Moo juice, water and wine.....that's all I've had to drink since the hundred mile diet began, and all I have to say is....thank goodness for the wine! It's not that I don't enjoy milk or a goblet of lake water, but a glass of wine at the end of a hard day's work sure feels like a treat, or so I would imagine.
This morning I decided that I needed an image of Motts Landing Vineyard's latest offering, Frontenac Gris, for this blog, so I took a bottle up on the Cambridge-Narrows bridge. It was 6:30 a.m. With my trusty Nikon in hand, I started shooting the bottle. Surprisingly there was quite a bit of traffic. The beauty of being the possible former village idiot, is that no one would give a second thought to seeing me on the bridge at 6:30 a.m. with a bottle in hand. It was Friday, after all, and the no drinks before noon rule never applied to me or my particular species (Hobo sipian).
I composed a few shots where I was laying in the middle of the road, on the bridge asphalt, shooting the bottle which rested upon the yellow line. My spider senses, particularly hearing, were greatly heightened as I didn't want to be spied laying on the road, let alone run over, so I would quickly scamper to the relative safety of the sidewalk upon hearing an oncoming pulp truck. I say 'relative safety' because certain members of this community just can't seem to keep their vehicles out of the ditches, so why would a sidewalk offer any protection? To be run over on the sidewalk makes you a statistic. To be run over practicing photography while laying on the road, well, that makes you the village idiot (Posthumous emeritus), and a possible candidate for the Darwin Awards.
I decided not to use the images that I shot of the bottle in the middle of the road because what they're bottling eight miles down the Lower Cambridge Road is anything but middle of the road. David and Sonia are doing a magnificent job of making fine wines at the Motts Landing Vineyard (MLV).
As the possible former village idiot, I'm in no position to tell you that the Frontenac Gris is "high-toned with a slightly raisiny nose with hints of perfume. Very ripe-tasting in the mouth. Big and luscious, with some herbaceous elements and mint/lime on the finish." That's the job of a sommelier like Doug Watling, who writes the tasting notes for the MLV wines.
My specialty, if you could say that I have one beyond being a professional couch warmer, is more in assessing the heart and soul of any business. I look to see what goes into a business, before I look to see what comes out of it. David and Sonia pour their hearts into every glass of wine, and they crush their grapes with their souls. It's not an easy business to be in. There are many ups and downs but surely they know how happy it makes people like me to be able to pour a glass of wine at the end of a hard day's leisure.
It's immensely satisfying to drink something that was produced locally. It makes the hundred mile diet feel like an honour.
Motts Landing Vineyard opens to the public this weekend with two new offerings, Frontenac Gris and Chantilly Blush. The red wines should be bottled and ready to sell in August. Check their web site for updates and store hours.
To David and Sonia, I say 'cheers', and 'thank you'. You're in this business for all the right reasons.
No comments:
Post a Comment