On the Road Again

No, not that Willie Nelson road. We’re back on the Connecticut Wine Trail “Road again”. This year like the past three or four will be another attempt to win a trip in the Passport program run each year by the Connecticut wineries and vineyards. As you recall, a passport book can be picked up at any participating winery. When you make a visit to one they will happily stamp it for you just like a regular passport book. After you have had the book stamped by the required number of wineries you submit the book to be drawn in a lottery. The list of Connecticut wineries now numbers thirty with new ones coming on board every year. Last year Marge and I and another couple visited nineteen and even with a late start this year we’ve already been to thirteen.

While it would be great to win one of those trips to Spain or France, our excursions to our Connecticut wineries have still been a lot of fun. I was joking, however, that with what we’ve spent doing it these past years we could have financed one of those trips by ourselves. Our trips begin with a picnic lunch. Most locations have areas where they allow you to picnic, but this past Friday we had ours at the great facilities in Salmon River State Park. We even have a hot lunch occasionally since our friends purchased a small grill just for that purpose. On this trip we got real ambitious and were able to get the book stamped five times with visits to Maugle Sierra in Ledyard, three in North Stonington, Jonathan Edwards, Stonington Vineyards, and Dalice Elizabeth along with a last minute stop at Chamard in Clinton. This was a helluva day since we included dinner at Lenny and Joe’s Fishtail. Good stop for me, haven’t had oysters on the half shell since Myrtle Beach. A dozen along with a bowl of clam chowder helped make the day. Made Marge's day too, because she's been longing for a lobster roll all summer and the Fishtail visit took care of that.

All of these wineries offer wine tasting for a nominal fee, usually $5.00 to $7.00 dollars. You get a chance to sample the vineyards six or seven wines and take home the glass. Can’t do this much anymore since our cabinet now has over thirty monogrammed glasses we would need to throw out some pots, pans and dishes to find room for more. Besides that we now know which wines we like, so we just buy a bottle, borrow four of their glasses and go out sit around one of their tables and enjoy the scenery and the wine. I suggest you try one of these excursions yourself, I know you will enjoy it. With so many wineries all around the state now the drives aren’t that long anymore. You can check them all out by going on the web and punching in: www.ctwine.com