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September 2010
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Posts Tagged ‘TASTE! a celebration of regional cuisine’

COUNTY WINERY JOINS THE ARMY

Thursday, August 26th, 2010

caroline-granger1Caroline Granger is a Get Involved type of woman. She’s the hands-on boss at the Grange of Prince Edward, the County’s largest grape grower and winery but she lends her energies and enthusiasm to causes far beyond her own family, property and business. She’s already a director and chairman of the Governance Committee of of Farm Credit Canada, chair of Taste the County and chair of Alternatives for Women in the County. Now she’s gone and joined the Army.

Okay, not really. But Caroline Granger has created her own mission to raise $50,000 to support Ontario’s military family resource centres; not for profit organizations located on every base across Canada that support local military families.

Why this? Why now? Not long ago she and her 14-year old son Quinton were on the 401 just ahead of a procession carrying a Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan. People stood on bridges along the route from CFB Trenton to Toronto holding Canadian flags to honour the soldier making the final journey down the “Highway of Heroes,” and she and Quinton got talking about what it would be like to be a military family.

“I got a whole different viewpoint that day,” she says, perhaps more sensitive suddenly to what military families must be experiencing.’ Rather than just feeling sad, Caroline decided to do something positive. “There is always something you can do to help,” she says. Her one-year battle plan is to donate 50 cents from every bottle of Trumpour’s Mill wine sold in LCBOs and $1 from each bottle sold in restaurants to local Military Family Resource Centres.

If you were to praise her for this admirable sacrifice, she’s likely to respond “Sacrifice? What sacrifice.” She and we know that most of us will never make the kind of sacrifices our military families make.

The $50,000 she hopes to raise will flow like good wine into special programs for children, spouses and social support systems. To paraphrase the Blood Donor motto ‘it’s in her to give.’ To Caroline, who spends as much time in the vineyard as she does in board rooms at this time of year, it’s a natural thing to do.
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“The least we can do is help make sure their families are okay,” she says. “I think soldiers appreciate that.”

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WISH YOU WERE HERE!

Saturday, August 21st, 2010

ttc-blog-kidsWIN A SUMMER IN PRINCE EDWARD COUNTY
I’m so lucky to live in Prince Edward County. Sorry to sound chauvinistic, but there it is. Oh I leave occasionally, to visit people and our kids (not that our kids aren’t people, too) in Toronto and Europe. But I adore getting off the highway and crossing the bridge at Carrying Place and being home. Okay, it’s another 20 minutes until I’m really home, but at that point I’ve got my lake, my birds, my fields and my sky. Big sigh.

My point is, if I didn’t live in Cherry Valley, Prince Edward County, Ontario, Canada, North America, The World, The Universe – I would jump at the chance to enter a contest to win a whole summer in the County. Yowza! Four weeks in a cottage close to Sandbanks Provincial Park (biggest freshwater dunes in the world, folks) plus a ton of entertainment, food and wine thrown in. It’s another brilliant idea cooked up by the economic development office and Taste the County™ together with Sandbanks Summer Village, who are great sponsors of local initiatives – like the TASTE! event and now this whole Summer in the County thing for 2011. Sandbanks Summer Village is an old-fashioned, state-of-the-art cottage resort in Cherry Valley, and, no, that’s not an oxymoron. From what I’ve seen and heard it has all the laid-back charm of an old-style lake resort, and a heck of a lot more conveniences. But I digress.

So, Sandbanks Summer Village are contributing four weeks accommodation for FREE and local wineries, restaurants, galleries, even a cooking school, are adding wining, dining, entertainment and goodness knows what else to the prize.

Anybody in Canada can enter, and, get this, they have an online ballot you can fill out. You can see the ballot and all the prize details at www.visitpec.ca/contest. No point in me entering. I can already just ride my bike down to Sandbanks to swim, then come home and drink some County wine in my garden. Wish you were here? Enter the contest!

Caroline Granger is BREATHLESS IN THE VINEYARD

Thursday, September 17th, 2009

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I was excited last Friday morning to begin filming a TV commercial about Ontario wines here at The Grange. By lunchtime I was a little weary, and by the time the TV crew left that night I was worn out.

Somebody said “I guess you’re used to this, eh Caroline?” referring to when I used to model, but that was more than 20 years ago - and I never was a smiley model. So having to be “on” and smiley all day was the most tiring part! Don’t get me wrong, I’m a happy person, and I’m happiest of all at this time of the year - harvest time. It’s so exciting, and I want everybody else to be excited, too.

This is what we work for all year, and, honestly, I can think of very few experiences in my life that have felt quite like this. This part feels like the third trimester (a little pregnancy reference) when you feel like you’re almost there, you can hardly wait, but you know you have to be patient for the good of everybody. I think that’s a unique perspective that I bring to the vineyard that maybe the men don’t.

This summer we celebrated our fifth anniversary at The Grange, and everyone feels really proud and positive and excited. Now summer is almost over and we’re having this wonderful sunshine and warmth at exactly the right time and it has put us within days of our targets in the vineyard. We’re breathlessly awaiting our seventh harvest, knocking on wood, and it looks like it’s going to be fantastic. I have learned to be patient. We all have to be patient in this business. Our first vintage was October 2003 but it actually took us five vintages before we felt the vines were mature enough, that we knew enough and felt ready to release a Grange of Prince Edward wine.

Waiting is hard, but you need to have a real commitment to the agriculture and to the quality you’re aiming for.

That commercial we were filming is for a promotion by the LCBO called “Go Local” that will promote Ontario wines in their stores in September. It’s their biggest ever promotion of domestic wines. They say Ontario VQA net sales rose more than 12% in the last five months, compared to 2% for imports, and The County is part of that big growth in sales. It’s funny, because people think The Grange is one of the “big guys” in Prince Edward County, and they talk about us that way, and you can’t fight that, so I just kind of “Suck it up buttercup…” But you know we’re all small here, in the County and in Ontario, and even in Canada. Did you know Canada isn’t even in the top 50 countries in the world for amount of grapes grown? We’re all small, but we’re all going for quality. And I think we all get emotional and excited at harvest time. It’s a good time to talk about your commitment and your hopes and dreams.

We had a really busy long weekend at the winery, and now I’m off to Toronto to take part in a preview for TASTE! a celebration of regional cuisine at a restaurant. It’s kind of a taste of TASTE, and then we’re doing it again in Ottawa. So I’m really busy and that’s good. It helps me to be patient and wait for the harvest!

Caroline Granger is President and C.E.O. of The Grange of Prince Edward Vineyards and Estate Winery. Caroline Granger is breathless in the vineyard as told by Jan Davies

Waupoos Wines Win Praise from Europeans

Monday, August 17th, 2009

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Photo by Graham Davies, The Bald Photographer

“August 5 was a very interesting day for us here at Waupoos,” said Ed Neuser, owner of the beautiful waterfront winery there. “We played host to retired ambassadors and their wives who came from all over the world, USA, England, Italy and Belgium, to visit here.”

It was John Schram’s idea to bring the diplomats to Prince Edward County. He was Canada’s ambassador to Sudan from 1998 to 2002 and became good friends with the gentlemen who were there at the same time as ambassadors for their own countries. Their friendship followed them Out of Africa, and they still get together every year in various countries, to discuss world affairs – in particular Africa – and to catch up with what each is doing (which includes organizing the G8 conference, planning Tony Blair’s Commission to Africa and one or two still serving as ambassadors.) Their reunions have been in Spain, Hungary, England, Belgium and Italy, and this year it was Canada’s turn. Mr. Schram is a Senior Fellow at Queen’s University Centre for International Relations who lives on Amherst Island, and he wanted to show his friends some of the beautiful sites in his part of the world, so he brought them to the County. The wine tasting at Waupoos Estates Winery came about because he also wanted “to show this group of “influential skeptics” that Ontario – and particularly Prince Edward County – does indeed produce fine, world-class wines.”

ed-pouring-experience-blog1Clearly, the group was convinced. After tasting several wines with owners Ed Neuser and Rita Kaimins, they purchased Waupoos Riesling and Baco Noir to enjoy with their dinner the next night. Italy’s ambassador to Argentina declared the Baco Noir 2007 among the best he had ever tasted. “That made me proud,” said Neuser. “I already know it’s good, but it’s nice coming from someone who knows his wine.”

The wine tasting was held on Ed and Rita’s private deck down at water’s edge. In contrast to the elegant limestone winery and tasting room, it’s a rustic place with a small cabin, simple wooden tables and benches and a million dollar view of Waupoos Island and the bay. Ed and Rita told them the stories behind each wine, and behind their personal journeys from Germany and Latvia to Prince Edward County, where they turned an old apple orchard into the first winery in the County, spearheading a brand new industry.

Mr. Schram reports that and his worldly friends had “a perfectly delightful time,” impressed by the beauty of the County, their warm welcome and the quality of the wine.

And Waupoos Winery had another red letter day on August 6, when the city of Belleville treated 34 visitors from its sister city of Lahr, Germany to lunch there – it was not the first time the dignitaries had made the trip to the “south coast” to enjoy Ed’s hospitality, and, once again, the Europeans were delighted.

Was it a culture shock? Are you kidding?

Thursday, July 30th, 2009

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Photo by Graham Davies, The Bald Photographer

Carrie Taylor talks to Jan Davies

I used to work in the fashion industry, buying trips to Europe and Asia and all that stuff. We moved to the County 10 years ago with three small children, the youngest was only six months old, and I thought I was ready to be a stay-at-home mum. Was it a culture shock? Are you kidding? I was such a city person. Without my job, I went a bit nuts doing Martha Stewart-type stuff. I made about 100 little paper maché pumpkins our first Halloween here. I’m much more relaxed now!

I have always needed a creative outlet, though, and when our youngest was still very young (and I was still in my Martha phase) I cultivated a big flower garden at home to make and sell flower arrangements.

Now I’m marketing manager at Black Prince Winery. I refer to the winery as the unassuming bungalow with award-winning wines, and when I’m sitting out on the terrace meeting with clients or sampling wines, I can’t believe how lucky I am.

I have changed in ten years, and so has Picton. There are more restaurants and cafés now, lots of new stores and so much happening all over the County.
And the kids? In summer the older ones go out in the morning and I often won’t see them again until supper. I know where they are, and if I don’t, the neighbours do. It’s like it was in the old days.

It’s funny how different things are when you get to know them better. The County has been like that for me, and Black Prince Winery is like that for first-time visitors. They pull up to what looks like a regular house, except for the wine barrels on the lawn, then they come inside and you can see the surprise on their faces. The tasting room does look impressive, if I say so myself. At Black Prince we focus very much on the wine, but we have wine-related merchandise as well, and I enjoy marketing our great products.
Visitors are even more surprised when they step out onto the terrace and see the vineyards stretching off into the distance.

Working with Black Prince Winery gets me involved in the community, too. We host art shows here and have live music sometimes, and we’re sponsors of TASTE! too. That’s always exciting, and what a success story! Talk about growing from small beginnings.

Our newest promotion is King Rail Chardonnay, in partnership with the Prince Edward Stewardship Council to raise awareness of the king rail (it’s a bird) and other at-risk species. Gudrun Gallo is a local artist and she painted the beautiful picture for the label. Black Prince Winery is donating a portion of each sale to the stewardship council, and there¹s a draw to win Gudrun’s original painting. We won’t make the draw until every bottle is sold. That’s marketing! But we’ve already sold 20 cases, so it shouldn¹t be too long, now.