Scones, a pie and ...Canadian Wines?

One of our folks had a dentist or some other appointment over in the East Bay. For those of you who don't know Rhode Island that refers to the towns that are on the eastern side of Narragansett Bay. At the northernmost end of the Bay you have the City of Providence.  So if you are planning on going from the western to the eastern side of the Bay for any reason you are undoubtedly driving through Providence.

Being on the East Bay side is fortuitous for making a stop at the Vienna Bakery in Barrington, Rhode Island where they make some very good things - http://viennabakeryri.com/.  We've had many of their creations with a particular favorite being their Pear Almond Torte.  This time our cake giver opted for their version of an apple pie and some scones.  It was more like and Apple Tart. It had a flat crust covered with apples and was topped with a type of cinnamon streusel.  There was no crust on top which again was an indicator that this was not your traditional pie. The apples were good and crispy and the whole thing was not particularly sweet. We may have a sweet tooth but we are not fans of sickeningly sweetened cakes and things. The Vienna Bakery is never over the top with sugar and that was the case here also.

Pies, scones and some unique wines

Vienna Bakery creations...is is a pie if there is no crust on top?

There really is more of an apple streusel tart than an apple pie!

Included were also a couple of scones. Why are most scones always so big?  The biggest offender is probably Starbuck's where one is probably sufficient calorically to last the entire day. These were also a good size but were not that heavy or filling. Unfortunately there was no lemon curd or clotted cream to go with them. Since any scone has a tendency to dryness it is best to have a cup of coffee or tea nearby.  One of us had a birthday and there were some leftover cupcakes too. They did not get eaten during the break but as is always the case they disappeared shortly thereafter.

A few leftover cupcakes were also there!

Unexpectedly one of our colleagues who had returned from a weekend trip north of the border to Canada returned with a couple of bottle of wine courtesy of Canada's duty free shops.  It was a nice touch and with two bottles we combined a little wine tasting with the apple tart and the scones.  What didn't sink in at first was that these were CANADIAN wines. It makes sense since he got them at Canadian duty free but did you know that Canada produced wines?  It was news to us.  Where could all those vineyards be in that colder not too temperate part of the earth. Something seemed fishy so we took a look at the bottle.

I went to Canada and look what I found?

No way to remove the cork!

Lo and behold the grapes are grown somewhere else and brought to Canada where they are cellared.  Some purists probably don't like that idea but we are not ones to complain about things like this.  If Canada wants to import a bunch of grapes and ferment them into wine who cares. We don't think the European, Australian or American wine industries are threatened so we just enjoyed having them. We even did a little wine tasting in that there were two types a Pinot Noir and a Merlot  The Merlot was deemed the better of the two.

A merlot...

...and a Pinot Noir!

We're so happy we vin canadien but the French wine industry has nothing to worry about!

At lease we can say we tried them. So next time you are crossing the border pick up a few bottles and introduce your friends and families to the wines of Canada!