Grapes

Prices have gone up precipitously for some fruit and vegetables in Canada as our dollar plummets. This time of year so much of our fresh produce is imported and the dollar just does not go as far. I cannot resist my little tastes of sunshine - oranges, grapes, berries - perhaps in smaller quantities. They are a great antidote to the plummeting temperatures.

Sun Kissed Grapes

Sun Kissed Grapes, a photo by susanvg on Flickr.

I visited a Quebec vineyard, Vignoble Rivière du Chêne, - wine-making is a recent industry in Quebec. These grapes will find their way into presses later this year for the first step in the wine-making process.



The rows of a many varieties of grapes stretch out, each grape ripening at its own pace. One specialty wine made in this area is ice wine. The grapes are left on the vines and are harvested when there is a week of at least -8C temperatures. The resulting wine is quite sweet - a dessert wine. This vineyard produces many other kinds of wines.



This is the next step - the pressed grapes (liquid for the white wines, liquid plus skins and seeds for the red wines) go into these vats for fermentation.

The resulting wine then spends time in oak barrels to reach its final flavour. It was fun to see how this happens - fun to taste a variety of their wines.