me so gassy...

www.cheeseboutique.com
http://cheeseboutique.blogspot.com/

the cheese boutique is actually an amazing family business. fatos, the father, and his three boys run the place. they have the largest collection of cheese i've ever seen, a cheese cave and amazing gourmet groceries. the husband loves their heirloom tomatoes with buffalo mozzerella. i just love going there. i could spend hours looking at the packaging of all the stuff.

and good for me -- they have tons of goat cheese, which is easier for lactose intolerant people to digest.

and anything from the cheese boutique makes the bulldog go insane. she is a huge cheese fan. and yes, i think she is lactose intolerant too.

all in all it was an excellent canadian weekend. (insert strange brew sfx here).

Halloween hump day

for a sample of not-so-corporate online work,
visit durexhumpday.ca.

yes, it's for durex, the company bringing fun into bedrooms worldwide. the site is updated each and every week with sexy and silly content. our team has great time working on it and it shows.

this week's treat contains three tricks you can use to undress for halloween. enjoy!
and come back every Wednesday for more hump day fun.

beauty product microsites are finally entertaining

wow, all i have to say is kudos to reversa for taking this approach to a microsite:
www.seemoresideeffects.ca/

nice work. my office is all a giggle and it's not even hump day.

apology/back to the gym/plugs

first, dear readers, an apology. many of you have commented that i haven't written in a while and that you're impatient for my once weekly rants.

for a while, work has been an all consuming monster and i've felt like i'm about 2 steps away from permanent digestion into the beast's bloodstream. we had a big important presentation on friday so hopefully that's over for now, while i can't say it will never happen again (because you know as well as i that it would be a outright lie), i am sorry. i know i've been basically unbearable and certainly no fun for the past month or so.

but this weekend, it's different. i hope i've been slightly more fun and i slink back towards "normal". i went out for drinks, met a long time friend of the husband's, stayed up a bit late. i could have just bonded with the sofa though... really, i've done nothing even vaguely work related except see a long-time friend i met through a job and go to the gym with a current work friend.

about the gym: i haven't graced its sweaty halls for 1 1/2 months. bad! after i worked so hard this year to get back into shape i should be ashamed of myself. and i am. but i decided to get my butt back onto the treadmill and start moving today. it was good, even though i'm much slower than i was in august. oh well, it will take a little time to get back to where i was. i accept that.

(it's a good thing you're not here right now...you'd know without looking at me that i need a shower.)

so hopefully things will even out once again. i know i can't keep up the pace with the work craziness. it takes a toil on me physically and mentally in about a million ways. it certainly makes the husband grumpy. and all my friends think i've dropped off the face of the earth. that's no way to live.

one announcement of me doing something entirely new -- i added some stuff to this site. you probably noticed it already but i am very proud of myself for figuring it out. one day you might come back and see that i've completely changed the blog...

i'm also going to try to post less purely self-mastabatory rants, although they do make me feel better.

two things for you to check out:
durexhumpday.ca -- but only if you're over 18. visit again every wednesday for new content, mostly written by me, although that is changing.

http://thepowerofnice.com/ -- a book, but also a way of doing business in this crazy world. we forget that we're all just people doing a job. this book and website can help remind you of that.

and do check out yesterday's post. it is a cool little add on for any website.

have a great week.

something fun from flickr