Wow, back from the 24 hours of solid liver abuse. Here's a summary of where we when and who helped contribute to my liver damage.
Is always one of our favourite places to start. It's a beautiful location in a beautiful building. When we showed up it was pretty early but within 10 minutes the place was packed. We tried a couple of flights, and the lovely blonde girl who rang us threw comp'ed our flights and gave us a free tote bag. Honestly it wasn't that much, we only dropped about $50 there, but it was a pleasure to start with.
This was a new find for us. It's the ONLY winery that is actually ON the lake. As a result their growing season is a bit longer and they're able to grow some of the more complex varietals. We were there with a couple of other young couples who were quiet friendly and we discussed some of the different aspects of the white wines. The other cool thing about Legends is that they have a "Diva" series which proceeds go to the local Women's Shelter. Although I'm typically not a fan of blushes, their Malbec Rose (under the Diva label) was spectacular so we purchased it.
Our first winery in Niagara-On-The-Lake. It was a bit of a bitch to find (GPS didn't like the address much) but they were marked on the route markers so we found them. They're unique in that they have 2 distinct types of soils. Their red claw earth and their black soil. As a result they can grow the same grape, for the same duration, with the same treatment and still come out with dramatically different wines. I tried their 2008 Cab Franc in both the Red Paw and the Black Paw. As I prefer softer more robust wines, I like the Red Paw, but a couple tasting next to us, preferred the Black Paw. I asked the girl if she typically liked Shiraz, which she replied it was her favourite, made sense with the smoke and spice found in the Black Paw. We brought home a bottle of each to share with our friends.
Lowrey Estate Vineyards and Winery
This was the crown jewel of the trip. It was an absolute BITCH to find, but we stuck to it and found it. Wesley greeted us with excitement and enthusiasm of someone who truly loves what they do. He's a young guy, but he's making SPECTACULAR product. We bought one of each of the wines we tried and will be registering our bottles on his site so that can get the feedback and track it. He's got a blog, which I will become an avid reader of. I plan to support this young winery because they make product which is the BEST of Niagara!
OMG Reif grew up! The last time I was there, it was crowded and small. This time it rivaled any of the big houses. This time we actually PAID for our flight, and it was worth it. I did a "sensory flight" where the girl matched 4 wines to 4 herbs. The herbs brought out different qualities in the wine, it was much like food pairings, but rather simplistic. This was a fantastic learning for one of our wine nights.
Ahhhhh Strewn, once again, we paid for our samplings but it was OH SO worth it. This has long been one of our favourite wineries, and the win on this one was their Winter Red. This Cab Franc was to be their red ice wine of the year, but when the winds shifted, the temperature rose quickly during harvesting and due to the strict VQA rules, it didn't have the sugar content to be classified as an ice wine. As a result, its a soft, mellow and darling late harvest that was a STEAL at $25 per bottle.
Ralph saw me coming! He's the sexy silver haired, Latin Lothario! I remember him clearly from my last trip to wine country, the guy is fabulous. We ended up becoming wine club members with Hillebrand and proceeded to drink enough flights to make the first two months of the membership paid for. We were then informed that we could receive complimentary flights at their "sister" winery Peller. I'd never visited Peller before so off we went.
Well wasn't this an awesome little treat. It's stunningly beautiful and had a VERY busy tasting bar. I ended up striking up a conversation with the couple next to us. Judy was from Burlington and her boyfriend Andrew from Kitchener. It was obvious he was the wine expert and she was along for the ride. After chatting for a bit, I discovered she was in the same class in high school sweetheart. Wow, what a small world. They mentioned they were off to Inniskillin .... but 8 wineries in a day was enough for me. I needed to get out of there and get some food in my belly before I lost the ability to form words.
We were staying in a great little Inn that had an Asian restaurant called Gingers. It was simply divine. http://www.orchidinn.ca/
By the time I woke up Sunday morning, I marveled that I wasn't hung over .... I think I was still drunk! I can't WAIT to do it all over again!
No comments:
Post a Comment