When I talked about Niagara wine tours this year, I tell everyone my plan is to only visit new wineries. Trying to pick only new wineries, has turned the simple task of picking wineries for my next Niagara wine tour into a serious project. How do you pick your wineries to visit?
The root of the ‘new niagara winery tour problem’ is two fold:
- I don’t want to skip my favorite wineries
- There are so many new wineries I can’t chooose
So my old favorites which I am going to skip are: Kacaba Vineyard, Lailey Vineyard, Maleta Winery, Pilliteri Winery, and Konzelman Winery.
This breaks my heart because Lailey’s Pinot, Kacaba’s reds and the 2009 Riesling, Maleta’s riesling, are amazing and not to be missed.
Here are the new wineries and I would love some feedback on other people’s experiences.
- Cattail Creek
- Flat Rock Winery – how have I not been here before?
- Calamus Winery
- Hidden Bench Winery
- Peninsula Ridge Estates Winery
My learning, the longer you live close to a wine region…the harder it is to plan a trip. So after 5 years in Toronto, I AM going to do the ‘all new Niagara wine trip’. I would love your feedback.
Calamus!!! It is literally a shack, but the quality of their reds and crisp freshness of their Gris is worth the trip. Absolute must!!
Cheers
With so many wineries in our neighbourhood producing terrific wines it is very hard to plan just one trip. But I would urge you to not forget those of us who have been around a long time. We may not be “new and shiny” but we have experience and continue to innovate. For example, at Chateau des Charmes we have been farming our vineyards for more than 30 years. We think we may now know which clones of which varieties make the best wine in which vineyard blocks. That only comes with many vintages under your belt and lots of trial and error. All the reason to make lultiple trips to Niagara each year.. there is always something else to see and learn about.
Hi Michele,
I definately support going to the wineries that handled the lean years in Niagara. They put in the hard work before Ontario wine was cool.
Unfortunately, I don’t visit your winery, Chateau Des Charmes, any more. During one of my first trips to Niagara I visited your winery and loved one of the wines (a 2002) . I was about to purchase some when I spotted a 6L bottle! My excitement could not be contained and the decision to buy it was made. After approaching three staff members about buying the 6L bottle, I left Chateau Des Charmes with out the the prized 6L bottle. But I did leave with something, the distinct feeling that I was just told: ‘you are not good enough to buy that bottle.’
It was a very unfortunate experience but luckily the only bad one, in over 6 years, I have had in Ontario.
Sandy
Konzelman Winery is one of the BEST.
Reif is another I would recommend. Vidal …
Hey Sandy,
Just did a wine tour and visited both Flat Rock and Calamus. Both are definitely worth a visit. I can’t remember the names of the bottles we picked up but can let you know when I get home if you’re interested.
Flat Rock’s practices are completely susbtainable and eco-friendly. It was quite remarkable. And what a view!
Have you tried fielding?
J’ai cherché ces informations pendant une longue période.
This really is actually fascinating, That you are a really expert blogger. I’ve joined your rss feed and sit up for searching for a lot more of your great post. Also, I have shared your web site in my social networks!