Southern Italy

Been quiet for me on the blogging front, as we’ve been out of country. We were on a hiking tour of the Amalfi Coast of Italy, followed by a couple days in Rome. The itinerary was as follows (each number representing a day):

Fly to Naples via Rome, on Alitalia.
Arrive and get shuttled to Bomerano. Meet the rest of the tour group and have dinner.
Hike from Bomerano to Amalfi, that has a downhill bias, involving many steps.
Ascend Monte Tre Caili, a small mountain. (On foot, of course.)
Visit the lost city of Pompeii, then climb Mount Vesuvius—the cause of its demise.
Walk through the gorgeous Valle delle Ferrie National Park (11k).
“Free day”, in which we took in a visit to Herculeum (another city lost to the Vesuvian eruption) and the lovely Ravello.
“Walk of the Gods” from Bomerano to Positano, then a boat ride back.
End of tour and train ride to Rome.
Visit Rome (museums on this day).
Continue Rome visit.
Direct flight back home.

The Amalfi Coast area is here:

Amalfi Coast map

You’ll note that the area we were staying in, Bomerano (actually part of Agerola), is not even on the map. It is up away from the sea, in the mountainous area, and not easy to get to. If not for being on a tour that brought us there, I’m sure we’d never have visited on our own.

Bomerano satellite shot

Where Bomerano is—the red A

Your transportation options are either not-terribly-frequent buses from Amalfi, spending a fortune on a taxi, or attempting to drive yourself—which would practically be a death wish on these very narrow, twisty, and busy roads. (Of course, with the tour, we either had help with the bus system or an experienced driver.)

Furthermore, there ain’t a heck of a lot to do in Bomerano. It’s quite small, not many shops, no bank, no museums (that I know of), and just a few restaurants. (Oh, and all the TV channels are in Italian.)

But as a place to collapse after a day of hiking or touring or both, it was just fine. Especially since it did have Internet, which really provided enough entertainment for the amount of time we spent there not sleeping or eating the multi-course meals. (More on that later).

The weather

The tour group the previous week had the great bad luck of experiencing a full week of cold, fog, and heavy rain. On a hiking tour.

We were in the much more fortunate position of experiencing the upswing in the weather. On the first day (of activity), the fog was heavy, so instead of climbing the mountain as would normally have been the itinerary, we did the walk down to Amalfi, eventually getting below the fog. Unfortunately, of course, we had few views on the way.

View below the fog

The view below the fog

The day of the mountain climb, though, we did have a sunny morning, and therefore nice views all the way up the mountain. However, then the fog decided to come back for our descent. And at the very bottom, we got our only rain of the trip–pretty heavy at the very end. But we all enjoyed the refuge at the Crazy Burger Cafe!

The fog rolling in

The fog rolling in at the top of the mountain

At Pompeii, the weather was fantastic. On Mount Vesuvius, the fog decided to reappear, though more in a hide and seek kind of way that did allow for some views. (A bigger issue was the strikers who prevented us from walking all the way around and partly down into the volcano, but the alternate route we did instead was a lot of fun.)

Peekaboo fog at Vesuvius

The peekaboo fog at Vesuvius

The next three days were nothing but sunny, and the final day got really warm, such that we were all discarding as many clothes as was decent, and getting a great round of sunburns.

Walk of the Gods

Perfect weather on the final hike, The Walk of the Gods

Managing the physical challenges

Though we both do some exercise, it turns out we weren’t really in shape for walking down 2700 steps one day, then climbing up a small mountain the next. By the third day, we could barely negotiate the tiny stairs in the hotel, so sore were the muscles. In my case, it was both calves (from the up) and quads (from the down).

I was actually worried about managing the rest of the trip, but by day four things were much improved, and by the end, despite continued hiking on hilly terrain, the muscles were actually pretty good.

My big toes on the other hand, got extremely whiny about the constant butting up against the end of the hiking boot, and by the end were unbelievably sensitive. That made walking in Rome the first two days something of a challenge, but that too improved in the end. Well, except that my big toe nails are now kind of black.

The group

The tour group we were with, Exodus, are British, so everyone on the tour but us were from the UK or Scotland. (We got a lot of comments about how far it was for us to come. Of course, true. They had only a 2.5 hour flight!) They ranged in age from, I’m guessing, early 30s to late 60s. And most of them in their 60s were in much better shape than us, which wasn’t embarrassing at all. 🙂

The merry band of hikers

The merry band of hikers

It was a good group. Interesting people who tended to have done a lot of traveling, and who worked in all different areas. Jean was particularly great with one of the older ladies, who had hurt her knee on the first day (!), and thereafter struggled with some of the more challenging terrain. He made sure she negotiated all the paths safely. He’s sweet, my husband.

Food and wine

We had all our breakfasts and most of dinners at Hotel Due Torri, where we staying, which is fortunately somewhat renowned for its food. It was, of course, Italian cuisine all week long, but a different menu each night, typically starting with a pasta, then following with seafood or meat, then dessert.

We also got to go into the kitchen a couple times to watch the meals being put together, which was a lot of fun. That’s a lot of olive oil in that seafood linguine! And if you have a wood-burning oven at 200 degrees, your pizza cooks in about 2 minutes.

Freshly made tiramisu

Freshly made tiramisu

The wines served were regional ones, not exported to Canada (or anywhere). They were good, quite food-friendly, but not the sort you’d make a big fuss over.

We had one night out to another Bomerano restaurant, the whole group together, and they did a fantastic job there, too. Jean and I still argue over which of us had the better meal there. And in Revello, we had a splurge lunch on a gorgeous patio. In Rome, we mostly stuck with Italian food, still. It was all good, but I think most notable was the ricotta and pear ravioli in truffle sauce. Jean liked it so much when I had it at lunch that we went back to the same place for dinner, and he ordered it.

Lunch in Revello

Lunch in Revello, “the most picturesque place on earth”, as one in our group called it

Rome

I should wind up before I’m writing all night (of course I’ll be adding more to the website, later), but not before saying something about our visit to Rome.

The first day in Rome it was 28 degrees and sunny, which you may think sounds great, but Rome is humid, I had to keep somewhat covered up due to sunburn, I had the sore feet, and so it was just uncomfortable. And then there was crowds.

We had been thinking April was still low season there, but not so much–especially late April. That first day, we walked to the Trevi Fountain, and the Spanish Steps, and the Coliseum area… And everywhere was just crawling with an unbelievable number of people.

Crowded Spanish steps

We had to share the Spanish Steps with just a few other people.

So truthfully, I wasn’t really liking Rome so much on day 1 there. (And did I mention our hotel had no air conditioning?)

Fortunately, Rome improved. It started by clouding over (but no rain) and lowering the temperature (but not getting too cold), which was much better. And, we largely avoided the big sites and saw some of the less well-known yet quite interesting areas we had missed last time:

National Museum of Rome, with fantastic ancient sculptures
Museum of Modern Art, with fantastic modern sculptures and a really neat area on optical illusion art
The Capuchin crypt, with its artful arrangement of 4000 monk bones (web photo below)
A synagogue tour, where I learned just how long Roman Jews have been persecuted
An interesting archeological site behind the synogague, unearthing another Colosseum
The lively Travestere neighborhood

Capuchin Crypt

We weren’t allowed to take photos here, so this one is a find

The not-so-well known colosseum behind the Rome synagogue

Roman Forum

And the more famous Forum (because this is a cool shot)

So Rome ended up fine as well. Thank goodness it was a second visit.

More Amalfi coast photos: http://jean-cathy.smugmug.com/Travel/2013-Travel/Italy-and-the-Amalfi-Coast/

More Rome photos: http://jean-cathy.smugmug.com/Travel/2013-Travel/Rome-April-2012/

More details (with photos): Amalfi and Rome Trip Diary

Niagara wine-ing

We did an over-nighter in Niagara-on-the-Lake last weekend. We visited Flat Rock Cellars winery for the first time, and were left somewhat unimpressed. Our favorite of the four wines we tried was the 2010 white Twisted, which is very nice. (Might make a white wine convert of you.) But it’s widely available at LCBO. And you had to buy four bottles to dispense with the tasting fee. So, we just paid the tasting fee.

More successful was our second visit to Thirteenth Street Winery, though the first at its current location. Which is very nice, with an art gallery and a bakery also on site. And they were much more relaxed about the tastings, allowing us to try more than the prescribed five. And you only needed to get two bottles to dispense with the tasting fee.

In the end we bought five: one of their nice Cabernet Rosé, two of the character-ful 2009 Gamay Noir (an interesting contrast to the fruitier 2010), and two of the Below Zero Riesling, which is that ice wine and Riesling blend.

The weather wasn’t super-cooperative on Saturday, giving us a mostly rain when we arrived in Niagara-on-the-Lake proper. We did some walking around regardless. But it was only the next morning (early, so without me) that Jean got some photos.

Building in Niagara-on-the-Lake

We had dinner at Hillebrand Estates Winery. They offered a prix fixe menu of three, four, or five courses—same menu, you just picked how many parts of it you wanted. At first I picked three that, I was then informed, didn’t include the entree course. That wasn’t ideal, but neither of the two entree options: salmon (which I’d had plenty of at lunch) and beef. But it did mention a possible vegetarian entree, so that’s what I went with: a vegetable ravioli.

Our first course was a quite delicious pumpkin soup with lobster, served with a mix of Trius Brut and ice wine. Next we had a duck and ravioli appetizer, served with a red wine—though neither of us can quite remember which grape. It seemed to go well, though. And both the duck and ravioli were very good.

Duck course

With the mains (Jean had the beef), I believe we got the Trius Red, which was fine, but nothing outstanding. We did not take the wine pairings with dessert. I had the bittersweet chocolate pudding, while Jean went for the pear meringues.

All in all, a quality meal in a lovely room with a waiter who was kind of fun—commenting on Jean’s attempt to be surreptitious about taking photos, for example.

The next day, after a nice breakfast at our B&B, and a walk around a now not-rainy Niagara-on-the-Lake, we stopped in a Peller Estates, as we curious to try their 2010 reds. But we also tried their 2010 Sauvignon Blanc, which was interesting in being a little oaked, which is unusual for that type of grape. And their Private Reserve Rosé, which we really liked.

On to the reds. The Pinot Noir wasn’t bad, but was fairly light, and didn’t seem quite worth the price tag. The Merlot was really tannic. They then realized they needed to do some extra decanting on some of these reds. After that, the Cabernet Franc wasn’t overly tannic, but it didn’t seem super-interesting, either. But the Cabernet Sauvignon was really nice. So we bought a couple bottles of that, which we’ll probably let sit a bit, along with a couple roses and one Sauvignon.

On the way back, we stopped in for lunch at Borealis Grill and Bar, which we’ve been wanting to try. It’s nothing fancy—specials of the day were perogies and ribs, for example—but it focuses on local foods, well-prepared. And we were happy with what we had, which was a fish taco in my cases (with Lake Erie pickerel) and a vegetable fusili in Jean’s—featuring pickled asparagus, goat cheese, tomato, and double smoked bacon. It’s a little out of the way from where we live, but we would go there again.

Some quick ones

Other issues have been getting in the way of blogging lately. Let’s see if I can cover a few items with some brevity (not always my strong suit).

Politics: NDP leadership

It’s been interesting to read the views on Thomas Mulcair, but I haven’t formed my own opinion of him yet. Me, I liked Nathan Cullen. To the point where I was almost wishing I had joined the NDP, just so I could vote for him.

Politics: Robocalls

Yep, I’m still following this issue pretty closely and may rant more about it later. In the meantime I will say that Rick Mercer’s 2-minute rant this week summed it up nicely for me. The MPs themselves don’t really know what happened, but someone does. Several someones, higher up. We know it’s rotten. We know the government won’t investigate itself, but someone must.

Rick suggests the G-G. I don’t have much faith that he would do; he’s really not the shit-disturber type, which is probably why Harper picked him. Still, I don’t have a better suggestion. And like Rick, I want to something to happen on this, and sooner rather than later.

Books: What not to read

On fairly short notice, we ended up having to take a somewhat long road trip. So I tried to find an audiobook. A novel called Mine Are Spectacular! looked kind of fun, and had pretty good reviews.

People, it was so ridiculous. It was intended, I think, as a kind of wish fulfillment novel for middle-aged women. Everyone was rich, richer, and richest, and their was no end to the designer labels being dropped into the prose, as though every paragraph had a sponsor. We started mockingly repeating each as they went by: Louis Vuitton! Gucci! Dolce Gabana!

And though not that old (2006), it seemed so dated. AOL buddies. The cutting-edge concept of metrosexuals. And frankly, all that reveling in the luxury goods, which seemed a bit wrong, post-recession.

And then there was Kurt. Gorgeous, smart, successful, (rich!) Kurt, in his 20s, who nonetheless has so little life of his own that, of course, all he wants to do is hang out with a bunch of women in their 40s. He’s what “the girl” usually is in action movies–a bit of eye candy for our heroines, who has no apparent existence outside of them.

Food: New ways to drink ice wine

We did the Niagara-on-the-Lake thing recently. Like a lot of people, we kind of like ice wine, but it is so thick and so sweet, we don’t really drink it that often.

But on this trip we purchased a wine that was a mix of Riesling and ice wine. The result was a sweet wine, but one that was much less thick and sweet. Much more approachable.

Then at a wine pairing dinner we went to, we were served sparkling wine—with a dash of ice wine in it. That made for a slightly off-dry sparkling (reminiscent of Peller Estates’ Ice Cuvee) that went really nicely with the pumpkin soup.

That got us thinking that we could do our own blending here. A touch of ice in a cabernet franc. Our own blend of ice cuvee with some other sparkling wine. You know? So that bottle of ice doesn’t just sit for months in your fridge after you’ve had your one glass of it.

The perfect wine

Though we’ve had Pinots from Coyote Run before, and they were fine, I don’t remember ever being quite as impressed with them as we both were with the 2009 Estate Pinot Noir, which is only 19.95 (not bad for Pinot). Though it’s a lighter Pinot, not your blockbuster Californian, it still seemed very wow.

I don’t know if it was the wine temperature, or the food match (pan-seared salmon with mushrooms and spinach–a good and easy recipe, but at least double the veggie amounts), or if 2009 was a good Pinot year (like it says on the bottle).

Whatever. That night, it seemed the perfect wine.

And a delicious new year

We followed the usual traditions, spending New Year’s Eve at Verses…

New Year's Eve 2012 at Verses

(There might have been wine involved), only this time with a friend. A lovely four-course meal, the highlights of which were probably the cold foie gras we all started with, and the champagne-poached oyster appetizer I had to follow.

We spent a mellow New Year’s Day (well, I did—Jean actually went canoeing in the rain).

Then on Monday, we did that slightly crazy multi-course cooking thing we do. The Monday actually being the day before we had to go back to work, though, we did scale it back a little, starting the dining at an earlier time, and only attempting three courses this year.

Appetizer: Mussels and clams with lemon grass

This was from a book by Christine Ingram called Appetizers, Starters and Buffet Foods, which I took out of the library. (Did I mention we have library in walking distance now? Me likie.) Though the ingredients sounded delicious—the seafood steamed in a broth of lemon grass, white wine, lime, and coconut cream, the instructions didn’t really make sense. It said to put in the wine with seasonings and cook it until it was almost gone, then add the seafood, then take out the cooked seafood, and reduce what was left by half. How can you reduce nothing by half?

Anyway, so this ended up a free-wheeling improvisation, especially since I also had to use lemon grass in a tube, fresh limes rather than “kaffir lime leaves”, and coconut milk with coffee cream rather than coconut cream. And since we were also in the middle of cooking the main course when we had to start this (it’s just how these meals work), it was a little stressful.

Fortunately, it turned out delicious!

Mussels, clams, and lemon grass with wine

A few of the mussels and clams might have ended up a bit overcooked, but most had a really nice texture, and the broth tasted amazing. We had about three pounds of seafood here, and we ate every bite.

The wine it cooked in was an Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc, but for serving, we went with a Stratus 2006 White, which is a rich white blend. It was nice and complex, and definitely involved some Chardonnay. (Website says: Also Sauvignon Blanc, Gewurztraminer, Semillon and Viognier.)

Main course: Cider and honey roast leg of lamb with crisp roasted potatoes and caramelized Brussels sprouts

Three recipes here. The meat was a Gordon Ramsey offering (and also a library acquisition), and never having cooked leg of lamb before, I followed the recipe pretty much exactly. It basically involved roasting the leg with garlic, thyme, and apple, and basting it with honey and cider. Really not too difficult; you just have to allow 2—2.5 hours to get it done.

The only thing that didn’t particular work was the gravy, which he claimed could be produced from the leftover cider with added chicken broth—with no thickener. He claimed that it cooked down to the proper consistency, but there was a ton of liquid! So we just used it runny. It tasted good, but was definitely more bouillon than gravy, to me.

The potato recipe was from Cook’s Country magazine. In their usual method, they had tested and experimented until they came up with the perfect technique for producing a crispy texture on the outside, and a creamy texture on the inside. But we couldn’t follow that, because we had only one oven, and I decided that it was more important that the meat cook at the proper temperature than the potatoes.

And the Brussels sprout recipe was courtesy of Gwyneth Paltrow’s My father’s daughter, a Christmas gift. It was a quick recipe we could do after eating the seafood, while awaiting the meat: You basically steam the Brussels sprouts for seven minutes, then cut them in half and sear each side in olive oil, and serve with lemon juice, more olive oil, and coarse salt.

Lamb, potatoes, and brussel sprouts with red wine

We had a good year; this all turned out well also. (Though I couldn’t eat that entire plate, above.) Despite their lack of perfectly crispy exterior, the potatoes were very good—Jean thought they were the highlight. The meat was tasty and tender. And strangely, it tasted even better the next day, when we had it as a leftover.

The Brussels sprout recipe was intended to make converts of those who don’t like Brussels sprouts, and I could see that. As Jean said, they kind of ended up not tasting like Brussels sprouts very much. They were good, but since we actually like Brussels sprouts, maybe they didn’t need all the disguise.

We served it with a wine that we picked up in California, a 2004 Bartholomew Park Cabernet Sauvignon. It was very nice, full and fruity but still with some tannins.

Dessert: Praline cream pie

This is from Cooking Light magazine. It wasn’t difficult, but it was involved, as you had to make the crust, then let that cool, then make the praline layer, and let that cool, then make the cream, and (you guessed it) let that cool, then put the whole thing together and chill it for a long time. So I started that in the morning, and we ate it around 8:30 or 9:00, and it still wasn’t completely set.

On the other hand, it was nice to have dessert out of the way early, so that last part of dining could be quite relaxed. And slightly runny or not, it was really very good. Like a lighter sugar pie, maybe?

Praline cream pie with Ice cuvee

We had that with a Peller Estate Ice Cuvée, a lovely blend of ice and sparkling wine.

Canoe-ing together

We’re just back from vacation to Zion, Sedona, Grand Canyon, and Las Vegas. And you’ll be reading and seeing more about that from me soon. But first, I wanted to finish this post I started before leaving, about my trip to exotic Toronto. I’ve already talked about the Daltrey part of that, but not about the foodie part (the second time a Daltrey has included visits to fine restaurants. So I guess that’s a tradition now.)

First up: Canoe!

Canoe sign

We’ve been hearing about Canoe for years and years, and finally went. For lunch, because that’s cheaper.

It is a beautiful space up there on the 54th floor. Even though we had a somewhat cloudy day, it still offered an impressive view of Toronto.

We did feel slightly underdressed, as we were in our rock concert gear while most everyone else seemed to be on lunch break from their Financial District jobs, and therefore in business dress (the only nod to Friday being that many of the men didn’t have ties). Nevertheless, we received impeccable service. (And very prompt.)

For some reason this is now a two-star restaurant in Where to Eat in Canada, but to us, it was definitely three-star food. It’s not every day you swoon over squash soup, but theirs did taste divine, featuring a maple accent. Maybe even better than the wild mushroom soup Jean had, though no complaints about that one either. For mains, Jean had a beautiful goose cassoulet, and I had a salmon fillet that I’d hoped would be more smokey (it was described as “smoked”), but came with fairly amazing rice in broth. How often do you describe rice in broth as amazing?

Vertical

Our dinner restaurant was a no-star listing in Where to Eat, and was indeed not as impressive as Canoe. Still, Vertical is not a bad place to go. It has fun, lively-looking bar area, and a quieter dining one. We were there quite early in a bid not to miss any of the concert, and our waiter was quite accommodating in not rushing us through the order selection process.

The meal was fine but not outstanding, except for one item: the haddock ravioli with truffle and chanterelle. Which sounds totally weird. But it was just delicious, with pasta of perfect texture, and a fantastic blend of flavors.

Le Petit Déjeuner

I don’t usually go on about breakfast, but I feel a need to mention Le Petit Déjeuner, on King Street East, because it had the most amazing scrambled eggs. Really—scrambled eggs. I’d never had such amazingly light, fluffy ones before. (The waffles were also quite delightful.) We got to wondering how they achieved this texture. Jean’s been studying the matter with the help of an egg cookbook written by a French chef. He’s getting closer…

Tawse Winery

The next part of this weekend getaway actually took place in Niagara-on-the-Lake, as part of a work thing of Jean’s. Included was a group tour of Tawse Winery (sometimes Jean’s job is really tough). Jean and I had visited before, but that one was the typical step up to the bar and try out a few tastes of wine type. This one featured four different wine stations, each with a food item that suited the wine being tasted, followed by a visit to the wine cellar where we could try any other wines they made. And, we were led on the tour by the vintner himself.

All the little appetizer items were very nice on their own, and did suit wine being highlighted. And those were all good, except that the Pinot Noir just wasn’t quite there yet. (The vintner agreed; we were tasting it before it was ready to be bottled and sold.) We got a full explanation of their wine-making process, and how it’s different from most other wineries, so I did come to understand why Tawse wines cost more than many. Despite that understanding, though, we still bought only one bottle each of their two cheapest wines, the Riesling and the rosé.

Vineland Estates

Our one winery stop on the way home was at Vineland Estates, in Vineland (would you believe). I wanted to go after having enjoyed their wines at the Solé dinner, but in the end, we didn’t even do a wine tasting here—they seemed a bit busy, and we didn’t want to wait. But, we did have a fine lunch. They have a very beautiful room with a view, enjoyable even on this day, which was gray and rainy. And all the food was very nice. We went totally seafood, sharing mussels to start, then Jean had the bouillabaisse while I had the smoked trout (which was as smokey as I’d hoped). Nice job on all the fish for being so far from the sea.

Worth the gamble

At our last dinner at Verses, several of us agreed that while Sole restaurant had many fine qualities, consistently good-quality food wasn’t one of them. You could get a pretty good meal there. Or you get a pretty mediocre. It was a bit of a crap shoot.

But, anytime I’ve been there for a special wine-food pairing dinner, they’ve always done an excellent job. So I was willing to try their September local food special, which is as follows:

“Sledgers” Organic Micro Greens
… hemp seed and lemon vinaigrette, fresh peaches, “Pingue” natural prosciutto

2009 Semi Dry Riesling 3 oz

Jumbo Scallop
… beet marinated, sweet pea and mint puree, pancetta cup

2010 Unoaked Chardonnay 3 oz

Tomato Mille Feuille
… roasted “Elmira’s Own” cherry tomatoes, “Woolwich” goat cheese, puff pastry, dill pesto

2010 Pinot Meunier 3 oz

Ontario Duck
… Roasted “Brome Lake” duck breast, zucchini fritter, heirloom carrots, red currant compote, cassis jus

2009 Elevation Cabernet 3oz

“Rosenburg” Blue Cheese
… green apple sorbet, pear chips

2008 Cabernet Ice Wine 1 oz

Five Course Preset Dinner $ 50 per person, Wine Pairing $ 30 per person

I have to say, everything was just delicious. The scallop was perfectly cooked. The mille feuille had a great texture and nice balance of flavors. The cassis jus nicely accompanied the medium-rare duck. The green apple sorbet was a highlight of the dessert.

The wines were lovely, too. I wasn’t that familiar with Vineland Estates, but now I’m interested in checking them out. The off-dry Riesling and the Pinot Meunier (wonderful nose on that one) were highlights, but they all worked well. And I’d never had Cabernet Sauvignon ice wine before.

The service was very prompt and very friendly. We are a little spoiled, though, as we were somewhat expecting a full explanation of each dish, but they don’t really do that at Solé. So we just kept asking questions:

What’s the sauce?
What are these things on the scallop?
Which type of wine is this?
What year is the wine?

And so on. Occasionally our waitress could answer, but very often she had to go running back to get the information. She always did, though.

The only other minor complaint was that the serving sizes could have been a tad smaller, for five courses. But it wasn’t crazy sized, and in the end, the only dish that I couldn’t manage all of was the duck.

So, I’d say this one is a good bet (and a good deal) at Solé. You have five more days to try it out.

Wine-ing around Prince Edward County

The finale of our not-very-exotic summer vacation was a visit to Prince Edward County. While we did walk some trails and visit some galleries, mostly, we were there for the wine.

Best wine tasting experience: Karlo Estates

Which is interesting, because right before going there, we were warned by other visitors that the person doing their wine tasting wasn’t very knowledgeable and, for example, didn’t particularly like red wines.

But we got a very well-informed dude leading through a series of five of their wines, all accompanied by suitable matching food! (Like olives, Cheddar, almonds.) It was challenge for him, as it was busy and he had to manage various groups all at different points in the tasting, but he was up to the task.

So, maybe the advice is to visit the winery in the afternoon rather than the morning.

Another neat thing is that they offer kinds of wines not available elsewhere in Ontario. Their rose, for example, is made with the Frontenac Gris grape, that is not even recognized by the VQA. But it was very good, and as rosé’s often are, quite reasonably priced at $16. Though relatively sweet (sugar level 2), it didn’t seem cloying. “Exuding flavours such as strawberry, citrus with a spicy finish and a hint of cinnamon.” the tasting notes say. That could be about right.

They also work with the Bordeau-style grapes: Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Malbec, and Petit Verdot. (Did you know you could get Malbec in Ontario? I didn’t.) The blend of these is available as a wine they call Quintus ($35). When one of the individual grapes is having a good year, they will bottle and sell that on its own. Currently, the petit verdot is approaching that status. Though not quite ready for bottling, we were able to taste it as well.

And… They make port! And it’s really quite good, very smooth going down. $29 for a 500 ml bottle.

Runner-up: Rosehall Run

It was just a straighforward wine tasting, not a whole guided experience with snacks, but they were very knowledgeable and accommodating here. (Like, printing out a copy of the tasting notes for me.) Our favorite of the wines we tried here was the off-dry Riesling ($17.75), but we also enjoyed the 2008 Pinot Noir ($19.75) and the 2009 Sullyzwic Rosé ($14.75). The Globe and Mail said “Rosehall makes some of the best-value wines in the County.”

Also worth noting for more unusual wine offerings is The Grange of Prince Edward Vineyards. We restricted our tastings here to three premiums offerings, and ended up purchasing two of them: The nice Champagne-style Brut 2008, a sparkling wine mix of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, $29, and the late harvest Sauvignon Blanc, a pleasantly sweet dessert wine that was made almost accidentally by forgetting some grapes on the vine. It’s $24.75. (I also enjoyed a glass of sparkling rosé—actually, Pinot Noir—from this winery at one of the restaurants. That one may not be available for general purchase.)

Best winery dining: Wapoos Estates

Wapoos logo We say this despite not being huge fans of the wines, which all struck us as ultra-dry and quite different from the ones made at the other end of the county. But, they were quite food-friendly, and the food was just delicious. We stopped in here for lunch on the way in the way in, so we didn’t have anything too fancy, but everything was super-fresh (like the tomatoes in the gazpacho), made in-house (like the tortilla in the smoked pork sandwich), and with nicely balanced flavors.

Plus, it was just a beautiful day, maybe the best of our vacation, and they have lovely grounds there. So it was nice to be sitting out looking at water and views while sipping some wine and eating good food.

Despite not being too bowled by the vino, we did get one bottle of Baco Noir here.

Runner-up: Norman Hardie

Pretty easy win for Norman, as it’s the only other winery we dined at. All they offer here is wood-burning oven pizzas. I had the special of the day, which was a lemon-scented one. Which seems weird, but was quite nice. However, Jean’s Margherita, which is part of the general menu, was better, thanks to the delicious tomatoes.

It’s quite a casual dining experience on a patio, with communal tables. Fortunately, we had another nice day, so that was perfectly enjoyable.

Norman Hardie makes somewhat expensive wines, so I had thought this was a way to have some without a tasting and feeling the temptation of buying up bottles. That worked out. I had a glass of the Chardonnay, which didn’t taste at all how I expected. Not oaky at all, I guess. I finally concluded that I quite liked it. Jean had a 2009 Pinot Noir. It was also quite enjoyable, but again, that’s not the best of Pinot Noir years, so there it is.

Also worth noting is the East and Main Bistro in Wellington. That’s a restaurant, not a winery, but it’s a very good one, and the wine list is mostly Prince Edward County wines, many available by the glass. We complicated our lives by ordering items that were impossible to find a matching wine for (pickerel for me and osso bucco for Jean), but managing by me starting with a glass of that afore-mentioned sparkling rosé, then switching to join in on the bottle of 2010 Sandbanks Baco Noir, because it was just delicious, whether it really matched fish or not.

Favorite overall winery: Sandbanks

At least if you go by the number of bottles purchased! They are also quite reasonably priced, which doesn’t hurt. The wine tasting experience there is nothing very special, but you get good service. We especially enjoyed the Riesling and the Baco Noir, of which we bought the 2009 Reserve as well as that 2010. (That will be an awesome year in Ontario reds, by the way.) But we also liked the Cabernet-Merlot and the Shoreline, which is a blend of Chardonnay, Rieseling, and Gewurtz.

Yes, we are very well stocked in wine right now. We might have to have a dinner party or something.

You ate out again?

Yes, it’s true; a mere 5 days after our big Chef’s Table dinner at Verses, we found ourselves at Nick and Nat’s Uptown 21 for five-course wine dinner. This one had actually been booked before, and though I noted that it made the proposed timing of the Verses dinner less than ideal, I was overruled. I suppose there are worse fates than having two multi-course gourmet meals close together.

Of course, we weren’t the special guests this time; just three among many at the sold-out dinner featuring wines from Rosewood Estates. As always, the restaurant was too loud, but we were seated nearer to the back, with no table beside us, making that fact less annoying.

The first wine on tap was the 2009 Sémillon, which would prove the favorite for Jean and me. Though I expected a fresh dry style, it actually had a sugar level of 1, and was very pleasant. Our first course was described as:

Raw scallop with sea-buckthorn berries and a green onion tempura and honeycomb vinaigrette

We were presented with a single large spoon of what looked like mixed veggies. Not sure where the scallop was in all that, we concluded it must be mixed in there.

But we were being dumb. That was just the amuse. The first course actually looked like this:

Raw scallop with sea-buckthorn berries

The raw scallops, though it seems as though that should be gross, are quite delicious. The sea-buckthorn berries, a first for all of us, were quite tart, with an interesting texture. The green onion tempura was just delicious; possibly the highlight of the dish. And it included a piece of Rosewood winery honeycomb (they also have bees and honey at that winery), that was soft and blended nicely with the tart berries.

The next wine was the 2009 Natalie’s Sussreserve Riesling. The winemaker was there, and explained the process of making it, which is an unusual one. To quote the website:

Some juice is kept separate and stays unfermented. The rest of the Riesling juice is fermented and made into a finished wine. Just before bottling the unfermented Riesling juice called “süssreserve” is added back to the wine to add complexity, character, structure, natural acidity and of course sweetness.

We’ve really enjoyed other vintages of this one, but we found the 2009 vintage to be merely good, not outstanding. It was served with a composed salad with two warm Quebec cheese, house mustard vinaigrette, and bread crumbs.

Composed salad with cheese

The veggies included radishes, which aren’t normally my favorite, but are improved by proper cooking. It also included asparagus and beans, both which I love. The two cheeses (I don’t think we found out what they were) were very good.

Then on with the duck course, which of course means Pinot Noir—this time, the 2009 vintage. Rosewood’s 2007 Pinot was amazing, and their 2010 should have potential. But 2009 was a cooler summer, which means the much lighter style of Pinot. I like that too, but it doesn’t have the same wow factor.

The food was duck bacon (Ontario duck, who apparently eat sea-buckthorn berries) with pinot and honey-stewed rhubar, braised navy beans, and a barley grass jus.

Duck with rhubarb and navy beans

This wasn’t what I was expecting when I read “duck bacon”; it seemed more like smoked duck. Not that there’s anything wrong that. The navy beans proved a nice accompaniment, and dipping the duck into the sweetened rhubarb worked well.

They had really been building up the next wine, the 2009 Johnny Bower Merlot. Only a small batch is available, very little in restaurants, so it was special that we were all getting some. And there was a whole story behind its making, related to hockey player Johnny Bower (which didn’t mean anything to me, but may to you). The taste? Quite nice, really. Our second favorite. Nice and rich, but not overly so. Pretty smooth.

It was served with a beef ragu with cavatelli dumplings, sweet peas, fried shallots, and pickled green onions.

Beef ragu

I’m not sure what texture cavatelli dumplings are supposed to have, but I really liked the texture of these, with some firmness to them. The Ontario peas were amazing. The meat was extremely tender and in a very nice, slightly sweetened, possibly tomato-based sauce. But, we were still of some opinion that beef is not really the best choice of meats for a foodie dinner. (Neither is chicken, just for the record.)

And on to dessert! The wine was the honey-based mead royale, which is a cool choice. The dish included strawberries (fresh and stewed), honey-goat milk ice cream, and a rosemary sugar-dusted doughnut.

Kristi with dessert

Nick generally makes good doughnuts, and this one was no exception. There’s also no complaining to be done about Ontario strawberries and homemade ice cream.

So all in all, it was a good night out. The meal (including wine) was $85 plus tax and tip.

Dining at the Chef’s Table

For the many times and occasions we’ve been to Verses Restaurant over the years, we’d never tried the Chef’s Table experience. This is where you get a multi-course menu surprise. We were deterred by the cost, and the fact that it requires an eight-person group. We got around the barriers by a) budgeting for it and b) Verses being kind enough to make an exception for us, so we were able to proceed with a group of six.

At a Verses Chef’s table, you actually do sit downstairs, in a little room just outside the kitchen, rather than in the main dining room. It’s very quiet and intimate and you feel very special. Especially given that you also get your own chef and sommelier for the evening, who have a created a menu just for you, with matching wines.

The table looked a bit intimidating at first, with each place set with six forks, six knives, and six glasses of wine, but with the rule of working your cutlery from the outside in, we were ready to go.

When the first item was brought out, the chef joked that while they used to start with the smallest item and proceed to the larger courses, now they were starting with the largest and it would all get smaller from here. Because this was the amuse, which was a single scallop on a sorrel leaf with lime and olive oil garnish (and I’m officially not going to remember all the details of all the garnishings). It was really delicious, and we definitely could have eaten more of those.

Scallop amuse

The wine poured next was a French Sauternes, a sweet wine, which gave us a clue what our appetizer might be: le fois gras. This particular item was inspired by someone at our table (not Jean) who had once ordered foie gras for dessert. So this was kind of foie gras as dessert: the seared meat accompanied by a cone of foie gras ice cream (which you can’t really see in the photo) and local strawberries with pea tendrils. Very exciting for me to have my own foie gras at Verses instead of just tasting Jean’s, I must say!

Foie gras as dessert

Appetizer numéro deux was the Verses version of a Clubhouse sandwich: crisp homemade bread spread with tarragon mayonnaise, then topped with pancetta bacon, local tomato and lettuce, and rabbit. All quite delicious, with the tomato actually being the highlight! There is simply nothing like tomatoes in season. That was served with a very nice, lighter-style California Pinot Noir.

Verses clubhouse

I should mention here that they would bring the food and pour the wine first, and then explain what it was. So in this time we would amuse ourselves trying to guess what things were. The previous dishes weren’t a huge challenge, but the next meat was a puzzle: Was that duck? Quail? Also a mystery was the white foamy stuff. We could only identify the crisp polenta.

Turned out the mystery meat was “squab”, otherwise known as “pigeon”. Something I’ve never seen on a Verses menu before, though I have eaten it previously. It was delicious. The white foam was fennel-based. And the polenta was so good, I’m thinking I should try making my own. The accompanying wine for this was a Shiraz that was not too over-the-top (meaning, not so big and fruity that it dominated the food).

Squab with fennel foam and polenta

The next wine was a real stumper. It was a bubbly, but definitely not Champagne or prosecco. It was very good and refreshing, but not quite like anything I’d tasted before. Except maybe sake, but that isn’t bubbly, and I’ve never liked sake.

But that was it. It was sparkling sake (served cold). Something I’d definitely try again. And it accompanied our seafood course, which was tuna two ways: Seared and tartar. The dish included some fresh wasabi, which is much tamer than its in paste form (like you get in sushi restaurants). It was served with a sesame seed-crisped rice side that was very interesting (in a good way).

Tuna two ways

We thought we had reached the dessert course, so when this next item came out, it seemed a bit smaller than expected. But it turned out to just be the palette cleanser, a lovely sorbet, more refreshing and citrusy than sweet.

Sorbet

Because then we had our final main course: Wild boar (lamb for one person) with a variety of vegetables, including sweet potato mash and zucchini. Everything was perfectly prepared—and this may have been my first experience eating wild boar—but I have to admit this is the one course I couldn’t quite finish. It was served with a California Zinfandel, a suitably big wine for this food.

Wild board with vegetables

But it’s true what they say: There’s always room for dessert. Especially if you’re me, and the dessert is chocolate. Specifically, a deconstructed black forest cake, with the cake, the whipped cream, the macerated cherries, and a chocolate sauce all served side by side. That, I polished off. It was served with an extremely smooth and delicious port.

Deconstructed black forest cake

And these were the wines. The Zipang is that sparkling sake, and only one of the Shiraz’s were part of the pairings.

Wine pairings

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