July 19 & 20, was a very memorable weekend for some true wine bon Vivants! Pax and I hosted the first (of hopefully many) Extreme Wine weekends at Peller Estates Winery.
The weekend was jam packed with wine activities. On this weekend we had 3 couples with us from such places as Waterdown and Buffalo. The weekend began with with a light fare breakfast and of course some Ice Cuvee Mimosa's and then we went right onto the White Wine Tasting. We tasted 10 white wines all blind (to prep for the Sunday Wine Challenge) everyone learned a lot - which would come in very handy over the course of the weekend.
After the white wine tasting we moved onto a fabulous lunch in the 4 Diamond Restaurant at Peller Estates. This is where we put our palates to the test and applied everything we learned from the mornings tasting. The amazing lunch prepared for us by Chef Jason Parsons had such dishes as an Heirloom Tomato Carpaccio and a fennel pollen crusted salmon. It was a great lunch and well deserved after all the wine tastings!
In the afternoon, we had a special guest who lead us through a Barrel Tasting allowing us to
taste the pure differences between American and French oak. Afterwords we put our red wine knowledge to the test down in the Barrel Cellar and Gillian from Peller led us through a tasting of 10 red wines from Gamay Noir to a 2002 Merlot. After the tasting we got back into the Classic Cab Car and everyone prepared for a 6 course tasting dinner - which featured such amazing dishes as a Muscat cured Salmon and Melon and a truffle roast beef tenderloin. All matched with perfectly paired Peller Wines. The kicker dish was the Sea Salt brownie and the Marshmellows that we got to roast outside on the fire pit served with Vidal Icewine.
A special thanks goes to our stellar server (and long time friend) Natika Marshall. Who was amazing!!
After a long day of wine tasting, eating and learning, we all got into our Classic Cabs and went back to our hotel for a good nights rest so that we would be prepared for some vineyard work in the morning with Lawrence as well as the Wine Challenge in the afternoon.
And so after a good night's rest we were ready for our vineyard training with Lawrence Buhler (to read his 2 Bottles & 2 Questions click here). We were given Extreme Wine Weekend Survival t-shirts, gloves and shears and got put to work in the vineyard, we all got a little muddy and were definitely living the life of a winemaker that morning!!
Check out the YouTube Video of me and Pax teaching you how to grape thin in the vineyard!
After a morning of hard work - and thankfully the rain held off till we left the vineyard. We headed inside to the Peller Family Dinning room where we enjoyed a great lunch (see picture above), what we like to call our last supper! After spending a whole weekend with some great people it felt like we all really got to know eachother and were already talking about the Extreme Wine Reunion.
For our lunch and yes it to was matched with wine as well we had one of my favourite dishes which was the Sweet Crusted Diver Scallop matched with my favourite wine the Private Reserve Riesling. Check out the appetizing picture to your left.
And finally we got to the WINE CHALLENGE. Everyone was excited for this last wine adventure. It included a blind tasting of 6 different wines and 1 bonus wine! congratulations to Jean & Tanya Charles who won a Peller Estates Gift pack of an Ice Cuvee Rose, Ice Cuvee, and more!!
Pax and I had another Extreme Wine Weekend August 2 & 3, which was a small group, but a group of true wine bon vivants!!!
Thanks again to everyone who helped put the weekend together at Peller Estates, and to everyone that attended - you guys know who you are!!
"WE SURVIVED THE EXTREME WINE WEEKEND!!"
To see the Le Gourmet.TV Interview with Peller Estates WineMaker Lawrence Buhler click here
