Ted and I set out for VanKleek Hill Vineyard this morning to investigate a winery with the possibility of purchasing some for the upcoming book launch. Taste-testing wine at 11:00 in the morning is a pleasant start to the day. It was also lovely to drive into the country and have breakfast in the little town - VanKleek Hill is closer to Montreal than Ottawa so it was about an hour and a half drive each way.
The vineyard has been featured on Regional Contact, which is where we heard about it. The wine is organic without additives and surprisingly hardy. The recent drought hasn't damaged the crop this year at all and the owner Marty anticipates a bumper yield.
In the end, we decided not to purchase the wine for my upcoming launch because it's not available in the LCBO or in Ottawa. I wanted to promote a local entrepreneur, but with the trek so far to purchase any as it's only available at the vinery or a few restaurants around VanKleek Hill, it didn't seem worthwhile. Still, it was a nice trek on a sunny Saturday and we purchased a few bottles for our troubles. You should drop in if you're out that way. Here's an article about the enterprise, which includes an address.
Other writing stuff: I've been doing some publicity tasks for Dundurn and also booked a signing for November 10th at Books on Beechwood, another great little independent Ottawa bookstore. I've gotten in some writing but not as much as I would have liked. I'm aiming for daily but missed one evening. Still, I've cracked the 20,000 word mark.
Alison Bruce of Crime Writers of Canada posted my blog entry on their site on Tuesday for the series on heroes and heroines. Here is the link if you missed it.
So, the day is quickly whiling away and I'm about to take my laptop out on the front deck to get in some writing. I might just have to taste test some more wine in the process. In fact, we could make it our summer mission to taste test lots of wine for the launch - maybe, off to the Niagara region next?
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