On the Road with the Grape Guy
Report from - My Lunch with Andrzej ... January 17, 2011
18 Feb 2011- Details
- Category: On the Road with the Grape Guy
Earlier in the week I accepted an invitation to lunch from Ontario's Roaming Winemaker Andrzej Lipinski ... I dubbed him that in a review I wrote a few weeks ago and I think Andrzej wanted to set the record straight. Andrzej has quite the interesting story to tell of a young man coming to Canada in the early 90s and getting his start at Vineland Estates ... interestingly enough he was not a winemaker by trade, but in fact an auto mechanic - though he did grow up in a town that had the only wine festival in Poland. But the wine industry has a lure and Andrezj was soon working in the cellar of Vineland before he became the assistant. The rest of the story is one of a man who won awards, made a name for himself and has really been looking for a proper fit ... Now I won't start getting into the misunderstood artist toiling at his craft story that you've heard a thousand times before, and I don't think that fits Andrzej anyway, but I will tell you he has some pretty interesting wines being made at the two wineries we visited, and that's really what this story is all about.
Starting my day in Niagara-on-the-Lake's newest addition to the winery landscape, Colaneri, we began our tasting at the tasting bar with some of their current releases: (to read about the releases the tasting and the lunch, click here)
