The idea appropriately enough was born over a bottle of wine – the Grange of Prince Edward’s lovely ’08 Riesling. The founders, both healthy advocates of culinary travel, were looking to take part in a spring run in the region. With busy lives, the appeal of joining an organized 10K cannot be underestimated, but one that was fun and allowed participants a genuine local experience was even more appealing. Unfortunately such an event did not exist in Ontario, especially like the vineyard runs we’d heard of in France. The obvious question raised was why not?

They realized the distance between this dream and the reality of their home-based gastronomic island with beautiful geography and dozens of new wineries was literally a handful of kilometers. With another glass in hand they opened a map and penciled out several routes with a focus on the natural cluster of wineries surrounding Hillier, Ontario. By their calculation 10K, and a few, would take them past eight wineries, and if properly organized could end up at their friend Norman Hardie’s celebrated winery, precisely in front of his masterful new brick pizza oven.

Could it be this easy? They jumped in the car and a few hours later had enthusiastic commitments from Norman to host the finishing lunch, and from Jens & Bruno, the owners of the wonderful Old Third Winery to act as the starting point, they even volunteered to use their “bird banger” to get everyone going. The other wineries jumped aboard agreeing to offer the runners a tasting at each of their wineries, and friends and colleagues were also eager to participate. In the next few weeks we’ll be profiling each with a special interest in telling their stories and introducing the products that represent their passion.

Hey, if everyone has half the fun we’ve had putting the inaugural run together we may see Terroir Runs in other parts of the County, in other regions of Ontario, in other provinces across the country, and maybe even around the world.

So, Ready, Set, Sante!