Wine

by ekuhns on Trip Report

Niagara-on-the-lake – Day 2

We got a little bit of a late start this morning. I got up early and went to the gym. Then on my way back I stopped and grabbed three coffees from the lobby. Getting them into the room is always tricky since the doors are usually pretty heavy. I have to stack three hot coffees while sliding a key card and not getting knocked out by a door.

Once we were all up and about it was too late for the hotel breakfast so we decided to get something near our destinations for the day. Since we were starting with the bench we decided to eat at a place in Beamsville. The place chosen was Conversations cafe. It wasn’t quite what I was expecting. More like a coffee shop than a brunch place. They have some sandwiches and other dishes.

At one point my mother-in-law dropped her purse on the floor under the table and spilled all of its contents. I had to crawl under and collect all the spilled change and Canadian money. What we didn’t know at the time was that her wallet had also fallen out of the purse. This we didn’t discover until much later.

After our ok breakfast, we started at one of our favorites. Fielding estates is an amazing winery with a great view. Maura and I each purchased a bottle. We bought Chardonnay and another Gamay.

Where to next?

We decided to do Thirty Bench as I don’t recall us having been there before. The tasting room was really nice and they had it set up for another event that was happening this weekend. They are bit on the pricey side but good wines.

I bought their small lot benchmark red.

Then we went to another favorite of ours Kew Vineyards.

We got seated in the large dining room which is more to our liking than the high tables in the main room. We were getting a little hungry again so this time we got the cheese plate with our samples.

I bought the Malivoire and picked up a bottle of the Rose for my coworker Steve. Maura bought a Pinot.

Our last stop for the day was Creekside Estate. It was getting close to closing time but we got there right as a large wedding party was leaving and with enough time to sample.

There was a delightful lady that waited on us. I purchased a bottle of the Laura’s red for my coworker Laura.

We finished the day with a mediocre dinner at Grill on King. A place we’ve never been before. It was a little surprising that the dinner wasn’t that great considering the reviews it’s gotten.

 
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

Trip Report – Waterloo Day 3

The plan this day was to rent a boat and go fishing. Most of the places we tried on Seneca lake were all booked up. We finally found a place on lake Keuka. It was Morgan Marine. We were able to rent a Boston Whaler for the afternoon.

First we needed to get a one day permit for fishing. The closest place I could find to do this was Wal-mart. Once we had those and some bait we were off to the lake. … →

 
by ekuhns on Trip Report

Trip Report – Waterloo Day 2

Day 2 of our Finger Lakes journey started with breakfast at the Captain’s Room. I found it by Googling brunch near me and they seemed to be the least hassle to get into. I didn’t feel like wasting my time in a line when there are better things to do.

The food was pretty good. Mostly standard breakfast fare. The service seemed to be a little off. At first they brought me the wrong plate of food and then they forgot my bacon. I suspect it went on the first plate they brought me and didn’t get transferred. Of course someone’s baby started screaming as well. Otherwise it was quiet place to eat breakfast. … →