Wine Fest in review

Cost of admission to Shores of Erie International Wine Fest: $10

3 bottles of wine shared with friends: $60
Being transported by a golf cart through a crowd of thousands after falling down, hitting your head, vomiting all over yourself and shitting in your shorts and all down your legs: Priceless

Seriously. I have never seen anything like that in my life! Here's the background...

I met TOL at her place at about 3:30 and we ventured to Amherstburg to attend the long awaited Wine Fest. It beautiful weather and as always, Amherstburg and Fort Malden looked gorgeous. We bought a couple of glasses of wine and settled into the seminar tent with an awesome cheese platter from Sobey's. My sister's boyfriend was giving a talk on Wine 101. It was very interesting and fun. We also caught the end of a local chef preparing mussels. Yummy, shall try to make when Billy is in Tennessee.

By the time we left the tent, the place was getting really packed. We saw many people we knew. We talked with a really nice guy for about 20 minutes and I have no idea who he was. I think his name was Brandon. His wife remembered me from a party over 10 years ago singing 'Bobby McGee.' That I recall...

We saw KT's parents, brother, aunt, uncle and cousin, SuperT's parents, a women whom I met in my later teens and kept appearing in my life for about 5 years, but I avoided her, because I'm that girl. I saw a few Realtors, some others from high school, and a women from my golf league.

We bumped into my sister when it was becoming a little ridiculously busy. She was pretty bombed and lost her boyfriend. (I think they found each other about 20 minutes later, as we found him and his cell phone rang...) As we were chatting with my sister, there goes the golf cart with the shitty, pukey woman! TOL and I just looked at each other like, 'did we really just see that?' We were in the middle of a conversation so we never mentioned it until we left me sister.... we were both like, 'uh... did you see...? Hahaha! Pretty funny stuff! After considering the situation, I would like to know A) Where exactly they were bringing her B) How would they take care of the problem C) If anyone bothered to claim her or if out of incredible embarrassment she was left abandoned at an unknown location... Things that make you go hmmm....

We saw the couple we camp with, Billy's TSSA inspector and his wife, as well as a couple who last saw me with black hair dressed as Edward Scissor Hands (obviously a Halloween party, nice to know I made an impression, because that dye job lasted a year...)

I spotted Dumb, from Dumb and Dumber fame, (AKA my former next door neighbor from the cottage.. oh I could tell you stories...) We said hi to the super hot guy we used to play volleyball with, and had an interesting conversation with a guy who if our high school was blown up, I would swear it was him.... luckily, he told us, he has worked out his childhood issues and is now a responsible member of society... He told us that he stays sane by smoking like 300 cigarettes a day. I asked if he was smoking at his table, as this is not the type of venue or crowd that would well tolerate smoke. He said that someone near him commented on his habit, so he told them to go eat a bag of dicks! Apparently he still has some problems, but good God we laughed! Eat a bag of dicks! That guy is hilarious!

I love seeing the men in their late 40's to early 60's who are over tanned with windblown hair, wearing baggy button-up shirts, left mostly open and a little too short shorts. They carry their glasses well in front of them from years of experienced crowd maneuvering without spilling precious alcohol. They looked like they just stepped off their boat and are heading for the nearest Jimmy Buffet concert. TOL got a sweet pic from her camera phone which I will post when I receive it. You gotta see this guy named 'Bob'!

I see that this is getting a little long, so I will say that it is a fantastic event and they raise a ton of money to support local tourism. I'm sure in the years to come that a charity will receive some of the proceeds because the event is getting huge.

Why is it getting huge? Two simple reasons, I believe. One: The venue is perhaps the most beautiful in all of Essex County. Fort Malden overlooks the Detroit River at a place where the river is wide, and no industrial complexes are in sight. Two: The wine and food. Our local wine is really amazing. Truly. One day our wines will shine brighter than any other in Canada.

Here is a good article from the Detroit News, or this one from MIcentral.

I tried to find some online pictures to share, but they are all marked. This may give the idea though...

We only stayed for maybe 3 hours and that was perfect. Next year I will go even earlier and catch more culinary seminars, and stake out a table, it just gets too busy to be wandering through the packed crowd.

Thanks to TOL for going out there with me. We should make it an annual 'Lizzes' event. I'd also like to say that it is great going to an event where there is lots of drinking with someone with the same name. Nobody can forget it if they know one of us!