Truly a Global Village

I was recently scouring through our guest book, where visitors can write their name and leave a comment, as well as indicate where they are from. It is sometimes interesting to see what people have to say about our winery and our wine. All the comments I came across were very positive, mostly either thanking us for help in finding the right wine, commenting on how much they enjoyed their experience, or just simply stating their intentions to return again someday. When I looked through our guest book, which only runs back until June 2009, I was quite  surprised at the number of people from different locales that have visited our winery and the surrounding area in the past year and a bit alone.

As expected, there is a lot of visitors from the immediate surrounding area, such as Fergus, Elora and Guelph. And also unsurprisingly, a good amount of visitors from surrounding towns and cities have signed their names in our guest book. Toronto, Hamilton, Kitchener, Acton, Elmira, Rockwood, etc. In fact, I came across people from 57 cities and towns across Ontario, ranging from Thunder Bay to Ottawa to Sarnia to Port Elgin, and 53 places in between - pretty much every corner of our vast province.
As I looked harder, I also found that there were many visitors from out of province as well. In fact, 14 towns and cities across Canada were represented as well. Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver and Prince George were the biggest cities that visitors came from, but there were also 8 people from smaller cities and towns across Canada, also representing the provinces of Newfoundland & Labrador, and Nova Scotia. Surprisingly, I did not come across anyone from Quebec or New Brunswick.
And finally, I was pleasantly surprised to find visitors hailing from different countries around the world, varying from Denmark, Austria, England, Norway and Scotland. There were also a few visitors from different parts of the U.S. that had stopped and signed their name in our guest book. A couple from Dallas, Texas, people from Ohio, Michigan, Tennessee, Florida and Virginia, someone from Chicago, Illinois, and two separate people from Phoenix, Arizona, coincidentally.
Altogether, just in the past year and 5 months, we have seen countless people hailing from 87 cities and towns spread across 7 countries, 7 provinces and 8 states. When we look at these numbers, it really is quite amazing. While it may be a stretch to say that Cox Creek Cellars is known worldwide, it is quite widely known in Ontario, and even to some Americans and Europeans who have visited us in the past, truly making our visitors global in presence. It is something to at least remember next time you happen to stop by at our store here. You never know who you may run into.

More Black Currant

As most of you know, our best selling wine, "Back Home", is made from Black Currants which are very common and populous in this area. What you may not know, however, is that we have such a large crop of black currant bushes that we have way too much for us to use everything. Therefore, we actually export a lot of the berries to the United States, where there happens to be demand for them.

We do, however, use a good amount of the bushes, as our "Back Home" and other black currant wines sell very quickly, and so we are always needing to harvest the berries and prepare more wine. And the time to do that is here again, one last time before winter sets in. The berries have already been harvested, and now we are ready to press this years crop and turn the berries into a delicious juice, and begin the fermentation process for wine. We are also going to be bottling some more "Back Home" (as it is nearly sold out again) from a previous black currant crop in the coming days so that everyone can keep on enjoying our best selling wine.

While we hope that most of you have had a chance to sample or purchase a bottle of our "Back Home", we want to remind and inform those of you that love that lovely Black Currant taste that we have a number of other wines that are made from black currants as well. Our "Country Sunrise" is also a black currant wine, although it is a semi-dry with a bit sweeter of a taste (about a 1) for those that find the "Back Home" a bit too tart.  For only $10.70 a bottle, it goes great with barbequed ribs.
Our "Apple Sunset" is also a favourite of many, and like "Country Sunrise" is an off-dry or semi-dry wine that is a beautiful blend of apple (65%), black currant (30%), and cherry (5%). This wine is a very reasonable $8.70 for a bottle and goes excellent with light cheeses, cheese fondues or quesadillas.
Finally, we have two sweet dessert wines that have won multiple awards over the years just like "Back Home", with each winning several gold medals. Our most prestigious wine is our Country Symphony #9, which is a Vidal iced wine blended with black currant. It is our most expensive wine, priced at $25.70, but it is well worth the price, as it has an unforgettable taste and will leave your mouth watering for more. It goes well with any gourmet dessert.
The second dessert wine made with black currant is our exceedingly popular "Red Velvet", which is a Cassis style black currant wine. Priced at $13.70 per bottle, it is the perfect treat to top off a great meal and dessert, and can even be used for a dressing over ice cream.

We hope that you all will come in and try one of these wines, especially if you haven't done so before, and leave with one or all under your arm at the end of your visit!

Another Successful Event!

Well, as most of you may know, we had our annual Hungarian Goulash again this past weekend on Sunday, and once again it was a smashing success. It looked like we might be in for a wet time for a while, but the weather turned out to be a beautiful sunny afternoon. Approximately 40 people were present for the amazing goulash, great wine, and a fun time. Everyone again raved about the Goulash (as well as the fresh buns and cake) and people also loved the wine. This year we had our guests enjoy 6 different wines. We had a beautiful Oak Barrel aged Chardonnay, and our own Cox Creek Baco Noir to top off the dry wines. We also had our great valued Evening Romance (a medley of 5 different apples), the sweet and tasty Country Symphony #6 and Apple Sunset, and the hit favourite of most guests, our Country Sunrise Black Currant wine. These wines are all available for purchase at our store, so please come in and try them if you get the chance!
All of our guests left the event very pleased and happy (some more giggly than others), with their belly's filled with our delicious goulash. We look forward to doing this event again next year and hope all of you can make it!

Harvest Time!

The wind has gotten a little chilly as of late, and the warmth of the sun has started to dissipate slightly, with only bursts of warm energy occurring from time to time. The rain is cool and the leaves from the trees are starting to pile on the ground. Yes, fall has finally arrived, to the delight of some and the chagrin of many. But the coming of fall does signal one exciting (yet busy) time of year for us at Cox Creek. The Harvest!  The apples on all the trees at the side of the laneway are ripe and most have already fallen to the ground. It's quite a beautiful site, as hundreds of apples lay motionless on the ground.
It is another cold and wet day as I survey the wondrous picture in front of me and ponder how I am going to begin the daunting task of picking them all up. I bend over, empty pail in hand, and start to sift through the apples, picking up the good ones and discarding the ones that have begun to rot. It's a job that is hard on the back, but it is also a job that is very rewarding. Once gathered, these apples will be stored in the cooler until the time is right for us to begin making wine out of them. That is the fun part of course, and there is no more rewarding feeling then when the apples eventually become wine, are bottled, and put on the shelf for it to be sold.
Most of these apples will eventually become our famous and award-winning (and absolutely delicious) Apple Dream wine, which I hope that you can all come and enjoy for yourself. I can almost taste the finished product as I savour the smell of the fresh apples, and finish picking up the last apple, satisfied with a job well done. Despite the cool, rainy and windy weather, I am happy that fall has finally arrived.