18 Oct, Wednesday - Winery, Baked Cookies

The first picture was taken when I woke up at 6.50am. It just happened to be a dark morning. I thought that the sky was always this dark in the wee hours of morning but Becky told me that today was just different. However, I think it will get dark soon as the days are getting shorter.

But I have never woken up at this time ever since I arrived. The earliest I woke up is 7.50am as I have japanese classes at 9.30am. Had to wake up early as I was going to a winery! To go the winery, I had to miss my wednesday japanese class. This trip was organised by my entrepreneurship teacher for her other class in sustainable business of small communities. Apparently, the people who worked in the winery came from the first nations. Anyway, it was worthwhile trip, $8 bucks to go, including transportation. I love field trips! Nice big and warm hug with ellince, she's my lover. Haha..

In Victoria, they are quite strict about selling liquor, must check id carefully. If those storekeepers in Singapore can do the same when they sell cigarettes, maybe we will have fewer kids who smoke.

Anyway, this place that we go is Cherry Point. Quite out of the way.
That day, it was drizzling. Cold. Anyway, we went to the store first and then the guide started talking about how Cherry Point came about. They had a change of ownership recently. Had 32,000 trees I think. Forgot how many varieties they had. But they happened to sell 5 wines. 3 white wines and 2 red wines. The white grapes had been harvested as they are not that hardy against the wet weather. Red grapes could be harvested later as they are more hardy. The ground here is rocky and the rocks act as heat insulators in the night, letting the grapes ripen a little at a time.
After harvesting, they will throw the grapes into a machine to de-stem it. Then they will ferment the wine. Apparently, fermentation takes a long time. Now they harvest the grapes, they can only pack the wine in late Jan, Feb or March. So they store the wine in oak barrels to age the wine.
This place uses synthetic corks instead of those normal corks. They said that the wine here are modern or new wine. I forgotten the term. Anyway, the wine must be drunk within a year. It is not meant for keeping. We tried the Blackberry port in the room. That was the best wine! This is because the rest of wines we tried had no sweetness. I like wine that has sweetness in them. Not so dry.

Tasted 3 white wine and 1 red wine. After that, we all went back to school.

When I got back home, I baked cookies again. This is my second try and it turned out pretty well. Eating freshly made cookies are really addictive. Shall go back to Singapore and make for my friends!