There are nineteen vineyards in Connecticut, and Marge and I, along with our friends, Bill and Lee , have visited them all. For the past three years we've participated in what the Connecticut Wineries call the Passport Program. As you visit the wineries, a pass book is stamped by the winery indicating your visit. After you have visited fourteen of them, the book is turned in for a drawing. Lucky winners in past years have taken trips to France, Germany, California, and Canada. This year's first prize is ten days in Spain along with many other weekend trips. We're anxiously waiting for our book to be picked.Win or lose the program has been great for us. The winery visits and tastings have taken us to some of the most beautiful and scenic areas of our State. Places we would normally not think of visiting. A recent trip this past Sunday found us in Goshen, Connecticut. We drove a stretch of Route 63 North that reminded us of back roads in Vermont. Miles of beautiful scenery without a gas station, convenience store, restaurant, nothing, only a Connecticut few people know exists.
Part of the charm of these trips are the nice, interesting people you meet at the wineries
. You are able to use their picnic facilities, buy a bottle, buy a glass or partake of all the wines they produce at a wine tasting. Price of the tasting includes their monogramed glass. On many of our trips we pack a lunch and enjoy the view and wine. Pictured here are the picnic and scenery at Gouveia Vineyards in Wallingford, Connecticut. Quite a view, don't you think? We cap off these days with a nice dinner at one of the restaurants in the area. Surprisingly we even have some nice vineyards in Connecticut's shoreline area. North Stonington boasts a couple and Clinton has Chamard Vineyards. I've pictured Chamard here for a very good Canadian friend who has enjoyed Chamard's Chardonnay. At least he told me he did, when I would bring him up some on visits........lol I'm sure he wasn't lying, because, their Chardonnay has been voted best in the state for many years. I know you think that people who make these winery visits are either old farts like us or alcoholics, but we meet more and more young people making these trips. It's a little late to do the wine trail this year since the Passbook drawing takes place in early November, but you might consider it for 2009.By the way, we are working real hard to empty some of these barrels, but so far the wineries are filling them quicker than we can empty them.
