After a Friday evening with the gang of “The Best Book Club Ever,” Marty and I got to join some of our favorite fun peeps for a Lake Erie Wine Country Harvest Celebration in New York.

It was a crisp Fall day,

but we couldn’t have felt warmer bopping around from winery to winery, tasting and sipping with this gang of folks we love dearly.

We managed to visit 8 or 9 wineries between noon and 5 pm.

Each winery – some quite simple  – others more elaboate – had their own individual style, appeal, taste, smell, and “feel.”

Each one also served a lovely food pairing along with 4 or 5 samples of their best wines.

We ate everything from lasagna soup at our first stop at Liberty Vineyards and Winery to sliced tenderloin on garlic crostini with roasted red pepper aioli at our last stop at Presque Isle Wine Cellars.

We learned about grape varietals and the fermentation process.

Packaging sure sells – eh?  These bottles made me think of our dear Jake Henderson, who will be shipping off to the Navy soon.  We are so thrilled to get to have him here for Thanksgiving this year.

Marty sure had a good time.  He loves spending time with this gang as much as I do.  We are so blessed to have Joyce and Rob, Kathleen and Jack, and Laurie and Ed in our lives.  We have learned and experienced so much from sharing time with this group of retired school teachers experiencing life to its fullest.

Each winery had it’s own personality, as did their wines.

My favorite wine of all was at 21 Brinx Winery, where we bought several bottles of the 2012 Noiret.

But I couldn’t resist getting some photos of the wines names after our dear Ella 🙂

Marty fell in love with Ports and bought several from different wineries.

The absolute BEST hospitality and our favorite “snack” of chicken and biscuits was at Willow Creek Winery.  You know the old adage: “You can’t judge a book by it’s cover?”  Well – it sure rang true here.  Marty bought an entire case of assorted reds, whites and Port here, and the people were the sweetest, kindest, and most generous of all.  Keep up the great work Willow Creek!

Until next time – –

Cheers & Hugs,

Jodi