Well, believe it or not, we haven't had much of a chance to get out to wineries and taste so I haven't really got much of an understanding of trends or flavour profiles as yet. but I thought it worthwhile mentioning a few bits and bobs.
At first sight the vineyards are really untidy and look unkempt. Instead of the nice neatly hedged, trimmed, plucked and mown vineyards we are used to, these are very vegetative, sprawly, have several trunks per vine and unmmown interrows. In defense of the grapegrowers, it has been an unbelievably wet year, meaning that less time has been dedicated to vineyard maintenance and more time will have had to be spent on spraying etc due to the increased humidity and wet canopies. Mowing would come a long way down the list. on the other side of the coin, I would have thought that putting the time into clearing out the canopy you would get better spray penetration, wind to dry it up and more bunch exposure........... apparently (via Glen!) there is still a lot of basic vineyard maintenance to be put into practice here. Crops look so heavy (10-15T/a) but at least some of the better vineyards have been heavily leaf plucking around the fruit. Interestingly, most of the wine grapes hang right at the bottom of the canopy - which is quite low for most of the vineyards. Veraison is very late this year (about 3 weeks) and when you have a short autumn, 3 weeks is a hell of a long time to make up. Added to this, disease pressure is very high this year. there is an adage that you have to pick when the fruit reaches 20 brix or 30% rot - LOL - this will be a case in point this year. Obviously, the several trunks are to help reduce losses when there are severe winters. There are many frost fans about the place as there are frequent spring frosts.
Soils, from what I can gather so far, are variable around the Niagara area - to be expected considering the geology of the place! Most soils are heavy clay - great for Pinot- and in one area there is a red earth similar to Coonawarra red soils.
The wines have been a real mixed bag. I have concentrated mainly on aromatic whites so far, particularly Riesling. There hasn't really been a consistent profile - there are a range of flavours from mineral to peachy tropical - but in general, the flavours seems less citrus and riper than a lot of cooler rieslings in NZ. Which is striking, because the acids are very different - there are a lot greener and sourer than I am used to. And some are just so unbalanced they are hard to appreciate. (is that diplomatic enough???). The pH and acid levels are generally better than ours (ie pH of 3.3 and acids of 8g/l) and alcohols in line - not too hot. The Pinot gris' I have tasted have been similar in the pear drop / floral character but without the heat and astringency at the back palate. The Chardonnay's are tight, tight, tight, and with quite obviously oak. They are trying a lot of Canadian Oak barrels, which I have found to be very sappy and astringent. They have a bit of a chardonnny clone here called Musque which is literally very muscat like in aroma and flavour - really nice with the tight acid saving it from being too flabby and overblown. The few wines that are under screw cap are showing classic reductive aromas and we have found some basic winemaking faults in several wines.
The reds in general surprised me. Although the acids were still pronounced there were some really nice ripe dark berry, cedar, spice, Christmasy aromas. The reds seem so more effortless than the whites..........
However, these are just my impressions and we have only jut started on the wine journey for Niagara. More updates as and when we imbibe............
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Hitchcocks new release: The Wasps
Mississippi blues on the radio, corn fields rustling, crickets chirruping, sweat dripping....... what could be better? Am at the farm (Glens mum and dad's) and we have been harvesting table grapes today - in between rain storms. We picked Himrod (seedless, green) to be dried to raisins and Einset (pinky and really flavoursome - musky). Really bad year for harvests of anything - botrytis, powdery and downy - never seen all three together, white faced wasps, yellow jacket wasps, cucumber beetle, Japanese beetle and pesky birds. Corn has Ear worm, potatoes have Potato Beetle, brassicas have - you guessed it, Brassica beetle. Man, do we have it easy in NZ!!! I have seen horse flies here the size of small birds that rasp open your skin and drink your blood - the girls, already with fertile imaginations - are not finding it easy!!! This follows on from our slightly abortive attempt at exploring Toronto Zoo..........
So, we needed to go to the big smoke of Toronto to get Glen a visa for china - he is going over for some consultancy and leaving us behind. Sigh. I figure that is at least a bottle of Billecart Salmon Rose......... anyway. We got to Toronto and drove, drove, and drove some more. Man, did I feel like a country bumpkin - that is one socking great big city. Fell in love with the uppy/downy streets - all tree lined and the wonderful architecture - and that was just suburbia - high class suburbia, but still.. gorgeous. Finally got to the zoo - it has four, count them, four lanes just to get into the zoo. It even has it's own highway exit - I got the feeling it was bigger than Orana Park....... got past the acres of parking and hit the queues for entering the zoo. It looked like an small town was waiting to get in. Secondly, we almost needed to pawn the kids for our entrance fee and thirdly, we noticed the Wasps. Now I would like to write at this point that our kids have never been stung by or bothered by wasps, nor have we used them in any sort of child obedience programs. They have however, an irrational fear of wasps. So as we were standing in line working out how many bottles of wine we could have bought for the same price of entry, we explained nicely to the kids that wasps will leave you alone if you don't get agitated. Right, problem solved we thought. So, slightly frazzled by the wait in the queue in the sun with wasps hovering, we jumped on the ZooMobile - a little train that chugs around the zoo. Great, all relaxing and good. Until the Heart Attack. Someone inconveniently decided to have a heart attack, which meant that the ZooMobile was out of action until the ambulance left. Ok, picnic time. Went off with our goodies and sat down at a table to eat. We were watching the cutest lil squirrel eating trash (I know, it isnt good for its digestion - especially the alfoil) when the wasps arrived. You know the Hitchcock film The Birds? Well, we had our own, The Wasps. It was a swarm, nothing less. Kids crying hysterically, G and I trying to eat a bit, checking for wasps before drinking, girls wanting to leave and go home to NZ and the wasps having a feed. Then the seagulls arrived and it was just pandemonium. We left the squirrel, seagulls and wasps to slug it out over the remains of our picnic............ good thing we got an annual ticket eh?
We did manage to see an extraordinary range of animals though -- polar bears (mamma bear and two cubs), grizzly bears, bald eagles, bison, raccoons, cheetahs, giraffes, cougar, patted stingrays......... and lots of wasps.
So, we needed to go to the big smoke of Toronto to get Glen a visa for china - he is going over for some consultancy and leaving us behind. Sigh. I figure that is at least a bottle of Billecart Salmon Rose......... anyway. We got to Toronto and drove, drove, and drove some more. Man, did I feel like a country bumpkin - that is one socking great big city. Fell in love with the uppy/downy streets - all tree lined and the wonderful architecture - and that was just suburbia - high class suburbia, but still.. gorgeous. Finally got to the zoo - it has four, count them, four lanes just to get into the zoo. It even has it's own highway exit - I got the feeling it was bigger than Orana Park....... got past the acres of parking and hit the queues for entering the zoo. It looked like an small town was waiting to get in. Secondly, we almost needed to pawn the kids for our entrance fee and thirdly, we noticed the Wasps. Now I would like to write at this point that our kids have never been stung by or bothered by wasps, nor have we used them in any sort of child obedience programs. They have however, an irrational fear of wasps. So as we were standing in line working out how many bottles of wine we could have bought for the same price of entry, we explained nicely to the kids that wasps will leave you alone if you don't get agitated. Right, problem solved we thought. So, slightly frazzled by the wait in the queue in the sun with wasps hovering, we jumped on the ZooMobile - a little train that chugs around the zoo. Great, all relaxing and good. Until the Heart Attack. Someone inconveniently decided to have a heart attack, which meant that the ZooMobile was out of action until the ambulance left. Ok, picnic time. Went off with our goodies and sat down at a table to eat. We were watching the cutest lil squirrel eating trash (I know, it isnt good for its digestion - especially the alfoil) when the wasps arrived. You know the Hitchcock film The Birds? Well, we had our own, The Wasps. It was a swarm, nothing less. Kids crying hysterically, G and I trying to eat a bit, checking for wasps before drinking, girls wanting to leave and go home to NZ and the wasps having a feed. Then the seagulls arrived and it was just pandemonium. We left the squirrel, seagulls and wasps to slug it out over the remains of our picnic............ good thing we got an annual ticket eh?
We did manage to see an extraordinary range of animals though -- polar bears (mamma bear and two cubs), grizzly bears, bald eagles, bison, raccoons, cheetahs, giraffes, cougar, patted stingrays......... and lots of wasps.
Friday, August 21, 2009
Tatto fun
It seems like the thing here is to have a tattoo. Not just a little string of stars around your ankle or the old rose on the bosom, not even an anchor and chain anymore. We are talking serious art work. The chick at the second hand store had a fabulous picture of fairies and dubious looking mushrooms flying over her back; one lady even had a series of photograph like pics of her kids over her arms - at least I hope they were her kids. I do ponder what they will look like as the skin ages though. I had always liked the thought of one but the aging thing really put me off. I mean, what if I got a tattoo of a wine bottle - as I age it would go from being a bordeaux to a riesling bottle; or a glass - in a few years it would look like a champagne flute. And what about a nice plump little bunch of Pinot grapes - just think, when I am 60 they would look like raisins dried on the stem..........
Toys, Dollarama style
So, it has been and still is, an interesting experience for the girls' and i on how to spend our days. With no garden, I have 4 potplants (geraniums, guys, ok) which are suffering from an excess of attention; the kitchen has room for one of us (and the girls' fit in better than I do) so doing some baking together is out; anymore time in the pool and we would develop fins; 3 board games a day is anyone's limit and our tolerance for being outside walking around is about 40 minutes. So, what to do? Ta, da! Dollarama store to the rescue. Don't you love these stores - it's airconditioned, has 2 aisles of sweets which is about 30 minutes worth of entertainment for the girls' and I get to marvel at what you can purchase for a dollar (here they are called loonies and the two dollars are called toonies - I kid you not. To kill a good story there, it is named after a Loon bird. sorry, Chris, Drew and Karen about this part - it really is funny to us - remember, little things amuse me). I was wandering around the toy section when I hit upon some kites - that's it, that'll be fun and different. so, the girls unenthusiastically chose their kites and we wandered home.Up the seven flights of stairs (ok, so we took the elevator), unwrapped them,(sighing a breath of relief that all parts seemed to be there and look ok) persuaded the girls' that kite flying was really fun (praying the wind wouldn't die down, the kites would fly and the world would be a happy place), got outside and we launched them. It was great - there was Spongebob and Winnie the Pooh flying happily in the sky. Right, time for my own kite to launch - a multicoloured thing as they didn't have any ABBA ones - what a sight! all three kites soaring in the wind, kids running around, smiles of delight everywhere. We decided to take them as high as we could - ahh, the joy of wind tugging at the kites as we unravelled our strings - higher and higher my bold little kite flew until it was at it's peak. I watched open mouthed as my kite flew higher and higher and higher again. The string wasn't attached to the bloody handle. Girls' on the ground with hysterical laughter, me running across the field trying to catch the string, kite dancing it's way to the US. Best dollar I have ever spent.
Book hunting, St C's style
So the girls' and I had a big excursion the other day into Town. Glen dropped us off at the Library, the well known hot spot of any city for whats happening when and a few books as well.........we had everything with us - heaps of ID, I had finally persuaded the girls' that the library would be fun, had the life reviving water, apples for when we got lost, and sweets for bribery. We marched up to the door, our thoughts turning to airconditioning and something new only to find we couldn't open the door. It was Monday. Libraries are shut on Mondays, did you know that? I didn't. Quickly threw the sweets at the girls' to to forestall any complaints (when you have kids, remember this tactic - it is a lifesaver) (really) (seriously, forget any highminded ideas about not using a. bribery to get something done b. sweets before fruit and c.sweets in any form) (I swore I wasn't having Barbies in the house - huh. that lasted about 1 year) Anyway, where were we? Ah, yes, stuck in town, in the heat, with a dwindling supply of sweets. Right, time to take action. Map in hand I confidently said to the girls; we could find a second hand book store. We trotted off down the road with me talking constantly about the virtues of finding some good books, air conditioned stores and maybe all the treasures we could find. Found the store, yah, it was open, double yah and threw ourselves in out of the heat. To enter a sauna box. no airconditioning. bugger. well, making the best of it, I brightly said hello to the girl behind the counter and asked where the childrens books were. Right at the back apparently. The hottest part of the shop. As we were about to start the long trek down there, she handed me an industrial sized lantern. What the???? Took it with me thinking the heat had got to the poor thing and started wandering around. Don't you love the smell of old books? They have a mellow, yellow, wise quality to them (crikey, think the heat was getting to me). So there we were stacking up on nancy drew, hardy boys and peanuts comics when the lights failed. They were dim to start with, but let me tell, it was total darkness in there. Hot, sweaty, surrounded by used books in the total pitch black. Hence the lantern. Sweaty hands trying to find the bloody switch on it, two little girls grabbing me, got the lantern working, terrified faces on the girls', moment of panic that i had run out of sweets, drop books and stumble down the long and twisted tunnels of books to front counter, with the girl saying brightly, got the lantern to work ok? We have a lot of power cuts here, back out into the fresh air and sunshine. We havent been out much since then.
Burn, baby, burn
I don't mean to sound ungrateful or anything, but would someone please turn the heat down???? Summer has finally hit St C's and even the natives are getting restless. We hit 41 degrees the other day and without air conditioning in the apartment it makes for a sticky situation both literally and figuratively...........it's hard to be a tourist in this weather - the girls' and I plan our outings based around which shops have airconditioning - we could ride the buses all day just to keep cool! I guess it has it's upsides though - just think, no need for hair products any more - just wipe sweat from forehead up into hair, sculpt or style hair as desired and leave. New hairstyles can be created every few minutes. Or perhaps your own personal water fall - just a quick flick of the wrist and hey, presto, miniature waterfalls. And one can't feel left out just because nearly every girl here has a tattoo - heat rash gives your skin your own personal tattoo and it can come off just as easily - just apply icecubes, wait for several minutes and you can start again. But I think the best think about the heat is the very youthful dewy look your skin has, just like you were 17 again - no need for moisturisers here! While i am exaggerating slightly, a habit I am not prone to, it is really delicious to be warm and feel all sunkissed and healthy.......... can't wait for winter though.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Good day, eh?
Hello All,
I sit here in our little apartment sweltering in 25 degree heat at 10pm comfortably full with tacos and Niagara Peninsula chardonnay – hmmm, can recommend the tacos as they were homemade but the chard leaves a bit to be desired........... sigh, best not finish the bottle then.
So, what's it really like here in the heart of St Catharines? A bit rocky to start with, but let me share the delights of international travel with you before we get into St C's...........
Firstly, a big thankyou to all who helped me and the girls' get away, fed us. babysat (me and the girls'), gave company and generally made me feel on top of the world. For those of you who have an interest in the vagaries of my travel adventures, I did get some sleep before the 4am call – about 3 hours in fact. All passports, tickets and children were accounted for (Shona, I can do it!!!). Air NZ is a treat to fly with – I walked on board, said the coffee smelt great to the steward and he promptly gave me a flat white after he had finished with first class – in heaven. Was drifting off to sleep and stewardess gives me a pillow........ heaven again. Switch onto United at Sydney for the long haul to LA and went straight to hell. Anyone with any United shares, change quickly as morally they are bloody worthless........grumpy buggers the lot of them with the chicks looking like they were chewing their cud all the time. No tv screens for the kids and when i asked for colouring in books, they looked incredulous and said they hadn't had those for 10 years (well, a long time anyway). Food delicious as usual but wine so volatile I couldn't drink it (ok, ok, I did drink it but only as an experiment). Anyway after zilch sleep, countless loo trips with the girls' (horror stories of being stuck in airplane loos putting them off going by themselves – ever tried to fit two people in there? On seconds thoughts, don't answer that) we landed in LA, sped off the plane to make our connection only to be caught in a huge bottleneck with people ambling along with all the time in the world. Well, we only had 10 minutes to collect luggage, clear customs and get to our gate – all United staff could do was shake their heads and say they couldn't help me – thank god the plane didn't go down, they would be the first off i reckon......... realising that the plane would leave without us if i didn't do something, I slung the kids on the trolley, used my best winery telling off voice and told everyone to bugger off as we had a plane to catch. Amazing what people will do when you use utmost confidence, a trolley as a battering ram and two days-on-a-plane aroma to get ahead in the queue. Got on the plane only to be seated next to a homeless person (or maybe a millionaire, who knows) who smelt like he had been travelling on United for at least a month and had all his possessions in bags around him – certainly not letting them go for the stewardess to stow. this combined with a fluorescent orange hat, mumbling and snorting made for a imaginative flight (I had just watched the Soloist).............. another couple of flights later, we arrived in Syracuse and I hauled all the hand luggage while the girls ran out into the lounge to see Daddy – longed for, wise, all knowing, Daddy. Who wasn't there. Bugger. Anyway, all sorted and we cruised to Glen's parents farm.
Had a great time at the farm – treated to fresh sweetcorn, baby tomatoes, cucumbers and herbs not to mention new taties and fresh grapes. Saw some great nature: squirrels (the little cuties), egrets, snakes, deer, woodchucks, turkeys, frogs........... on the last evening we made a bbq up by the pond, roasted steak, hot dogs and marshmellows........ the girls' learned how to drive a golf cart up and down the farm and i learned that it is okay for them to drive a golf cart as it's top speed is 15 km/h...........
Drive to Canada was a blur, as I was asleep but I am sure Glen did a great job. Crossing over the border was a real letdown as we passed through without a hitch and didn't even have to lie about all the fruit and vege we had from the US. Ah well, getting back into the States will be a prob i am sure as I am still a wanted criminal menacing the populous.
The wee apartment is getting homely after a couple of days worth of shopping. We piled out of the Creasy mobile and shot up the elevator to our 7th floor abode. We gambolled around and checked out the 4 rooms when Bella discovered a fear of heights. It was obviously a contagious condition as Maddy caught it as well. consequently, Bell was with Glen that night and I slept in a single bed with Maddy. Anyone who has slept with kids knows damn well that ¾ of the bed is the child's right and I woke up with my face squashed into the wall. Second night St Catharines welcomed us with a best thunder storm I have ever witnessed – which would have been awesome except for the two crying children who were absolutely terrified the building would fall down (they are never watching tv again, ever) and we found ourselves once again squashed into the wall. Third night – will keep you posted...........
So, this is turning into a blow by blow account and quite frankly if you are still awake, bloody good on you, but I am sick of typing now. My next installments will include The Interrogation, the Cat's Caboose, and Are you English? stories........
Heard there have been a few dramas there – Drew have you found the forklift yet? - glad i wasn't there for that as I would need to have my hair dyed all over again.......... will catch up re the bins shortly......
Miss you all, sink a savvie for me,
Cheers,
K
I sit here in our little apartment sweltering in 25 degree heat at 10pm comfortably full with tacos and Niagara Peninsula chardonnay – hmmm, can recommend the tacos as they were homemade but the chard leaves a bit to be desired........... sigh, best not finish the bottle then.
So, what's it really like here in the heart of St Catharines? A bit rocky to start with, but let me share the delights of international travel with you before we get into St C's...........
Firstly, a big thankyou to all who helped me and the girls' get away, fed us. babysat (me and the girls'), gave company and generally made me feel on top of the world. For those of you who have an interest in the vagaries of my travel adventures, I did get some sleep before the 4am call – about 3 hours in fact. All passports, tickets and children were accounted for (Shona, I can do it!!!). Air NZ is a treat to fly with – I walked on board, said the coffee smelt great to the steward and he promptly gave me a flat white after he had finished with first class – in heaven. Was drifting off to sleep and stewardess gives me a pillow........ heaven again. Switch onto United at Sydney for the long haul to LA and went straight to hell. Anyone with any United shares, change quickly as morally they are bloody worthless........grumpy buggers the lot of them with the chicks looking like they were chewing their cud all the time. No tv screens for the kids and when i asked for colouring in books, they looked incredulous and said they hadn't had those for 10 years (well, a long time anyway). Food delicious as usual but wine so volatile I couldn't drink it (ok, ok, I did drink it but only as an experiment). Anyway after zilch sleep, countless loo trips with the girls' (horror stories of being stuck in airplane loos putting them off going by themselves – ever tried to fit two people in there? On seconds thoughts, don't answer that) we landed in LA, sped off the plane to make our connection only to be caught in a huge bottleneck with people ambling along with all the time in the world. Well, we only had 10 minutes to collect luggage, clear customs and get to our gate – all United staff could do was shake their heads and say they couldn't help me – thank god the plane didn't go down, they would be the first off i reckon......... realising that the plane would leave without us if i didn't do something, I slung the kids on the trolley, used my best winery telling off voice and told everyone to bugger off as we had a plane to catch. Amazing what people will do when you use utmost confidence, a trolley as a battering ram and two days-on-a-plane aroma to get ahead in the queue. Got on the plane only to be seated next to a homeless person (or maybe a millionaire, who knows) who smelt like he had been travelling on United for at least a month and had all his possessions in bags around him – certainly not letting them go for the stewardess to stow. this combined with a fluorescent orange hat, mumbling and snorting made for a imaginative flight (I had just watched the Soloist).............. another couple of flights later, we arrived in Syracuse and I hauled all the hand luggage while the girls ran out into the lounge to see Daddy – longed for, wise, all knowing, Daddy. Who wasn't there. Bugger. Anyway, all sorted and we cruised to Glen's parents farm.
Had a great time at the farm – treated to fresh sweetcorn, baby tomatoes, cucumbers and herbs not to mention new taties and fresh grapes. Saw some great nature: squirrels (the little cuties), egrets, snakes, deer, woodchucks, turkeys, frogs........... on the last evening we made a bbq up by the pond, roasted steak, hot dogs and marshmellows........ the girls' learned how to drive a golf cart up and down the farm and i learned that it is okay for them to drive a golf cart as it's top speed is 15 km/h...........
Drive to Canada was a blur, as I was asleep but I am sure Glen did a great job. Crossing over the border was a real letdown as we passed through without a hitch and didn't even have to lie about all the fruit and vege we had from the US. Ah well, getting back into the States will be a prob i am sure as I am still a wanted criminal menacing the populous.
The wee apartment is getting homely after a couple of days worth of shopping. We piled out of the Creasy mobile and shot up the elevator to our 7th floor abode. We gambolled around and checked out the 4 rooms when Bella discovered a fear of heights. It was obviously a contagious condition as Maddy caught it as well. consequently, Bell was with Glen that night and I slept in a single bed with Maddy. Anyone who has slept with kids knows damn well that ¾ of the bed is the child's right and I woke up with my face squashed into the wall. Second night St Catharines welcomed us with a best thunder storm I have ever witnessed – which would have been awesome except for the two crying children who were absolutely terrified the building would fall down (they are never watching tv again, ever) and we found ourselves once again squashed into the wall. Third night – will keep you posted...........
So, this is turning into a blow by blow account and quite frankly if you are still awake, bloody good on you, but I am sick of typing now. My next installments will include The Interrogation, the Cat's Caboose, and Are you English? stories........
Heard there have been a few dramas there – Drew have you found the forklift yet? - glad i wasn't there for that as I would need to have my hair dyed all over again.......... will catch up re the bins shortly......
Miss you all, sink a savvie for me,
Cheers,
K
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)