Niagara Wines

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Terry, Ken and I went for a tour of some wineries near Grimsby and Jordan in the Niagara Wine Region. If you don't know Ontario wines you should take a bit of a drive to the area and sample some. Kate and I like to go once a year or more.  We are members of the Ontario Wine Society (Niagara Chapter) which holds events at some of these wineries.

My friend Terry from is keen on Italian Wines (Sangiovese has not done well here) and Rieslings (the crisp kind, not the overly sweet stuff). My other friend Ken from Stratford is a member of my wine club -- the Stonetown Beefsteak & Burgundy. Ken is on a search for the illusive Pinot Noir. There are some good ones to be found but as they say, you may have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find a prince.

The region is pretty intensive with some fine wines. We stopped at Tawse, pictured above, where they have very good wines -- not cheap, but very good. They've put a lot of money into this place. One claim to fame is their wines are gravity fed (meaning they don't have to pump wines from primary to secondary fermentors and on to barrles; instead gravity flow is used).

Wayne Gretzky Estates is nearby. I recall this winery having a different name not that long ago. There is a trend amongst wineries to have big names invest and put their names on the bottle.

Flat Rock Cellars is one of my favorites for Pinot Noir -- they claim their $20 Pinot Noir can stand up to anyone in the price range. They're built on the escarpment and again make some noise about gravity fed wines. I like the Pinot Noir but they also make a Rusty Shed Chardonnay from fields just below the winery and some Riesling from on top of the escarpment that Terry really liked. It's a very good winery.

Birchwood Estates, by contrast, is a modest winery without a fancy dancy tasting room.

Finally we stopped at De Sousa on our way home. They have a Portugese heritage -- I like Portugal and Portugese wines. Since my last visit they seem to have kicked it up a notch and have invested a bit in their patio/garden area which is quite lovely on a sunny day like today.

I was the designated driver and spent the day spitting wine. You still absorb some alcohol, but not as much as my buddies. It was a rather full day of wine tasting. They fell asleep on the way home! Lucky buggers.