In my car on my way to the Twenty Valley for a weekend of wining and dining, I caught noted wine authority Konrad Ejbach review of Featherstone vineyards 2007 Black Sheep Reisling on his Saturday CBC show. When I arrived I was thrilled to find out that I was going to Featherstone Vineyard for lunch where I could sample the heralded wine and congratulate David Johnson and Louise Engel, a husband and wife team who own Featherstone, on their radio coup. Featherstone is one of the newer vineyards in the area. The lauded wine owes it's name to the unique practice of employing sheep to cull the leaves from the fruiting zone of the grape plants. Dave picked up this practice on a trip to New Zealand where wine and sheep are both in abundance. The sheep are at the right height to eat the lower leaves where the grapes hang and have no interest in the unripe fruit. When the grapes begin to ripen, the sheep are moved out of the vineyards. Dave says, "Using sheep to thin vines is a holistic approach that appeals to us a lot. And of course, there's the added bonus that they fertilize as they move through the vineyard. The ecological hoofprint' is quite small." Dave and Lousie started out with a few sheep but has increased the flock this year. The by-product is that the lamb meat is sweet and delicious having been fed on grape leaves. It has become in high demand with restaurant chefs and all of this years flock are already spoken for - I know because I asked , I would have like to have one of Dave's flock on my BBQ this summer. Click here to sign up for Christine's Food for Friendse-newsletter!