Bruce County
Bruce County, The International Plowing Match, and The Girl From Holyrood
When Family Shows Up At The LCBO
This is going to be a very big year for Bruce County. There’s the Lucknow Reunion, the Southampton and Kincardine anniversaries and then there’s the big one!
The International Plowing Match (IPM), will be held at the little riverside town known locally as "Terrific Teeswater", not far from where I live.
So what does my family and the LCBO have to do with this?
My cousin Mary Wiley is promoting something called 20 Bees Wine. One of her big
projects for this busy Bruce County year is to supply commemorative wines for IPM…a red and a white. 20 Bees is produced by a group of independent grape growers in the Niagara region, with big ideas. Their wines are all "VQA" meaning they are guaranteed to be 100% Ontario.
The IPM white is a 2006 Chardonnay, lively and a tiny bit fruity, that goes well with grilled pork, chicken, fish, pesto sauces and mild cheeses.
The red is a 2006 Cabernet-Merlot. It’s perfect with red meats (this is cattle country after all), and slightly aged cheeses. The taste hints of red berry fruit. The wines were created to complement all the foods available in Bruce County.
Mary was born on a farm near a Bruce County crossroads hamlet called Holyrood, just up the road from where I am now living in retirement. It’s a tiny place, so when we locals pass by there, we never blink.
Mary was always in the thick of things and has been spokesperson for various agricultural groups and organizations; now she’s moved into the world of wines.
She’s busy as a you-know-what, buzzing about Niagara Vintners.
The IPM logo is proudly and prominently displayed on every bottle.
The label will be a collector’s item I’m sure.
So cheers to Mary, and to Ontario wine and of course to the International Plowing Match.
They’d better have lots of it on hand, because the plowing match is expecting more than 100,000 visitors to attend, starting this fall, Tuesday September 6th.
You can learn more about 20 Bees here… and more about IPM here.
Discussion
2 comments for “Bruce County, The International Plowing Match, and The Girl From Holyrood”
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Much more impressive than when my family turns up at the LCBO!
I’m quite sure that it will be all gone by Sept. 16th, 2008, the last day of the match. There will those will want to have it on the table for Christmas no doubt.