Saturday Afternoon Drive
October 29th, 2005 | 
Author: Here in my part of Ontario, Canada, it was a gorgeous sunny day although on the cool side. I decided to go for a drive and take along my three year old son David to a small winery that I have seen signs for but never visited.
The winery, named Scotch Block, is located about 40 minutes from my home, just outside of Georgetown, Ontario. I had a couple of reasons for visiting. First, I intend on participating in this month’s Wine Blogging Wednesday. This month’s theme is ” drink a wine of which 250 or fewer cases were made.” It’s being hosted by Gastronomie on the 2nd of November.
According to winemaker Fred of Scotch Block, pretty much all of their wines number far less than 250 cases with some being limited at a total of 1,000 bottles. So, I wanted to see what I could find that looked interesting. In fact, I picked up three different wines, but for Wine Blogging Wednesday, I’ll be sticking with one in particular as it best meets the guidelines for price.
The other reason I wanted to go there as to pick up frozen fruit. I was able to get about 8 pounds each of gooseberries, black currants, and blackberries (similar to a mullberry). Unfortunately they were out of elderberries, at least according to the girl I spoke with who worked there. The winery is located at a popular farm for produce and it was packed with people wanting to purchase pumpkins and other autumn products, so I’m wondering if the girl was just too busy to check the large freezers for me. I found it curious that they had so much other frozen fruit available, but no elderberries, which probably would have been harvested just last month.
I’m sure you can imagine what I plan on doing with this fruit. If you guessed, “bake pies,” you are wrong! Some years ago, while visiting the home of a pastor of a Canadian Reformed Church, the pastor poured me a glass of his homemade black currant wine, and it was delightful. So I’m going to see if I can make some decent wines out of the black currants and other berries I purchased.
I was also priveledged to be able to talk with the Scotch Block winemaker, Fred. Fred provided me with some very helpful advide including his own recommendations of yeast strains to try. I’ll have to see if my local wine making shop will order them for me.
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