A holiday Monday. After all the frothing at the mouth madness of rabid Canadian nationalism stoked the day before, I found myself needing to clear out the house so that badly needed napping by others might occur. Given this was the weekend of our national holiday, the bridges to the USA were, by all accounts, gridlocked with loyal Canadians seeking US prices. So I drove west. Looking for wine.

"Traitor!" I hear you say. For your information I even drove past a brewery. Because my goal was a set of wineries in southwest Prince Edward County: Norman Hardie, Closson Chase and Huff. I picked up a few bottles at each but, unlike beer, can't really open a few to share some thoughts. This pinot noir seems to be well thought of. Picked up a couple of this five year old merlot from Huff but it's not like I sat around and had the equivalent of a few pints of beer before making the decision. The nice folk at Closson Chase did pour me a splash of this white after I bought two - as they plied my kids with Freezees, a nice touch - and it was pretty fine stuff. But it is not like I could tell you whether it was better than the next bottle over or the wine like it made two wineries over. But I think I need to know more especially as this small wine region is at my doorstep so I might as well add the odd Prince Edward county wine review to mix things up hereabouts. As you know, same goes for cider and perry, too.

All this ties into the development of my small suburban vineyard. Twenty-nine vines might make a few cases of wine a year before too many vintages pass. Or a lot of jam. And it all ties to my bok choi patches out back, the 500 onions by the front step and the long greens of squash reaching out to take over the lawn. We could probably make herbed ricotta stuffed zucchini blossoms given that herself makes cheese, too. And bread. Finding out what people are making in the neighbourhood makes me want to see what I can make myself - including grapes. Heck, if I could distill legally, it would be interesting to see what home brew bourbon might be like now that I think of it.