“DeVine” Lunch

Dunc Chez Framingham

Friendly Kiwi at Framingham Vineyards

Lunch at La Veranda - Domaine Georges Michel

Next day we spent another two hours in the car retrieving previous purchases and visiting the vineyards we missed on the bike tour, St. Clair, Domaine Georges Michel, the organic winery Seresin and of course Framingham – the winery associated with our close friends, Lord and Lady Framingham. Lord and Lady will be happy to know their lovely winery is looked after by very friendly staff and this year’s vintages are excellent. We bought a bottle of their Reisling and were sorry we couldn’t take advantage of their special 6 bottles of 2008 Sauvignon Blanc for $75. We know we can’t drink that much before heading to Australia! Given Lord F’s heritage, the winery is Italianate with a lovely fountain and benches under rose covered arbours. While passing, we waved at all the wineries we know had to pass up - Stoneleigh, Mount Riley, Forrest, Spy Valley, Fairhall Downs and Nautilus. Over time we have tried all of their Sauvignons as they are sometimes available at our LCBO through Vintages.
We also visited the Makana Chocolate factory and sampled their sublime fruit toffee crunch, chocolate covered apricots and macadamia brittle. Somehow we missed their factory in Keri Keri in the North Island. We took lots of pictures of the staff making delectable toffee in a large copper kettle, emptying the bubbling contents onto a 3’ by 5’ marble slab, spreading it, slicing it into 6 rectangles, slathering it with milk chocolate and covering it with chopped hazelnuts. We opted for dark chocolate, macadamia nut squares to sustain us on our southern journey. It turned out to be suitably decandent.

For lunch we decided to return to Domaine Georges Michel’s La Veranda to sample their assiette de fruits de mer and another of petits desserts including, crème brulee, mousse au chocolat, tarte aux amandes and a small glass of Autumn Harvest Reisling. Neil Baxter, our chef mentor from Rundles Restaurant in Stratford, would approve of this divine restaurant, with its perfect small tastes of the very best cuisine. The sun was blazing on the vineyards, and we lunched on the patio cooled by the summer breezes. Our European waitress persuaded us that the Summer Rose was the perfect sipping wine for our food, and that it was good value to buy the bottle to finish the rest later. Life can’t get much better than this!