A Winery Birthday

Last weekend we met in Toronto and piled into a stretch limo to take us to Niagara-on-the-Lake to celebrate my brother's 60th birthday.

 Our first stop was Stratus Vineyards where we toured a few grapes... 

 Lovely, eh?

Inside we had a selection of wines paired with specific cheeses. My sister Marci and I sat opposite each other, which meant lots of photos of each other!

 Richard being pretty darn serious with his wine tasting.

 My bro and my niece Sam.

 My nephew Adam who happens to be celebrating HIS birthday today. Happy birthday big guy!

 My lovely sister-in-law Maureen having a good giggle.

The birthday boy himself, my big brother Larry.

 We were told what we were drinking and what we were to pair it with.

 The cheeses were simply amazing. The wine too!

 Wine!

I just love this shot my niece Sam shot of Richard and me drinking in the vineyard.

Then we headed to Strewn Winery for an educational session.

 Inside we looked at vats of wine and ...

I tried to actually learn something about how wine was made. Our leader Graeme was fantastic and full of information.

Inside we got to sample wine from several different oak casks. Pretty cool that you can actually taste the difference between the wine made in oak barrels from Canada, USA and France.

Then we headed to Pellar Estates for an amazing supper.

 Richard started with a duck salad.

 I started with lobster ravioli.

 My main course was mussels with seared foie gras on a morel mushroom stuffed rigatoni with sorel pesto. Simply amazing!

My nephew Adam gave his father a birthday toast. Happy birthday Larry, the best brother in the world!