Follow-up from my previous post. We had been wine tasting up in the Hudson River Valley when we lived in New York, and while the white wine was pretty good, it was nearly impossible to find a good red wine. We assumed Niagara would be the same, but we were pleasantly surprised with the quality of some of the wines we tasted - some better than others. For our first time in Niagara, we drove down Saturday morning and spent the day wine tasting, then stayed near the falls for the night. We tried a few wineries on the escarpment and several others in Niagara on the Lake (NOTL). The one thing I realized early on is that some of the wineries are family-owned while others are corporately owned - the difference isn't necessarily obvious on the outside, but I prefer to support the family businesses.
We arrived in the escarpment:
We started at Cave Springs because someone in the group was a big fan of their riesling. We arrived around 11:30 in Jordon, Ontario which is a fabulously quaint little town, and Cave Springs is located on the main street. We were the only people in there (too early for drinking?!) and started out tasting a few whites then moved on to a few reds. Overall, I found the wines to be pretty good, but I was confused by location. We were basically in a store - as far as we could see there wasn't any winery or vineyard to it. According to the website it looks like there is, but I'm not sure where. The people were friendly, and the store had some neat gifty things so I enjoyed browsing. We bought a bottle of Pinot Noir to take with us so they waived the charge for the wine tastings. We didn't have time, but I would have liked to stay in Jordon for a few hours to explore the restaurants and shops in the area. It was adorable - next time I guess.
Then we went to Flat Rock Cellars because my husband likes their pinot noir which is carried at a local restaurant in Toronto. Flat Rock is a relatively new winery, and the facility is neat - uniquely modern yet refined and surrounded by vineyards. They say on a clear day you can see downtown Toronto across the lake. We tasted several whites (liked the Seriously Twisted blend) and reds. All the wines have screw caps, and the sparkling wines have bottle caps, which I find very unique. Of course we left with a few bottles of the 2007 pinot noir.
Lunch:
We headed towards NOTL because we had reservations at the deli and bakery at Ravine Vineyard. It was the perfect stop (see menu) on a cool day for a break in wine tasting (I had a break, others enjoyed lunch with a glass of Ravine wine). I had some tea and a vegetable pita that was really tasty and comforting. There is an outdoor patio to sit on as well if the weather were nice. We didn't stay to check out the winery at Ravine because we wanted to get to Strewn which had a special event at 2pm.
Wineries - NOTL:
First stop was Strewn for a barrel tasting at 2pm. As I mentioned in my previous post, there are often special events going on in the area so that is how we decided to check out this particular winery. The barrel tasting was $5/person, and we were able to take a tasting in the cellar of chardonnay out of three different barrels (American, Canadian, and French oak). Then, we went upstairs to the tasting room and tasted the same barrel selection but in finished wines in bottles to taste the difference once fermenting is complete. I thought all of that was a good deal for $5. I wouldn't consider myself a huge chardonnay person, but I enjoyed the French oaked chardonnays the most. When we finished the barrel tasting, we went to try a few other wines, but I have to say - the reds were pretty bad (definitely Hudson River Valley quality). We tried some of the mulled wine which was nice. Strewn has a cute wine bar, restaurant, and cooking school that could be worth checking out and a patio for the summertime.
Next-up was Konzelmann's. Of all the winery buildings, Flat Rock and Konzelmann's tied for my favorite. Konzelmann's is on the lake and has a lookout where you can enjoy the view. And while all of the people we met were nice, my favorite were the Konzelmann guys. They were friendly, knowledgeable, entertaining, and funny. We tried several good reds and whites, and I finally tried an ice wine. They let us try an aged ice wine as well which tastes more like a liquor and turns dark in color. I'm surprised by how much I enjoy the ice wine for an after dinner drink - like drinking your dessert. We even met the head of the winery, and he signed bottles of wine. We bought a bottle of Merlot and a sparkling wine to take with us.
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| Tasting at Marynissen |
The guys at Konzelmann's recommended Marynissen for good red wines, and I'm glad we listened to them. We decided to exclusively try reds at this location since most of us prefer reds. I have to say, they definitely had the best red wines that we tasted on this trip. They have some of the oldest vines in the area which may contribute to the tasty wines, and they even grow cabernet. The place (structure and interior) itself isn't much to talk about (pretty plain), but the wines speak for themselves. We also really enjoyed the young man who was providing the tastings - very knowledgeable and laid back. We bought three bottles of different red wines to take with us.
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| Pillitteri Bottle |
Pillitteri was another winery recommended by the Konzelmann guys as a place to enjoy some red wines. It is situated on a busy road in NOTL, and from the outside looks pretty corporate. I'm really glad we got the recommendation because otherwise I'm not sure I would have just tried it on our own. This winery had the coolest bottles by far (their Exclamation series). We enjoyed several of the reds and bought a bottle of Cabernet Franc to take home.
Hillebrand (corporate) was my least favorite. Not only did I not enjoy the wines (Hudson River Valley-type) but there was limited value in the tasting experience. They limit what you're able to taste by offering a tasting menu from which you buy a flight of three tastings. No one stayed to explain the wines or give us any commentary on the vineyards, the grapes, or anything for that matter. They definitely charge for the tastings no matter if you buy a bottle or not (tastings are handled separately from the wine sales). They are supposed to have a good restaurant, but I'm not sure I would check it out because I didn't enjoy the wines, and the place seems a bit corporate.
Where we stayed:
We decided to stay the night in Niagara Falls because my husband had never seen the falls, and our group was interested in checking out the casino. We stayed at the Hilton attached to the Fallsview Casio (which was sold out). The room was nice with a jacuzzi tub and an electric fireplace (a little cheezy but what do you expect), but the hallways in the North Tower smelled strongly of meat from the Brazilian steakhouse. We got the "premium" fallsview room so Matt could see the falls. We arrived to the hotel after dark, but we could see the US falls lit up.
Dinner:
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| Red Chateau Restaurant |
Niagara Falls is full of large corporate establishment restaurants which are hard to escape. We wanted to try something more unique so we found a place on Yelp in Niagara called the Red Chateau. It is run singlehandedly by a sweet, middle-aged Czech woman, and was truly one of the most (if not the most) unique dining experiences I've ever had. Check out my review on Yelp.
After Dinner:
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| So much for a "falls view"! |
After dinner, we did a little bit of gambling until our day of wine tasting started to catch up with us and we called it a night. In the morning, we woke up excited to enjoy room service and our view of the falls, but we were not so lucky. Here is a picture of what our view was in the morning. If you can't see the falls, that is because we couldn't either - we were completely engulfed in a cloud. Glad we paid extra for the "premium" view!
Overall, you need more than one day to really experience the area, and plan on at least 45 minutes per winery. Next time time I think we'll try to stay somewhere closer to the wineries in a quaint hotel, though we still need to make it to the falls so Matt can truly experience the wonder of the falls. We'll definitely be back in the summer to try some more vineyards and to enjoy the area in the beautiful weather.
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