Last weekend Julia and I took a trip to the famed Niagara wine region, due east of London. We visited wineries in the western side of the region, near the towns of Winona, Grimsby and Beamsville. First up was
Puddicombe Estate Winery. The farm & winery boasts that it was established way back in 1797, however it was originally a cattle farm. It did not begin growing fruit until the early 1900s, and began growing wine grapes in 1940. They currently produce both fruit and traditional wines. We sampled a variety of both, and I have to admit that we were underwhelmed overall. I sampled the Riesling, supposedly a strength of the Niagara region, and found it to be very acidic and lacking in complexity. The Merlot Reserve was decent, so I decided to buy a bottle (although had it not been our first winery of the tour I probably wouldn't have). We also sampled a cranberry wine, something we had never tried before, and found it to simply taste like unsweetened juice. It would be novel to have it with turkey at Thanksgiving.
Next up was
Peninsula Ridge Estates. It has a fantastic old house up on a hill that operates a restaurant, but since we did not have reservations we could not eat there. The wine tasting was a typical line up, including a Riesling, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Merlot. I was really impressed by the silky Fume Blanc 2006.
Peninsula Ridge Estates vineyard
The Restaurant at Peninsula RidgeAfter grabbing some lunch at a nearby cafe, we next visited
Angels Gate Winery. The property features a very attractive "mission" style building perched up on a hill overlooking the shoreline. The estate is relatively new; its first vines were planted in 1995. They offered a wide variety of wines, and best of all the tastings were free! The wines were OK but nothing stood out as outstanding. I picked up a bottle of Cabernet Merlot that seemed promising.
Angels Gate WineryVirtually across the road is
Thirty Bench Wine Makers. It had been recommended to us by the proprietor of the cafe we had stopped at for lunch. We were greeted personally at the door and were given an overview of the vineyard and their wine making process. A lot of care goes into making Thirty Bench wine. We were told that the grapes are all hand picked in small batches, for instance one row of vines may be deemed ready to pick while the next row waits a few more days. They offered us a tasting hosted by one of their wine experts, but unfortunately due to time constraints we couldn't stay. Instead we sampled a couple of their featured wines: the Beamsville Bench Riesling and the Benchmark Red Blend. Both were excellent and were definitely some of the best wine we had tasted during our tour. I really want to visit Thirty Bench again so that we can try the longer tasting.
Last of not least was
Malivoire Wine Company. Above their tasting room is where their storage tanks are located, so while you are sampling you can look up through glass windows to see where their wine is made. One wine that really stood out was the 2005 Moira Vineyard Chardonnay. The Moira vineyard is Malivoire's oldest, planted back in 1995.
Malivoire Wine Company vineyardOverall, the Niagara whites were superior to the reds, and this was confirmed by many of the winery representatives. I found the reds to lack boldness; they seemed weak. However, we sampled many delicious whites such as the Moira Chardonnay from Malivoire and the Beamsville Bench Riesling from Thirty Bench.
We left the Niagara Peninsula with nine bottles of wine. Keep watching this blog for my tasting notes as we eventually try each one.
