by Keith and Heather Nicol
On June 7, 2013 the weather still didn’t look like it would cooperate
for our planned bike trip in Niagara on the Lake so we asked the staff at the
Holiday Inn and Suites in St. Catharines (www.holidayinn.com/stcath) about some other
wine tasting options. They provided us with some great maps of the area and
suggested several wineries to see. They suggested Trius and Peller Estates
which we appreciated since we were really captivated with those wineries. First
off we headed to the Trius Winery and arrived just in time for a great tour by
Lynda Campbell. If you are new to this area (like we were) a tour really helps
give you a feel about how each winery operates. Lynda told us that Canada
produces about 80% of the world’s ice wine and we enjoyed sampling some of the
Trius Ice Wine on our tour. She also told us that Trius (http://www.triuswines.com/)
is perhaps best known for Trius Red which has won many awards. Next up was
Peller Estate Winery (http://www.peller.com/)
which we were impressed with from a visual perspective. The building is large
but welcoming and their wine sampling area is huge. Our tour guide Craig
Swanson led a large group of us around the estate and the tour included
sampling 3 of their wines including an $80 bottle of ice wine! We were told
that Peller Estates is probably best known for its ice wine and they also make
an Ice Cuvee which is a combination of ice wine and sparkling wine.
.jpg) |
| Trius offers a great tour and has fine wines |
.jpg) |
| Peller Estates also gives a great tour and offers samples of an $80 ice wine |
After lunch we headed to Jackson Triggs (http://www.jacksontriggswinery.com/)
where we were a bit too late to join the tour so we had to sample wine
instead. We were told by Philip Brown
that they are probably best known for their shiraz, sauvignon blanc and
gewürztraminer and they produce about 15 wines overall. Inniskillin (http://www.inniskillin.com/) was our
last winery of the day and we really enjoyed their short self guided tour which
explains the wine making process through several colourful panels. We sampled a variety of
their wines in their boutique and Katie Cristicini told us that they are likely
best known for their Vidal ice wine which she said is sold in 73 different countries.
We sampled their ice wine and it really is fabulous. From there we headed into
Niagara Falls to see the falls which were still spectacular even though it was
overcast and misty out. Overall we were really taken with the Niagara area and
can’t wait to return under sunnier skies. There are still dozens of wineries to
visit and we would love to get in some cycling on our next visit. For more
information see: http://www.tourismstcatharines.ca/home
and http://www.niagarafallstourism.com/
 |
| Jackson Triggs is a well known winery in the region | | | |
|
 |
| Inniskillin is another don't miss winery near Niagara on the Lake |
|
 |
| Niagara Falls was very impressive despite the misty weather |
.jpg)
.jpg)
No comments:
Post a Comment