cooking ala mel

healthy recipes and the occasional craft

facebook instagram pinterest RSS Feed email bloglovin' goodreads

A Glimpse of Ontario Wine Country – Niagara Escarpment & Twenty Valley

This week, we took a quick hop over the border into Canada for an overnight stay in Ontario’s wine country.  This is our second year going to this area, and I’ve fallen in love with the area more with each visit.  The Niagara Escarpment – or the bench – is a beautiful area right near Lake Ontario, full of fantastic views of the lake, farm country, and of course, over 40 wineries.

Both times we’ve gone to the Beamsville/Vineland/Jordan area of Ontario, we’ve gone on a wine tour with Crush on Niagara and stayed in their Bed & Breakfast, the Harvest Guest Cottage.  Their tour package consists of a visit to 4 area wineries with tastings, as well as a stop at a local cheese factory along the way (to give you a little something to absorb all that wine).

The bed & breakfast is definitely one of my favorite parts.  It sits right on a small vineyard, so you have beautiful views of wine country, and it’s extremely private.  The owners live next door, so you only see them once or twice through your stay.  You’re given your own lock code to the house and a key to your room & bathroom and left mostly to your own devices.  Both times we went, there was one or two other couples staying at the house as well, with us in one of the rooms downstairs, and them upstairs.  They have a full kitchen if you want to cook dinner, or you can go out to one of the many area restaurants.  We got a loaf of bread and cheese each time to enjoy some of our wine later in the evening after going out for dinner.  There was a bottle of wine (a white blend – good for the white lovers we are) waiting for us in our room when we got there, complete with wine glasses, so we immediately took it to the fridge to chill for later in the evening.  You wake up the next morning to a delicious breakfast basket left for you in the kitchen to eat at your leisure – farm fresh eggs, fruit, and the most delicious muffins.  We always plan to have lunch out afterward, but haven’t yet done it after such a filling breakfast.  This year, we wanted to get back to the kitties, since they were alone for the night, and they’ve been especially rambunctious lately


Now, a bit about the tour.  I’ll admit, I’m pretty awful at remembering to take pictures as I’m absorbing the sights and tasting wines, but this year, I told Dave (our tour guide) that I wanted to try to remember, and he kept reminding me every so often, to which I was extremely thankful.  Still, I didn’t end up with many pictures, but a good many more than the previous year!  We went into the tour determined not to buy anything unless we were really in love with it, as we have about 16 bottles of wine in the apartment right now that we have to drink.  We did pretty well, although I think we started out a bit too conservative and only ended up bringing two bottles home (one of which was given to us at the cottage)!

We started off at Kacaba Vineyards, a smaller winery up on the bench.  This was by far my favorite stop this year, as we learned about how they ensure the quality of their wines with small yields that they can manage by hand.  They told us about their organic practices (most of the wineries we visited don’t use pesticides – which was awesome to hear!) and how they don’t add in sulfites to their wines, as that often causes adverse reactions (which I actually learned quite a bit about in pharmacy school during our asthma section) – the natural amount of sulfites in their wines is almost undetectable.

At Kacaba, Dave, their retail manager, was so patient with our questions and extremely knowledgable about the wine making process.  We started off our tastings with a few whites, of which the 2012 Riesling was my favorite (which is no surprise to me, since I always love a refreshing Riesling).  Their Riesling was much different than any other I had tried, which is something I love about wines – they’re never the same!  We didn’t end up buying the Riesling, since it was our first stop, but I wish we had, now.  Perhaps I’ll have to pop back over before they run out of that year.
He had us do a side-to-side comparison of three of their Cabernet Franc wines – a 2009, a 2007 reserve, and a 2010 reserve – to see the differences between the length of aging in the barrel and cellaring.  Not being a huge red fan myself, it was still really interesting to do this!  The 2009 is one that I believe was not aged as long (if I remember correctly), and it didn’t quite have the same depth of flavor as the 2007.  The 2010, being the youngest, had pretty harsh flavors going on, and it definitely wasn’t one I could handle.  The 2007 was my favorite, although I’m not sure I completely liked it.  Following a white, it’s hard for me to get used to the feeling on my tongue from the tannins that you get from reds.
We finished off the tasting with their 2011 Cabernet Franc Icewine, which Alex and I were both pleasantly surprised to actually like.  Icewines are made from grapes that were allowed to freeze on the vine into the winter months (unique to this region), so they’re much more concentrated in sweetness and flavor.  Most icewines that we’ve tried are made from white grapes, and they’re way too syrupy sweet for us to tolerate.  This one, while being quite sweet, was not nearly as sweet as those white ice wines, so it is definitely a wine we can enjoy as a dessert, or with a deep, rich, chocolatey dessert.  Alex quickly fell in love with this one, so we purchased a bottle, and now, he’s on the search for glasses just like the ones they used at the winery, which is proving to be a challenge.  We’re definitely interested in finding other red icewines to try, but they don’t seem nearly as common!
Next up was Vineland Estates, the largest of the wineries we visited, and our favorite from last year.  We fell in love with their Rieslings last time (which they are well-known for), but we were kind of disappointed with the years we tried this year.  They were lacking the crisp acidic finish that we really enjoyed with the one we got last year – they were just mostly sweet.  We really enjoyed their 2011 unoaked Chardonnay – a wonderful sipping wine.  Alex finished off his tasting with their ice wine, to see if he liked it, but it was a white, so it was a bit too sweet.  I finished my tasting off with their Vice – a vodka icewine martini.  It’s made from their vidal icewine and a Canadian vodka, and while it’s definitely a bit of a kick in the pants after tasting wines with the alcohol content, the flavor is quite lovely.  It’s sweet, but not overly so.  Next time we go, we’re going to try out their Late Harvest wines, since they’re closer to being like icewines, but not quite as sweet, since they didn’t get to the point of actually freezing.
Next up was Flat Rock Cellars, where we also visited last year.  It’s named after the limestone that runs beneath the property, which allows for a great climate for wine-making.  I love the principles this winery goes by – small yields, as natural as possible, and with the least amount of energy as possible.  They only grow four varieties of grapes – Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Riesling, and Gewurtztraminer – to ensure that they’re focusing on the best flavors for each one.  They have a geothermal pond that heats and cools most of their facilities, which is so awesome.  The land was bought from Welch’s (yes, the juice company), and they converted it to a vineyard for wine.
Their property is breathtaking, even with the bare vines at this time of year!  All of the vines are at the point where they have just been pruned for the growing season.  Here is a picture of what it looks like in August, towards the end of the season, when we went last year.  Both are beautiful but vastly different.  I’m so glad we got to see it at both times of the year!
We got a tour of the facilities, and then we sampled some wines.  We stuck with all whites this time, although they are big on their Pinot Noir.  Their 2012 Riesling was lacking something for my tastes, but I quite enjoyed their 2011 Twisted, a blend of their whites.  My favorite was definitely their sparking wine, 2007 Sparking Brut Reserve, made from 67% Pinot Noir and 33% Chardonnay.  It was definitely rather dry, which Alex didn’t like, but it really grew on me.  Their other sparkling wine, 2008 Riddled Sparkling, is one I think Alex would enjoy, as it’s made from 71% Chardonnay and 29% Pinot Noir – definitely a sweeter variety.  It wasn’t available to try, and I wasn’t able to convince Alex that it was worth buying, so perhaps next time!  😉
We finished off the tour at Di Profio Wines, the newest of the wineries we visited, located in Twenty Valley; the day we went marked their 11th month of being open!  They do everything by hand, and so they have very small yields, which ensures that each batch has the best flavor.  They have a cute bed & breakfast right on the Vineyard called Among the Vines, which I’m sure would be a lovely place to stay.
We sampled their 2011 Riesling, which was nice and refreshing.  Their 2011 Gamay Noir, which was a lighter red, was described like a “watered down Shiraz,” which is pretty accurate.  It’s definitely something I could see drinking to transition us into the full bodied reds!  We then finished it off with their 2011 Late Harvest Vidal, which I quite enjoyed.  It was pretty sweet, but not nearly as sickly sweet as an icewine.  A lovely dessert wine.
After the tour, we went back to the Harvest Guest Cottage for a nap, and headed out to the Lakehouse Restaurant later in the evening for dinner.  The Lakehouse is right off the QEW overlooking Lake Ontario, which was the most incredible view as the sun was beginning to set – I wish I had brought my camera!  The food was lovely – I got a creamy gnocchi dish with sun dried tomatoes, proscuitto, spinach, shrimp, and chicken.  I’ve had some pretty bad gnocchi from restaurants in my lifetime, and this was one that did it just right.  Alex got their Salmon Wellington special, which he quite enjoyed (and I thought looked quite interesting).
Overall, a wonderful little trip to kick off our summer!  I could definitely see myself living in an area like this someday – so beautiful, and so many local orchards, farms, and vineyards that have so many things to make cooking (and baking!) that much more fun.  We’ll definitely be back to explore more of the wineries and to revisit our favorites!