Holiday Deux

We picked Mel and Liam up at the ferry about 12:30, and went straight home to decide on our afternoon activity which, by that time, had to include a place to eat lunch. We ended up in Chemainus, at the Willow, a very nice sandwich place. The sun was pretty much staying out, and there was a strong wind blowing, and it was clear and crisp and gorgeous after the rain of the morning (Rob and I went through several separate downpours on the way to the ferry).

Liam had brought a Wine Access magazine with write-ups on the wineries of Canada, or maybe just BC, and he was interested in a place called Averill Wines, so we headed there. It is just north of Duncan, off the road to Cowichan Lake. We saw the sign and turned off the highway, and proceeded up a rather long, gravel road, climbing steadily. We were all kind of wondering whether there really was a winery at the end of it, especially when we passed a field of very neglected-looking grape vines, but suddenly we saw fields and fields of very healthy-looking vines covered in blue netting, and immediately after that, a stunning wood/glass/rock building, brand-new and surrounded by rock gardens - Averill Winery!

This was our first stop on our wine-tasting tour, and it turned out to be the best, in hindsight - although we sensed that might be the case when we looked at the grounds, and then tasted their wine. Liam produced his business card - Icon Wines, which resulted in a very nice talk with the owner and a tasting of a wine he doesn't normally pour. He turned out to be a retired physician who was very interested in Mel's pregnancy and very fun to talk to.

I took several photos while we were there - not only did the winery look beautiful itself, when you turned around and looked out at the view, it went for miles....A panorama that looked out over the valley, out to Cowichan Bay, and further to, on a perfectly clear day, the San Juans. I also bought my only bottle of the day - a $28 Pinot Noir that we had tasted which I thought was excellent. I will take it home to share with John....

Because we had started so late, we were pressed for time the whole afternoon, as some wineries close at 4 pm, and others, 5 pm. This necessitated some planning of our route and decisions about where to go, in what order. We decided on close as opposed to known, and drove across Highway 1 to try a couple of places about 10 minutes from Averill. The first one was by appointment only, so we moved on to the 22 Oaks winery, a very, very new venture that was surrounded by baby, non-producing, grape vines. The tasting room was in the lower floor of a new, attractive house surrounded by lawn and adirondack chairs - it looked like a nice place to sip some wine 'in the garden', which two women were doing. However, I didn't find their wine very good, especially for the $20 price tag.