This morning, I found myself at the farmer's market before I had even had coffee. It's busy on Saturdays and it is worth it to get there early, I scored homemade breakfast sandwiches, a dozen eggs, lettuce, radishes, strawberries and garlic scapes. I had plans to have a lazy day, do a bit of cooking and reading and maybe a bit of gardening.
Later in the morning, after coffee and newspapers, I checked the computer and read an email from Southbrook Vineyards "We are releasing the first three wines in a brand new "family" of wines called WHIMSY! Subtitled "the winemaker's palette," we will bottle a wine under the Whimsy label when our winemaker's experiments are so exciting that they should be shared. They could be Whimsies because of our use of new varietals, new treatments, new techniques, or new blends. They answer the question, "What if we ...?" These wines won't form a consistent part of our line-up, as our Triomphe wines do. Whimsies are typically small batches, and won't be available long. They won't normally appear on our Tasting Bar so this weekend is a very special opportunity to taste and buy."
I showed BB the email and we rushed out the door to go buy a bottle of this.
When we got to the winery, we were informed that there was a preview event with tastings and lectures. But sadly, we couldn't stay because BB had to go to work. I dropped him off at the theatre, considered my own plans for the day, decided they were boring and that sometimes it really sucks that we don't have the same day off to do things together. So on a whim I decided to go back to the winery to check out the happenings.
That decision landed me in a tent overlooking a vineyard, listening to a lecture on biodynamic farming
I've done a bit of wine touring with our visitors and have noticed that I am no longer intimidated by the process of wine tasting, I know a bit more than most people, not much but enough that I'm confident enough to taste and comment in a group situation. Today was different, I found myself sitting with a professor who teaches viticulture, a grape grower and a marketing professional. Thankfully, it was a small enough group that we were able interact with each other along with the vineyard steward and I felt comfortable enough to ask some questions. Oh and we tasted wine. That's what makes these things fun, the wine tasting!
We were doing right hand / left hand "in your right hand is this, in your left hand is that". I swirled the wine in my left glass and sniffed deeply, it had absolutely NO aroma. I couldn't smell anything. Now what? Damn I'm bad at this. Try again. Still nothing.
So, I said so. "Um, excuse me, I don't smell anything?!?" Nothing like admitting that you don't smell a thing to bring the professionals to full alert, "Do you have a cold? Do you smoke? Here smell mine! Nothing? How about this?" I finally got it much to everyone's relief and laughter. I was excited that I preferred the wine made from grapes grown in the "biodynamic vineyard".
This was a good reminder to do things on a whim, I certainly wasn't expecting to spend my afternoon discussing manure, grape vines, the phases of the moon and leaf removal while sipping wine with people I had never met before but I did. I went and I had a blast.
Now I have to figure out what to do with these :
Aren't they amazing looking? At this point, these garlic scapes may just end up chopped and frozen, where they'll wait patiently until winter to add a taste of spring to an omelet or a frittata on a cold morning.
Now, to round out my day of grapes and scapes, I'm going to have a glass of wine and read some cookbooks to figure out what to do with those beautiful curls.
