Last weekend, a whole bunch of us went to Niagara-on-the-lake to visit some wineries. I’ve been to Niagara Falls way too many times, but surprisingly, I have never been to NOTL! And I’ve never visited wineries before, which is a shame because NOTL is so close and the wineries are so abundant there.

We had 13 people which was sufficient for us to book our own private tours. Our first stop was Jackson-Triggs which is a huge corporate wine maker. In our one hour tour, we learned a bit about the grapes, a bit about the process, a bit about the wine cellar and finally a tasting in the cellar.

We tasted three wines, a Gewürztraminer, a Pinot Noir and an ice wine. This was the first time I tried icewine, and it really does taste like a dessert wine.

After our tour, we had a potluck picnic in the park. And then split into cars and bikes for the remainder of the day.

We didn’t have any additional tours planned, so we just went to tasting bars around the town. We went to Konzelmann Estate Winery (twice), Palatine Hills Estate Winery, Strewn Winery and Peller Estates Winery. We went to Knozelmann twice because the first time we were waiting for the bikers, and then we went once with everyone. It had the most classic building.

Although I didn’t drink much since I was driving, all the wines eventually blended together and tasted the same. Except that we now know that late harvest wines are pretty good!