Oct. 11, 2018 – Louis Pin, The Sarnia Observer
Thursday, Tourism Sarnia-Lambton launched a new region-wide initiative rooted in drink and local businesses. Cheers to the Coast is a distinctly local take on similar local beverage-rooted ventures in places like the Niagara Peninsula, where all-day wine-tasting trips are among the region’s top selling points.
The hope is Sarnia-Lambton can do the same with their brand new, eight-stop route.
“We’re an emerging, new destination for drinks,” Beverley Horodyski, product development coordinator with the tourism centre, said. “It’s a popular activity now, culinary and drink tours; whether people ride a bike or go on an escorted tour. And Lambton County producers are part of that emerging market.”
The first eight destinations on the map are scattered; two in Sarnia, two in Plympton-Wyoming, and two near Thedford, with the last two drink destinations in Alvinston and Grand Bend respectively. They offer a similarly broad range of selections, with three wineries, three breweries, and a meadery on the way.
Something for everyone, in other words.
A ninth destination, Smackwater Tours — out of Smackwater Jacks in Grand Bend — will offer transportation via luxury vans so people can drink along the way.
If successful the Cheers to the Coast Trail will add more destinations, Horodyski said. The hope is to use existing businesses to prop each other up, leading to more growth in an increasingly expanding industry.
The local businesses, for their part, are on board.
“I find that with everyone that’s local, the craft breweries, the wineries, everyone, it’s a big family,” Emma Boertien, with Widder Station Golf, Grill, and Tap House in Thedford, said.
“It’s always good to learn what other people are doing, getting ideas,” Laura Soetemans, owner of Stonepicker Brewery in Plympton-Wyoming, added.
More than half the participating businesses were on hand Thursday morning at the trail launch along with tourism representatives and other local leaders.
“I’m looking forward to getting on my motorcycle next summer and doing the trail,” Bill Weber, warden of Lambton County, chuckled.
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