More than wine, the pleasure is in the activities along the way.
BY MARGARET SWAINE
In twenty-five years, Ontario has gone from being nowhere in the wine world to a mini Napa North. The province now has over 70 wineries, the majority of which are in the Niagara Peninsula. Almost all offer at least a tasting room that includes reserve wine for sale you can only get at the cellar door. There's much more than wine geek appeal however. Sure it's fun to bring a special bottle back to impress your friends, but that alone doesn't make a destination. It's the other activities that are the drawing card.
Driving down the long laneway to the impressive new Peller Estates Winery in Niagara during fall harvest celebrations, I arrived at a wine lovers' Disney World. There were horse drawn carriages trotting around the vineyards, a Steve Bauer cyclist group in bright yellow shirts resting on the steps leading into the winery, diners on the sunlit patio and pretty young girls standing between the vines offering free samples of fresh crushed grape juice from different varietals to compare with wine made from those grapes the previous year. Inside, educational seminars on the ABC's of cabernet were taking place, along with winery tours and a harvest celebration tasting menu at the elegant Peller Estates Winery Restaurant. The boutique was packed with shoppers examining the decanters, fine crystal, posters, corkscrew collection, wine CD's, icewine chocolates, placemats and of course the wine.
Some of the guests were on "Shaw Vineyard Pleasures" package. After their tour and dinner at the winery, they would drive, or do the short walk, to Niagara-on-the-Lake's Shaw Festival to enjoy a world-class theatre performance. Others who had joined the Peller by Request club were getting a complimentary premium wine tasting after their tour or were taking advantage of their discount on accessories in the boutique. Then there were people like me who were making Peller Estate just one stop on a weekend tour of Ontario wineries.
The Niagara Wine Route starts about an hour's drive from Toronto. There just off the main QEW highway, travelers can begin their tour, which meanders along 40 kilometers of rural roads from Grimsby to Niagara-on-the-Lake. The route, starting on Regional Road 81, traverses gently rolling landscape through small towns, vineyards and orchards. Half the Niagara Peninsula is still devoted to agriculture and many of the farms are proudly preserved century properties, with roots tracing back to the days of the Empire Loyalists. The Niagara Escarpment on one side and glittering Lake Ontario on the other handsomely bracket the route. The top ridges of the craggy cliffs of the Escarpment were once the shoreline of Lake Iroquois, an ancient lake that receded with the glaciers leaving behind the Five Great Lakes as we know them today, and fossil rich land great for grape growing. The route is not a straight drive, rather in order to visit wineries, there are many sideroads to take up and down the escarpment. Signage is generally good, marked with a grape logo and names of the wineries, but even I've been confused, and I've done the route many times.
You can leave the QEW at the first sign of a winery or continue until you see a particular one you wish to visit. Many of the wineries have signs on the QEW that direct you to the correct exit. I'm not a fan of highway driving so I exit at Fifty Road and start the route from the beginning, stopping at roadside stands to pick up fresh fruit and other local goodies as I go.
The road passes by the towns of Grimsby, Beamsville and Vineland and so might you. It's the wineries dotted around them that you want to visit, all which have tasting rooms. Peninsula Ridge has a restaurant on site and delicious chardonnay. Angel's Gate, a spanking new winery and Thirty Bench quite country-rustic in comparison, share the same road (Mountainview) and make lovely wines. Modern looking Malivoire, between Beamsville and Vineland on Regional Road 81, uses a hillside drop for a pump free wine process. The end result from winemaker Ann Sperling is some of the best chardonnay and pinot noir in the province.
The next town however on this meandering route to Niagara is worth a visit. Jordan Village, home of Cave Spring Cellars Winery, is a restored tiny hamlet with Georgian and Victorian homes lining Main Street. Antique shops, galleries, a garden shop, restaurant and inn are all bunched together on two streets. Jordan Antiques Centre houses 25 professional dealers in 7,000 square feet. Cave Spring’s adjacent restaurant On the Twenty serves good Canadian fresh market cuisine. From the restaurant you see the steep and beautiful Twenty Mile Valley. Across the street, The Inn on the Twenty is a charming property build in 1996 that has some of the best accommodation in the area.
Once past the town of St. Catharines you can head south towards the US border and visit a few wineries on the way to the famous Horseshoe Falls in Niagara Falls. The other direction takes you to picturesque Niagara-on-the-Lake and a host of wineries encircling the town. Three million tourists flock to this Regency town annually, so don't expect a quiet time. Home of The Shaw Festival, theatre dominates the town from April 4 to November 24. Shaw, North America's second largest repertory company, is the only one in the world specializing in plays written by George Bernard Shaw and his contemporaries (www.shawfest.sympatico.ca). Ten of the nearby wineries offer dining and theatre packages along with a winery tour.
For winery visitors however, theatre is just one activity among many they can enjoy. In summer there are barbeques, jazz and blues in the vineyard, chamber concerts and picnics. Fall is harvest celebrations, wine makers dinners and dozens of events surrounding the Niagara Grape and Wine Festival. Winter brings icewine celebrations and holiday shopping at winery boutiques. Spring is for new release tastings, biking and walking through the vineyard and blossom festivals. Every time I've done the trip I've found new wineries, restaurants and activities. There is one thing though that I'm not going to do again - pick grapes for icewine in the dead cold of winter. That, like sleeping in Quebec City's Icehotel, is more fun in concept than reality.
source: Canadian Tourism Commision
This reproduction is not represented as an official version of the materials reproduced, nor has it been made in affiliation with or with the endorsement of the Canadian Tourism Commission.
Click here for more information on Ontario
BY MARGARET SWAINE
In twenty-five years, Ontario has gone from being nowhere in the wine world to a mini Napa North. The province now has over 70 wineries, the majority of which are in the Niagara Peninsula. Almost all offer at least a tasting room that includes reserve wine for sale you can only get at the cellar door. There's much more than wine geek appeal however. Sure it's fun to bring a special bottle back to impress your friends, but that alone doesn't make a destination. It's the other activities that are the drawing card.
Driving down the long laneway to the impressive new Peller Estates Winery in Niagara during fall harvest celebrations, I arrived at a wine lovers' Disney World. There were horse drawn carriages trotting around the vineyards, a Steve Bauer cyclist group in bright yellow shirts resting on the steps leading into the winery, diners on the sunlit patio and pretty young girls standing between the vines offering free samples of fresh crushed grape juice from different varietals to compare with wine made from those grapes the previous year. Inside, educational seminars on the ABC's of cabernet were taking place, along with winery tours and a harvest celebration tasting menu at the elegant Peller Estates Winery Restaurant. The boutique was packed with shoppers examining the decanters, fine crystal, posters, corkscrew collection, wine CD's, icewine chocolates, placemats and of course the wine.
Some of the guests were on "Shaw Vineyard Pleasures" package. After their tour and dinner at the winery, they would drive, or do the short walk, to Niagara-on-the-Lake's Shaw Festival to enjoy a world-class theatre performance. Others who had joined the Peller by Request club were getting a complimentary premium wine tasting after their tour or were taking advantage of their discount on accessories in the boutique. Then there were people like me who were making Peller Estate just one stop on a weekend tour of Ontario wineries.
The Niagara Wine Route starts about an hour's drive from Toronto. There just off the main QEW highway, travelers can begin their tour, which meanders along 40 kilometers of rural roads from Grimsby to Niagara-on-the-Lake. The route, starting on Regional Road 81, traverses gently rolling landscape through small towns, vineyards and orchards. Half the Niagara Peninsula is still devoted to agriculture and many of the farms are proudly preserved century properties, with roots tracing back to the days of the Empire Loyalists. The Niagara Escarpment on one side and glittering Lake Ontario on the other handsomely bracket the route. The top ridges of the craggy cliffs of the Escarpment were once the shoreline of Lake Iroquois, an ancient lake that receded with the glaciers leaving behind the Five Great Lakes as we know them today, and fossil rich land great for grape growing. The route is not a straight drive, rather in order to visit wineries, there are many sideroads to take up and down the escarpment. Signage is generally good, marked with a grape logo and names of the wineries, but even I've been confused, and I've done the route many times.
You can leave the QEW at the first sign of a winery or continue until you see a particular one you wish to visit. Many of the wineries have signs on the QEW that direct you to the correct exit. I'm not a fan of highway driving so I exit at Fifty Road and start the route from the beginning, stopping at roadside stands to pick up fresh fruit and other local goodies as I go.
The road passes by the towns of Grimsby, Beamsville and Vineland and so might you. It's the wineries dotted around them that you want to visit, all which have tasting rooms. Peninsula Ridge has a restaurant on site and delicious chardonnay. Angel's Gate, a spanking new winery and Thirty Bench quite country-rustic in comparison, share the same road (Mountainview) and make lovely wines. Modern looking Malivoire, between Beamsville and Vineland on Regional Road 81, uses a hillside drop for a pump free wine process. The end result from winemaker Ann Sperling is some of the best chardonnay and pinot noir in the province.
The next town however on this meandering route to Niagara is worth a visit. Jordan Village, home of Cave Spring Cellars Winery, is a restored tiny hamlet with Georgian and Victorian homes lining Main Street. Antique shops, galleries, a garden shop, restaurant and inn are all bunched together on two streets. Jordan Antiques Centre houses 25 professional dealers in 7,000 square feet. Cave Spring’s adjacent restaurant On the Twenty serves good Canadian fresh market cuisine. From the restaurant you see the steep and beautiful Twenty Mile Valley. Across the street, The Inn on the Twenty is a charming property build in 1996 that has some of the best accommodation in the area.
Once past the town of St. Catharines you can head south towards the US border and visit a few wineries on the way to the famous Horseshoe Falls in Niagara Falls. The other direction takes you to picturesque Niagara-on-the-Lake and a host of wineries encircling the town. Three million tourists flock to this Regency town annually, so don't expect a quiet time. Home of The Shaw Festival, theatre dominates the town from April 4 to November 24. Shaw, North America's second largest repertory company, is the only one in the world specializing in plays written by George Bernard Shaw and his contemporaries (www.shawfest.sympatico.ca). Ten of the nearby wineries offer dining and theatre packages along with a winery tour.
For winery visitors however, theatre is just one activity among many they can enjoy. In summer there are barbeques, jazz and blues in the vineyard, chamber concerts and picnics. Fall is harvest celebrations, wine makers dinners and dozens of events surrounding the Niagara Grape and Wine Festival. Winter brings icewine celebrations and holiday shopping at winery boutiques. Spring is for new release tastings, biking and walking through the vineyard and blossom festivals. Every time I've done the trip I've found new wineries, restaurants and activities. There is one thing though that I'm not going to do again - pick grapes for icewine in the dead cold of winter. That, like sleeping in Quebec City's Icehotel, is more fun in concept than reality.
source: Canadian Tourism Commision
This reproduction is not represented as an official version of the materials reproduced, nor has it been made in affiliation with or with the endorsement of the Canadian Tourism Commission.
Click here for more information on Ontario
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