Wine & Chocolate: Part Deux

Sunday fun-day was spent at a semi-local winery (Hopewell Valley Vineyards) in the Princeton area with my mom. I love wine tastings and tours (although this is the first tour I had ever been on). It is so great to speak with producers that are experts at what they do and excited to share their knowledge and business with their customers.

The wines were good, although I found that I liked the whites much more than the reds (very unusual). I am a red-wine-kinda-girl 99% of the time.

While I was there I asked the owner about sulfites. I have read that sulfites are what give you headaches (but I would venture a guess that it is drinking too much instead), and that they are unhealthy for you, etc, etc. What the owner of the vineyard had to say in a nutshell was that sulfites are naturally occurring in the skins of the grapes and a wine without sulfites is a problem.

So, that leads me to ask, what do the wine makers that boast "no sulfites detected" do to their wine to get rid of the sulfites? Or is it just that the level of sulfites is naturally so low that it is not detectable by the end of production? And when wine makers add in sulfites, are they natural? or man-made? (I would guess man-made)

These are all great questions, that I plan on delving into, however, if any of you know the answers I would love to hear from you. :)

This is me if you were wondering :) 

After spending a few hours at the vineyard, we decided to go into Princeton for a little afternoon shopping. While it was the most perfect sunny October day and beautiful strolling weather, the shopping sucked. Preppy clothing companies send their most boring and un-stylish clothes to Princeton to die. Don't get me wrong. I enjoy tweed, fur-lined sweaters, pearls, faux-fur vests (see above), riding boots and all other things preppy in the fall. They go with apple picking, horseback riding, and the changing of the leaves. I am not sure if it is that the people who LIVE in Princeton that actually have to buy clothes IN Princeton are too smart to care what they look like, but I am sure as hell glad that I wasn't smart enough to go to school there. BORING!!!! I fit in much better in Savannah with all of my creative art school friends.

Right about the time I was giving up on finding anything preppy to rock this fall, my mother and I found a chocolate store!

AND THEY WERE GIVING AWAY FREE SAMPLES!!!

AND...I even found a bar that doesn't have any soy in it! I checked all of the bars for my blacklisted ingredients. The 85% was the only bar that didn't have soy lecithin in it. (I love how sometimes companies use "soya lecithin" instead of "soy lecithin" as if that makes it more exotic or something. It's still soy.)

All in all a great Sunday fun-day with my mom! And I learned a little too...not too shabby. I would highly suggest visiting Hopewell Valley, and strongly discourage trying to find anything cute to wear in Princeton.