You might have thought that was a typo in the headline, but it was an evening of wining, winning and dining on Saturday, April 21 at the Burton Community Hall when the Arrow Lakes Grape Growers Society held their wine tasting dinner.
Tickets for the dinner were sold out, and those that planned ahead and made it through the doors were invited to taste a variety of wines that came in flights, or three tastings to a serving. One flight had a trio of grape wines made from varietals that could grow in our local climate, and another was a threesome of fruit wines: pear, apple and blueberry.
A three-course Italian dinner served up by Jolene Moroz and Gabi Kohler tempered the effects of the wine. Salad was followed by pesto pasta and meatball covered in cheese, and was topped off by tiramisu. Delicious.
Awards were given out after the crowd was sated. Many of the winners were also judges as well as old hands at brewing up vats of wine, but the spectators were assured that no judge judged their own wine. The red wine winners were Jody Scott, Tina Simpson, Gord Kublik, Jerry Botti, Linda Harrop, and Kurt Rupp. For white wine Jerry Botti, Gord Kublik, Jody Scott again walked away with prizes. Country Wine winners were Dwayne Foster and Linda Moorehouse, who took best of show for her raspberry wine.
A couple of mysterious and musical cowboys from Alberta who had wandered into town earlier that day regaled the party with live country music. They were soon joined by a couple of local women singing and playing guitar.
Bedtime snuck up on some of the revellers, and they left the bacchanal for home. The rest hollered for “Jerry’s iPod” and danced to the little device’s catalogue of songs.
