Swirl, Sniff, Taste, and Spit

Right now I feel like there are so many different things that I could write about. The wonderful thing about having time at home and a wide open schedule is having the time to just think, time for devotions, and time with my fantastic husband and darling daughter. This combined with our recent experiences living here in Ontario and what's been going on with friends and family has made me reflect on that what is important in life. I feel like I have had a lot of time these days to think about the big things in life; marriage, being a parent, family, being intentional, relationships, Christianity, church, being salt and light, etc. So perhaps, over the next week I will take some time post what's been on my mind. The great thing about blogging (I hate that word), is that I can say whatever I want. If people want to read it they can, and if they don't, well, they don't have to.


But for now, I will share a recent experience. Last night, I joined David for his tasting class. Sarah was at home sleeping while our neighbour was over and I was free. It was the last class of the semester and was being held at Tawse Winery in Vineland (25 mins away). I was a little nervous to be going to a wine tasting event, especially since it was with a group of now experienced tasters. I felt like I spent much of the evening just observing and practicing. I got to taste many expensive wines, how special did I feel? I even got to taste some pricy Champagne, I even liked it!

After a tour of the winery (which was very impressive), we proceeded to the cellar to try a variety of Pinot wines. All of the wines were the same variety, just grown in different areas of the Niagara region (all aprox 15 minutes apart). I was amazed how different each wine tasted. I was also proud of myself for being able to pick out different flavours in the wine. Even my "super taster" husband (that's an acutal wine tasting term), was impressed with my skills. So perhaps there is hope for me after all.

Laura, you will be happy to know that I think I figured the whole swirling thing out. For some reason, this was a little difficult for me, but I think I got it in the end. The part of tasting that I probably dislike most is the spitting. I just don't like spitting. After much encouragement from David, I spat into the grates on the floor. I was amazed how spitting does allow the wine to cover all of your mouth and therefore taste it fully. It really wasn't that bad once I got over the whole spitting in a group scenario, after all, everyone was doing it.

The beautiful Tawse Winery. We were there at night, so it looked different. Anyways, the wine process is done using gravity. There are 6 processing levels that the wine goes through. You can see on the photo that the building is quite tall to allow for this, Level 6 Red fermentation tanks, Level 5 Grape receiving and press, Level 4 Stainless steel, temperature controlled settlement tanks, Level 3 Barrel cellars Level 2 Blending tanks, and Level 1 is the Bottling room. I found this to be really interesting and it also made for a beautiful winery to visit.

This is a picture of the wine maker, Paul, that gave the tour and allowed us to sample wines from the barrels. I loved watching David taste and listen to the winemaker. It is so great to see his enthusiasm and interest in it all. Who would have ever thought that he would become a wine maker? I am already so proud of him. Just three exams and his first semester at Brock will be finished.