Month: January 2017

by ekuhns on Trip Report

Niagara on the lake – Day 2

We like to start our wine adventures with a good breakfast. As the Hilton has a good buffet we started there. This allows for us to also craft a plan of attack. This year we decided to do things a bit differently and go to the wineries on the bench instead of near the hotel.

The bench is an area a few miles away that sits a bit up from the lake. It has a climate that is apparently very suitable for growing grapes and making wine.

Our first stop was Angels gate, a nice winery that sits on a hilltop and has a great selection to try. I sampled the Mountainview Chardonnay, Pinot noir, Merlot, Cabernet merlot. I didn’t buy anything because I knew our next stop is one of my favorite wineries.

Fielding Estate is a great winery. They have an amazing view that looks out over the winery and a catwalk that lets you look at the wine making operation. I tried the Chardonnay unpacked, Viognier, Gamay. Here I bought a bottle of the Gamay and we bought our travel passes for the Ice wine festival.

With wine and passes in hand we head to Rosewood.

Rosewood is a winery and a meadery. I’ve been recently getting in mead and this place was awesome. We tried the origin Chardonnay , sussreserve Riesling,  long rows red, lock, stock and barrel, origin cab franc, spiced mead, cyser Apple honey mead. I bought the spiced mead. Maura bought some honey.

Maura took a candid group shot.

Our next stop was KEW.

We found KEW only a couple of years earlier but its quickly become a favorite of ours. They have a nice table to handle larger groups for tastings.

I sampled the 2010 Rosalie, 2014 old vine Riesling, 2014 Marsanne, Soldier’s Grant Cabernet. I ended up buying the barrel aged gamey noir. It seemed to be the theme of the night.

From KEW we headed to Mailvoire and wanted to do the Ice Wine pairing.

At the entrance we were treated to a cheese sampling that was really good. We proceeded to the back of the winery where we had roasted duck ice wine pairing. It too was really good. We also did another wine pairing. I had the Bidous Brut NV, 3014 Mottiar Chardonnay, 2013 Stouck Merlot. I also bought another Gamey. Outside they had the food truck for the cheese monger, the Cheesy Guys. It was really good and Maura bought a bunch of cheese.

We then make a stop at Vineland Estates for their ice wine pairing a dark chocolate and venison stew with their merlot. The rest of the group seemed to really enjoy it but Maura and I didn’t. We also tried their 2010 Riesling with golden bilth cheese and rosemary sea salt cracker cinnamon bark jelly that was really good.

Our next to last stop was Creekside. They’re a favorite of ours. We did the ice wine pairing which was a  chicken liver pate with iconoclast red. I enjoyed it. Maura had zero interest so I took hers. Now it was time for dinner.

Our first choices for dinner weren’t able to accommodate a group our size for that night so we headed to Trius which turned out to be a high point of the whole trip.

Here the photos do way more justice than I could to describe how awesome this meal was.

Check out this awesome smoked salmon.

That was the end of this day. It was a wonderful start but more to come tomorrow.

 
by ekuhns on Trip Report

Niagara on the lake – Day 1

Every January we head north to Canada to meet with some friends for the annual Ice Wine festival. This year we also happened to be traveling on the same day I had to take an important call for work.

As is usually the case we like to get up early and try to get on the road before rush hour traffic starts. We usually mess this up somehow but we did what we could.

Along the way we realized we weren’t going to make it across the border before I had to take my call so we got off the road in Buffalo. We were looking for an antique spot for Maura to check out while I had my call but only found a shady looking place that was more pawn shop than antiques. So instead we stopped in a supermarket lot and I took my call while Maura napped.

After the call we quickly made it across the border into Canada on a day when I honestly thought there’d be more trouble because of the Trump inauguration.

We made it to the hotel in pretty good time and were way ahead of our friends so we decided to try and take a nap. The unfortunate thing though was the floor beneath us was being renovated so there was terrible noise the whole time and what sleep we got just made us more tired.

Since Maura’s Buffalo antique shopping was a bust we decided to try our luck in Niagara on the lake. We found one place that was open that we had been to in the past and Maura bought a picture. We also discovered these old trucks by the side of the road.

By this point I was getting hungry and thirsty. The first order of business was food. We weren’t really in the mood for anything so we did a very rare thing for us and got McDonald’s. I had Big Mac with Bacon which is apparently a thing no one thought to have until now. I don’t remember what Maura had.

Still thirsty we went to a brewery we’ve never been to in Niagara, Silversmith brewery. It’s great to see craft beer creeping its way up north as the last time we were in Toronto it was pretty hard to locate but I think we’re spoiled in Pittsburgh.

We didn’t realize they had a kitchen there or we would have skipped the McDonald’s and tried their food as well.

I really liked this brewery and we’ll definitely be coming back. Maura liked their logo enough to get a growler but we didn’t take any beer with us since the point of the trip was really wine.

Unfortunately while we were there they didn’t have anything on their cask pull.

Back to our original plan to return to Oast House since we were there before so we wanted to check them out. We only stopped for a quick drink there because we wanted to go to the Irish pub for dinner and have a couple of drinks there. Oast House has a unique decor and looks like a remodeled barn.

From there it was time to head up to Niagara on the lake proper and see about the Irish pub that we usually have a great time at while we’re there.

We ended up parking a little further away and walking through the town a bit. They have an old apothecary that is never open when we’re there but we remain hopeful. I’m glad we walked though because we found another brewery that had opened the previous year that we somehow missed.

The Exchange Brewery is a very slick, clean looking brewery and they have some great double ipas amongst their line up.

While we sampled some beers we began a conversation with the couple next to us who also happened to be from Pittsburgh and in town for the Ice Wine festival. Small world.

It was time to eat so we headed to the Irish Harp Pub expecting some delicious clams and to see the band that usually plays. However, what we got was quite different. Our hostess was a bit rude and didn’t want to seat us. The band was a new one that made several derogatory remarks about the USA that got on our nerves. Instead of hanging around we got what we could takeout and went back to the hotel to eat.

We decided to call it a night and looked forward to wine and friends in the morning.

 
by ekuhns on Trip Report

Brooklyn – Day 1

It’s December. Which means another trip to NYC. This time to Brooklyn with pretty much no agenda. We’re staying in a new place this time. The Dazzler Brooklyn.

We got in a little later than I would have liked. Once we found a parking spot we unloaded the car and checked in. I went back to the car and moved it because the parking spot we had seemed a little shady. It’s a good thing I did to because we left the interior light on. I also managed to score a better spot right across the street from the the hotel.

Our room was very nice.

Once situated we decided to pop into the “beer garden” to clear the road dust. What they call a “beer garden” is really just a bar. With only a few taps and not a large bottle selection. We made the best decisions we could before venturing out.

Our goal was to find a Pittsburgh band, Beauty Slap, that happened to be playing that night. They have a hip hop meets old jazzy kind of feel that I loved.

After that it was time to get some pizza and catch an Uber home. We stopped at a place we first found on one of my first trips to NYC. We lost it for awhile but recently rediscovered it. Pomodoro has some huge NYC slices that are just awesome.

Then it was time to call it a night as it was a long day.