UPDATE:
The trip is a wine tour. There are four stops: Whistling Gardens, Bonnie Heath Lavender & Wine, Burning Kiln Winery, Hewitt’s Dairy in Hagersville.
We will be travelling by motor coach, departing the North Parking Lot at the Aldershot GO Train Station, at 9:30 a.m. on the 8th of July – 1199 Waterdown Road, Burlington, L7T 4A8.
Cost is $125 for members and $135 for guests. If you have registered and paid a different amount you will be reimbursed for the difference.
If you have not yet registered you may do so at https://iwfsoakville.com – you will be fully registered once payment has been made at payments@iwfsoakville.com .
The trip includes travel by motor coach, entrance fee for the Gardens, luncheon at the Gardens and catered dinner back in Burlington at Kiran’s by the lake, 132 North Shore Blvd. East – 905-407-6683.
If you have not yet registered, please do so.
On behalf of Richard Birkett, Rodger Inglis and myself as members of the organizing committee, we welcome you to this exciting adventure.
Best in wine, food and friends.
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If you want to register for our most extraordinary wine tour coming up on the 8th of July, 2023, please let us know by July 6.
Cost will be $140 for members and guests.
Payments should be sent to payments@iwfsoakville.ca.
Event Details.
Members will be picked up by a luxury motor coach at the North Parking Lot at the Aldershot GO/VIA Train Station in Burlington, (1199 Waterdown Road, L7T 4A8).
Departure will be at 9:30 a.m.
As we travel along on the coach we hope to have our member expert sing his famous rendition of Carmen’s Toreador by Bizet, a wine-inspired transliteration.
First stop will be Whistling Gardens. Many of you will know about this amazing site:
1. An outstanding nursery with more rare plants than the remaining nurseries in Ontario;
2. The largest peony collection in North America;
3. The largest conifer collection in North America;
4. An aviary with magnificent Asian birds;
5. A botanical garden with many striking design features; and
6. A fountain display with coordinated lights and music. The lights only apply after darkness sets in.
Richard and Rodger are both horticultural experts and will be prepared to help members with horticultural questions. Recently, we went with wives to confirm all the details and were astonished at what the owner, Darren Heimbecker, has created.
There will even be an opportunity to purchase plants from the Gardens by going to the Whistling Gardens website (https://whistlinggardens.ca )and ordering your plants in advance for pick-up while we are there. Click on ‘Garden Centre’ and then scroll down to ‘Catalogue to select plants for purchase.
We will also have a luncheon on site, catered by Kerry’s St. James Eatery in Waterford.
We will then depart for Bonnieheath Lavender & Winery a short distance away.
This is a 130-acre former tobacco farm, but they now harvest nine grape varieties and the farm is repurposed using a Permaculture approach by implementing regenerative agricultural practices. The visit will thus provide a more down-to-earth winery experience.
Further, they grow both the French (intermedia) and English (angustifolia) lavender varieties and cultivars, which will be at peak full bloom when we arrive.
This will be a relaxed visit for wine tasting, for roaming in the gardens and farm, and visiting the lavender distillation.
Beyond tasting wines, there will also be the opportunity to purchase wines, including your own choice to have with catered dinner back in Burlington.
They also have a beautiful boutique shop with various lavender products.
From there we will trip down to Burning Kiln Winery for more tastings, and more opportunity to purchase wines.
Burning Kiln is also a repurposed property, in this case a former tobacco pack barn, the original kiln served for drying tobacco. . Overlooking Long Point’s UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve, we will have an opportunity to taste among various VQA wines and stroll through the vineyards.
Hewitt’s Dairy will be our final stop, on the way home – a cautionary note, that my last time there I asked for a double scoop ice cream cone without realizing that this was a humungous amount. This time I will be ordering a one scoop cone, unless I lapse again to overindulgence.
The coach will return to the Aldershot Station, and we will pick up our cars and drive to 132 North Shore Blvd. East for an evening by the lake – a catered dinner at Kiran’s, with personal wines purchased at the tour wineries.
French (intermedia) and English (angustifolia) lavender will be in full bloom when we arrive at Bonnieheath Estate Lavender & Winery
RSVP deadline is past