March 2010

It has been one busy month for me, but a good one.

I completed the Smart Serve program so that I could help pour wines for Mastronardi Estate Winery at the 16th Annual Wine & Cheese Hospitality Night in Harrow at the Harrow at Agricultural Hall. What an enjoyable evening. It was wonderful meeting so many people who are just discovering wines from Essex County. Pam from Mastronardi’s brought their 2007 vintages to pour. Their merlot and the syrah are excellent. People really seemed to enjoy these two wines when I poured them a sample to taste. I do hope that I am invited back to do this again.

Our Spring (March) break was in Orlando, Florida. We do our annual trek south to Disney World to visit the Mouse’s House. We have an ownership interest in Disney’s Vacation Club, a kind of time share that allows us to use our yearly allocated points to reserve villas at Disney World. Our home resort is Disney’s Beach Club which is perfect for me. It is a short 5 minute walk to the back gate of EPCOT’s world show case. Entering through this gate we arrive between England and France. A quick right and I am in France where I headed almost daily to visit the wine tasting bar. It is always a treat tasting some excellent reds and whites from France.

If I were to turn left, by pass England I can visit Canada. While they do not offer wine tastings they do sell some VQA wines in their store. Noticed some ice wines and other wines from Jackson Triggs. Aren’t they owned by VINCOR, a US company? Shame that Disney’s World Showcase didn’t sell wines from Canadian owned wineries.

The local wineries have been busy pruning and preparing for their 2010 vintages. Let’s hope that 2010 is better than 2009. I have heard from several wineries that 2009 was a bad year with many vines not being able to produce too many grapes worth taking to harvest.