The Pink Shoe Diaries

I feel fairly confident that if I tell you this weekend I got to drink freshly distilled maple vodka and later enjoyed a bison steak and wild boar ribs, you will know I spent the weekend in New Hampshire.

It's true.

Adam and I left somewhat early Saturday morning to spend the day/night with his brother Dennis and sister & law Beth and assorted friends at Adam's parent's house in NH (since his parents were away for the weekend). I had already made plans with Beth a few weeks ago to go with some girlfriends to visit the Flag Hill Winery in Lee. So we left the boys to their own devices in the early afternoon to do that. The Winery is SO CUTE. There is no other way to describe. It's basically a country store that sells almost exclusively wine, and wine related products. They make the wine right on the premises (hence, Winery) and offer a tasting "class" for whoever wants one. And of course, we did. So we each got a list of all the wines they offer and got to try nearly everything. Their biggest hits are their fruit wines, primarily the Blueberry wine which is DELICOUS. I loved the plum wine and ended up buying a bottle of that. We were then led to the distillery next door where we sampled their freshly made vodka. They make one distilled from grapes that tastes just like a top shelf regular vodka, then they have two speciality flavored ones in Maple and Cranberry which are DELICIOUS. The Maple one especially is amazing and unique so I could not leave without a bottle of that as well.

Click on the picture for more Flag Hill photos



I would reccomend to anyone who loves wine and finds themselves in the NH Seacoast area to check this place out. The vineyard itself is lovely, they sell so many different kinds of wine most of which i am willing to bet you have never tried, you get to find out a little about different wines and the process of making them, not to mention the free booze. Our tourguide there reccomended that we visit Calef's Country Store in Barrington before we come next time and pick up some cheeses (that store is famous for them, and happens to be the one of the oldest country stores in the US) buy a bottle or two of wine, and sit on the vineyard lawn for a little wine & cheese picnic. Sounds like a plan to me!

After we had all stocked up on enough New Hampshire-made wines/liquors...we headed back to Allenstown to Adam's parents' place for a cookout. In our abcense, Adam and his brother had visited The Healthy Buffalo , a butcher shop that specializes in what I categorize as Odd Meat: venison, bison, ostrich, alligator, wild boar, kangaroo etc.. The boys had stocked up on bison burgers, bison steak and wild boar ribs for our feast (I was all, "what, no kangaroo?"). We then spent the majority of the night feasting on meat, drinking fruit wine and maple vodka and watching the game. And by watching the game i mean smoking and gossipping on the front porch with the girls.

Adam and I left around 11 to meet up with the lovely PJ and Nicky at a J.W Hills in Manchester. Of course "only staying for one drink" turned into "get kicked out when the lights are being shut off" and we were happy to return back to his parents' place to pass out on the Futon.

So, all in all, I had a pretty fantastic weekend. There is so much more to New Hampshire than I previously though. I have much exploring to do this summer!