Saturday, April 19 2008

OMG, OFG's AGM--LOL!

This logo makes me thirsty

I'm back from Portugal! It was a great three days in the Douro, which I'll detail next week sometime when I have a chance to upload some of the 400 pictures I took. I will say that the scenery is beautiful beyond belief, however cruising around mountain sides in a hot-rod Peugot is one thing, but doing it on a one-lane road over sheer drops of thousands of feet and no guardrails and oncoming trucks whipping around at breakneck speeds is completely another.

But today it's a change of luggage and another airport! I swear my butt is getting an Air Canada logo on it. I'm off to the Ontario Fermenter's Guild conference in beautiful downtown Markham Ontario. Looks like the weather is going to be in the low 20's (low 70's for my American readers) with some sun, So I can work on my tan . . . ha!

Actually, I'll be locked in a series of small boardrooms giving lectures. The OFG is the association of consumer winemaking retailers for the province of Ontario. Mainly they're Ferment On Premise operations, which is a pretty going concern here in Canada and starting up in other areas. For those who are scratching their heads, FOP is like your normal home brew shop, but when you buy the wine kit you don't take it home and make it. You hand it back to the operator and together you both make the kit up and pitch the yeast, and you the consumer wander off for six or eight weeks, and return to clear, stable, ready-to-bottle wine. You bottle, cork, label and capsule it and ride off into the sunset, happy as a bivalve mollusc.

Who would do such a thing, you may ask? Well, lots of folks are less interested in the nitty-gritty of the process than they are in the results, and some don't have the space, especially in a small apartment or condo, and all Winexpert dealers offer the same sort of satisfaction guarantee--100%, so it's a no-risk way to make great wine with little fuss or space at home.

My lecture is going to be on temperature control and trouble-shooting in the on-premise operation. My, such exciting stuff. I'll also have a chance to talk to all my Ontario chums, whom I don't get to see often enough these days. Then, back to the grind next week. I can hardly wait to see my desk.

That is, if I can see it under the mountains of paperwork and messages. Whee!

Posted by Tim AT 10:05PM

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