Barr Estate Winery Tour

I had the opportunity to go on a limo/wine tour here last night with the Fort Saskatchewan Mom's Night Out group. It was interesting to learn how they make wine here in Alberta. They use rhubarb and raspberries to make their 2 current wines, though they have another fruit crop- cherries- that they are growing and hope to expand into as well. The farm is pesticide and herbicide free, and like Fort Saskatchewan, they use sheep to keep their grass mowed and fertilized. They also don't use sulfites in their wine, which I found really interesting, because I know a few people that can't drink wine for the headaches it causes. A couple of the moms on this group found the wine tasting didn't give them their usual headache.

We toured around their land to see their crops, and went back into the distillery to discuss how the wine is made, from start to finish. It's a big job, but they seem to enjoy it. I enjoyed the tasting too; I think I prefer the blush (The Barb) over the red, but both were nice and I bought a bottle of each to serve at our next extended family dinner. Supporting local businesses is something important to me, and I think it's pretty fun to drink wine produced right here in my home province, even if it's not grape based. 

I still prefer a nice glass of Malbec on its' own, but look forward to pairing these wines with a terrific dinner. You can check out their wines here.

Limo service was provided by Eternity Limosines. We packed into a couple of limosines and it was a pretty extravagant journey! I've never been in one like that before. Some of us ate dinner first at Original Joe's, and they worked hard to get us our drinks, food and bills before the limo arrived.  I ordered the jambalaya and I'm modestly happy to tell you that my recipe is better. I will get that up on my recipes one of these days! I plan on including that in my "little bits" cookbook, because it's so good.