Monday, April 27, 2009

Wine tour

Yep, that's right. We went on a wine tour. Friends invited us to go as the designated drivers -- and offered to pay for our tickets, let us drive their minivan, and give us an extra $50 to put up with them -- so we agreed. It turned out to be so much fun! I know most people don't think of 'wine country' and 'upstate New York' as the same thing, but there are tons of wineries around. We drive past them all the time, but never stop - so we thought it would be a great way to see some wineries and more of this beautiful part of the country we've called home for the past 3 years.

We hit 16 wineries in 9 hours. Wow. At each winery, you got a taste of a prepared food, paired with some feature wines (we had grape juice, water and lemonade instead). Each food featured a particular herb - and you got a recipe of the food, plus an herb to take home and plant. So, for example, we had this very tasty bruschetta at one of the wineries - and then got a tomato plant to take home. At another one, they had this divine jalapeno bread, and then gave you a jalapeno plant. Most of the places also had cheese and crackers for tasting. A couple of them had fudge (yum!) Some had salsa, jams, and assorted dips. You get the idea...

This picture says upstate New York... there's thousands of barns like this one; they're everywhere.

Our first winery - Scott & Krista, Jessica, Pat & Carissa, me & Cory

Most of the wineries are situated very close to Cayuga Lake, making for a very nice view.

The weather was gorgeous - highs in the 80's and very sunny. Sooo nice!!

Cory and I bought what we're jokingly calling 'Mormon wine'. It's grape juice, made locally at one of the wineries. It was very tasty - and pure. It's not made from concentrate, no high fructose corn syrup - nothing but smooshed grapes.

Just the girls, at our last winery

Me holding all the plants we got. 16 of them. Now we need to go buy some planter boxes.

Off the top of my head, we got: oregano, dill, rosemary, pumpkin, tomato, purple pepper, jalepeno, thyme, sage... and a bunch more. We're going to have our own little herb garden, and I am quite excited about it. We got to see some beautiful wineries, got sunburned, made stronger friendships, and overall had a great time!

7 comments:

Andrea said...

WOW! Is that you in a Utah shirt I see? Who would have thought wineries would be so fun? This makes me want to go and the good weather makes me more and more excited for Palmyra, though I'm totally preparing myself for rain. Hopefully you'll put up some of those tasty recipes on the sharin' recipes blog... I'm going to Wicked tomorrow night plus we have some other big plans that hopefully I'll annouce on the blog soon! Yay!!!!! We must talk soon!!

Jade said...

That sounds like such a fun weekend. I'm so glad you're living it up while you're out there -- taking advantage of all the different experiences available to you. And I'm especially glad you're sharing it so we can experience it vicariously.

MiriamR said...

I have ALWAYS wanted to go to a winery!!! Or I mean on a wine tour but never had a real reason to go. What a perfect reason AND you got so many cool plants!! YAY. I grew up (well my little kid years) In a wine town in Australia and we always bought the mormon wine that the vineyards made for special occasions. I think its very tasty.

Maria said...

Sounds like fun!

Melvin and Carly said...

We live in "wine country" too. Now I'm wishing I had some friends who want me to be their designated driver! That's pretty neat about the plants. You'll have yourself a good little garden!

stephanie said...

nice, that is the way to get your garden! I don't know sarah, your smile says to me that maybe you had a little bit more then lemonade??? Jk I think I would love to do that just to eat the food get the recipes and all of the plants.

Flahauts said...

That is funny cuz I have wondered if it was ok to go to a winery. I have always wanted to see how it works. Looks like you guys had a fun time. It is good to see what you are up to. It has been so long since we have seen you. Kim