Wine Tasting in Grand Pré

I want to tell you more about our wine tasting and dinner Friday night. The Grand Pré Winery has won many awards, and is one of a growing number of wineries in the area.

Cecilia was a charming host and introduced us to some lovely wines.  She and her husband, Jurgen, who was a Swiss banker, bought the vineyard and developed it. It is a beautiful site, and includes a restaurant that is rated among the ten best vineyard restaurants in the world.

Our favorites were a lovely oaked white, L'Acadie Reserve, and a wonderful sparkling wine, Ice Cuvee, which we brought home for dinner. We also really liked the Dolce Vita dessert wine - a lovely surprise! - but did not get it. We will have to look for the Grand Pré wines when we get home. I expect that they will be more expensive in Alberta.

This is their website:  http://www.grandprewines.ns.ca/winery/wines/dessert/dolce-vita/

Darrell was pointing out the grain on the white oak barrells. He is an accomplished wood-turner. The winery uses some wooden casks and some stainless steel. It was interesting to compare the same vintage, oaked and unoaked.

We enjoyed a display, on loan from a local collector, of antique corkscrews, mostly from Europe. This photo shows a few. You would have found them interesting, Charlie. (Charlie is a knife maker who uses a wide variety of  materials for the knife handles.

Of course the grounds were beautiful, too - too many views to show here, but I couldn't resist a few of the flowers and, of course, of the vineyard itself.

When we got home we had lovely appetizers on the deck and then dealt with the lobsters! All in all a great day.

I have tried several times to add the photo of our lobster, but every time I turn it in my viewer, it disappears - just like the lobster did! I will have to try the photo editor to see if that works - just problems with this one photo . . .

We love Mahone Bay, and I will tell you about this area next time.