Location, Location, Location!

This story starts the last day of the wine tour I previously wrote about. For the weekend of the wine tour the whole family booked up all 5 rooms at the B&B Domaine des Chutes. At first I wasn't too impressed with the room it was in the basement, and it looked like a room that was in a basement. But as soon as I opened the curtains that didn't seem to mind any more, as I was staring out at "Les Chutes" (the Falls). Each room faced the falls and had a little deck which made up for the fact that the bathroom had a shower curtain for a door. The next day we were sat at their dinning room table which has the same views of the falls but a little higher up, then we had a great breakfast.

The Breakfast started with a fruit salad, local apples and orange segments, tasty but I thought more time should have gone into it. However, this place is good for giving you something out of this world to make you forget the lesser liked things. This local made apple juice was the best apple juice that I have ever experienced. It was so smooth and had just a little more body than its watery (distant) relative grocery store AJ, without the over pulpiness of those organic ones that are shipped in from some part of the US. Out comes the pain doré (french toast), and the rest of the bad memories disappear as we are served these two slices of hearty french toast, with a light creamy chèvre, dried cranberries and pecan segments in the middle. After breakfast, the owner of the B&B Jacques Lajeunesse who is also a painter (a good one at that), showed us his studio, and some of his work.

As great as this breakfast was we had a big day ahead, 2 or 3 wineries and a 3 hour trip to pick up our dog at the kennel, and a stop to pick up some apples. Out of the wineries, I think we only made it to one, L'orpailleur vineyard. There was so much information on wine in this region and pretty much everything else down to the cork. The website has a lot of info too but the displays are very informative. This was the most bilingual place I had been, which is probably why I learned so much there.

After all of this, the trip was coming to an end and with a long trip back, lunch was in order. So as a group we finally decided on a place called, Restaurant Sir Dunn at 3819 rue Principale, Dunham, QC. Which is a cute little place in the little downtown section of Dunham next to a brewery/pub. This place serves the beers that are made next door and better than that for their cream ale they have a nitrogen tap, to make a creamier more old fashion pour. So I had to try a pint, I mean it was noon somewhere, right?

I saw so many things on the menu I would have liked to get, instead I settled on pizza, even then there was 15 or so choices. I ended up choosing a pizza with chèvre, sun-dried tomatoes, basil, and garlic. Although the fries were delicious, it was a little weird getting a big bowl of them with a 10" pizza. I could have shared my lunch the portions were so big. As for the pizza, the dough was memorable it had a nice chewy texture and not too thick. I make pizza at home a lot, so I knew it was chewy because they used beer in the dough, otherwise you end up with a more crispy crust. I needed to know if they used the local beer for the dough, and the chef told me that the dough is made at the bakers down the street with a local beer in it. I liked the pizza but it was a little oily from the sun-dried tomatoes. I would eat there again when I am in town.

That was a great trip, and Its not too far from Montreal. The best part is to spend that time with my new family doing something we all love.

Bonne Appétit!

Route des vins (Wine tour) Part1-Iced Cider

I was invited by my wife's family to go on a winery tour in the Eastern townships this past weekend. I didn't know too much about wine but I do have a keen interest to define my palate, learn about wine and bond with my new family. Now the one thing I didn't realize was that we were also going on an Iced cider tour. Iced Cider is something I have only known to have existed for the last 3 years of me living in Montreal. We were staying in Freihlisburg which is home to the inventor of Iced cider Mr Christian Barthomeuf and his vineyard/orchard Clos Saragnat.

So we were lucky enough to get a private tour of Clos Saragnat. On our tour of this rather large scenic property, Mr Barthomeuf very warmly welcomed us and went into describing his use of a biodiversity scheme to plant so that he could have the birds eat the bugs instead of using pesticides. He also has chickens who aid in getting rid of the insects and keeping the operation very organic.

Mr. Barthomeuf is very open to tell us whatever we could possibly want to know about his vineyard. As we came back towards the winery we came across his vegetable garden, and his chickens at work. Him and his partner Louise have budgeted so that they only produce enough to cover their expenses, and that way they are living very sustainable. He is also a very strong supporter of the small organic farmers, and local industry.

As for the cider it is an interesting process. The apples are not picked when ripened, but only once the temperature has been below -10 degrees for more than 3 consecutive days. So hardier apple varieties are needed to survive. Mr Barthomeuf has actually patiently found wild varieties that are native to the area, and some that were here even before the Europeans arrived. Once the apples have been frozen to the core they are brought to the press one load at a time. No more apples can be picked than can be pressed because they need to stay frozen. Clos Saragnat has 3 presses and each press will take 8 hours to extract the juice of the apples at about 4500 PSI. 50 large apples will yield about 1 L and I believe the press can hold enough to make 500 L at one go. Once the juice is pressed it is left to cold ferment for a minimum of 2 years. So it is definitely a craft that requires great patience.

I don't know if it was because we found out so much about how the cider was made but it was the best Iced cider I have tasted. It was very rich and sweet, tasted like iced tarte aux pommes, apricot (glaze) and all. I love to know were my products are coming from so this was very good trip for me. Also I am breaking the blogs down into segments because there was so much learnt on this trip, too much to include in one blog.

If you would like to take this tour yourself call ahead as they only give the tours a couple times a month and you have to book in advance. Info is on their site Clos Saragnat.