02-15-2010, 01:43 PM
I surprised my wife yesterday for Valentine's Day with a self-guided wine tour to various Niagara County (New York) wineries. Most all of the wineries in Niagara County are part of a organization called the Niagara Wine Trail. The Niagara Wine Trail had a Valentine's event on Saturday and yesterday called Be Mine With Wine. For $20 a person you got a souvenir wine glass at the first winery you stopped at, four wine tastings at each winery you went to, and food and entertainment at the various wineries.
We had a great time and hit seven different wineries. We left the house at around 11:30 AM and got back home around 4 PM. We started our tour at Vizcarra Vineyards in Gasport, then hit, in order, Schulze Vineyards in Burt, Spring Lake Winey in Lockport, Arrowhead Spring Vineyards in Lockport, Freedom Run Winery in Lockport, Eveningside Vineyards in Cambria, Niagara Landing Wine Cellars in Lockport and Honeymoon Trail Winery in Lockport.
We bought a lot of wine to take home at the various wineries. We probably spent close to $150 in bottles of wine at the various wineries. I think I counted 12 bottles when I was putting them all away in our wine cooler last night. Diane's favorite winery of the tour was Schulze Vineyards. She likes their crackling wines, especially their Crackling Rose'. My favorite was Spring Lake Winery just because of the ambiance of the place. Really nice and staffed by great friendly people. They also had a Late Harvest Riesling wine that I absolutely loved. A late harvest wine is just one-step below an ice wine in sweetness and alcohol content. It was great sipping it last night paired with a CAO America Monument.
My second favorite stop was at Niagara Landing Wine Cellars, as was Diane's second favorite stop. They produce the biggest variety of wines of any of the wineries we visited. I just had to buy a bottle of their 2008 Vidal Ice Wine. I tried the ice wine at every winery we stopped at, and in my opinion theirs was the best, followed by Arrowhead Springs. For those of you who don't know what an ice wine is, an ice wine is a type of very sweet dessert wine produced from grapes that have been allowed to freeze on the vine before they were harvested. The sugars and other dissolved solids in the grapes don't freeze, but the water in the grapes do. This means that the grapes will yield a more concentrated juice when pressed or squeezed, which results in a smaller amount of more concentrated, and very sweet wine. As you may guess, because they can only get a small amount of juice out of the frozen grapes, the ice wine yield is pretty small, making ice wine very expensive. For example, a regular sized bottle of wine any any of the vineyards might run an average or between 12-15 dollars. The bottle of Ice Wine I bought was about 1/2 the size of a regular bottle of wine and ran me $40! But in my opinion its well worth it.the price for this delicious treat!
Overall we had a really great time sampling wines, comparing notes, and just enjoying being on an adult outing without the kids.
We had a great time and hit seven different wineries. We left the house at around 11:30 AM and got back home around 4 PM. We started our tour at Vizcarra Vineyards in Gasport, then hit, in order, Schulze Vineyards in Burt, Spring Lake Winey in Lockport, Arrowhead Spring Vineyards in Lockport, Freedom Run Winery in Lockport, Eveningside Vineyards in Cambria, Niagara Landing Wine Cellars in Lockport and Honeymoon Trail Winery in Lockport.
We bought a lot of wine to take home at the various wineries. We probably spent close to $150 in bottles of wine at the various wineries. I think I counted 12 bottles when I was putting them all away in our wine cooler last night. Diane's favorite winery of the tour was Schulze Vineyards. She likes their crackling wines, especially their Crackling Rose'. My favorite was Spring Lake Winery just because of the ambiance of the place. Really nice and staffed by great friendly people. They also had a Late Harvest Riesling wine that I absolutely loved. A late harvest wine is just one-step below an ice wine in sweetness and alcohol content. It was great sipping it last night paired with a CAO America Monument.
My second favorite stop was at Niagara Landing Wine Cellars, as was Diane's second favorite stop. They produce the biggest variety of wines of any of the wineries we visited. I just had to buy a bottle of their 2008 Vidal Ice Wine. I tried the ice wine at every winery we stopped at, and in my opinion theirs was the best, followed by Arrowhead Springs. For those of you who don't know what an ice wine is, an ice wine is a type of very sweet dessert wine produced from grapes that have been allowed to freeze on the vine before they were harvested. The sugars and other dissolved solids in the grapes don't freeze, but the water in the grapes do. This means that the grapes will yield a more concentrated juice when pressed or squeezed, which results in a smaller amount of more concentrated, and very sweet wine. As you may guess, because they can only get a small amount of juice out of the frozen grapes, the ice wine yield is pretty small, making ice wine very expensive. For example, a regular sized bottle of wine any any of the vineyards might run an average or between 12-15 dollars. The bottle of Ice Wine I bought was about 1/2 the size of a regular bottle of wine and ran me $40! But in my opinion its well worth it.the price for this delicious treat!
Overall we had a really great time sampling wines, comparing notes, and just enjoying being on an adult outing without the kids.
