Re: Winery visit

On 2025-03-27 4:58 p.m., Ed P wrote:

I went to Bunker Hill winery today.  Have not been there for a while.
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I did buy some wine, but I also took them about 35 empty bottles that I saved for them to recycle.  It is a real small Mom & Pop operation. When visiting, every time the owners are doing everything.
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It's nice to have wineries close to home.  We had one open up around the   corner from us. They planted a couple years ago and started selling their products last year. I haven't dropped in to try them out yet.They only have a  couple acres of grapes so far, at least on that property. I was surprised to see them planting a vineyard there.  Niagara is a major grape growing region but most of the vineyards are on the north side, along and near the escarpment and around Niagara on the Lake.  The soils are completely different. I am on the back  side of the escarpment and it is sandy loam, not shale and limestone.
 Do you have to take the wine bottles all the way back there to recycle? In Ontario we pay a a deposit on all alcohol containers including the bladders in boxed wines. We take then back to the Beer Store to collect the deposits.
   

I consider most of what they make "fun" wines, good, not something to pair with a $100 steak.  I got a bottle of the Dandelion Petal Nice light flavor, good to just drink on its own.  Bottle of Orange, made from local fresh juice.
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  I was wondering. I had a look on Google Maps and they don't seem to have   many grapes growing around there.  A number of our local wineries grow a lot of their own grapes but a number of them buy mostly from family owned grape farms.  FWIW, some of the best local wines are made by a small number of independent winemakers. One of my neighbours is a premier wine maker who gets contracted to oversee production at a number of small wineries and is very active in the Cold Climate Chardonnay organization. His work takes him to Oregon, France, South American and Australia.