We haven't been to Napa or Sonoma so I can't compare the Niagara wine country to their California counterparts, but I can say that you can take a really pleasant wine tour here and do it all while riding along the Niagara Parkway on your bike. Winston Churchill said the Niagara Parkway was the finest Sunday drive in the world and like most scenic roads its better on a bike. The entire 50 km between Niagara Falls and Niagara-on-Lake is a park. The bike trail winds along the bluff above the Niagara river. There are frequent views out to New York. We decided to visit about 3 of the wineries along the way to the Queenston Heights Restaurant and then work our way back thru the vineyards and see a couple more wineries before getting back to Simcoe Park.
We started off with a stop at Peller Estates. It has a terrific wine bar. Like many of the Niagara wineries, they offer spectacular ice wines at stratospheric prices. We did find some some very nice stocking stuffers. We did what you're supposed to do, made notes on the varieties we tasted with the idea of putting together a purchase list. Tomorrow we'll make the drive in the truck and do the buying.
Our second stop was Reif Estates. I called my friend Cliff and asked what he and Letha would like. This reminded us of the need to pick up something besides the rieslings, gewurztraminers and sauvignon blancs we prefer and include some varieties for friends and family.
Our last pre-lunch stop was Inniskillen Estates. Architecture was a high point here as the barn is thought to be designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Wright had a number of commissions in nearby Buffalo and he traveled and worked in the adjoining Niagara area.
We had stopped at Queenston Heights when we last were here with the girls. It is the site of a signficant battle in the war of 1812. Actually all of the Niagara region was important in the war of 1812. We had a good lunch with a killer view – New York as far as we could see.
Today was the hottest day of our trip with temps getting into the 30's. Made for a hot ride back. We became a bit concerned that the dogs might be getting hot in the camper even though we are parked in the shade with several windows open and the fan running so we cut the ride a bit short and only stopped at Jackson-Triggs on the way back. Got back to find the dogs fairly comfortable and us more so once we had a glass of iced tea and took a cooling shower using the outdoor shower on the camper. We are eating out tonite so we were able to spend some pleasant time with the dogs before heading off to the Charles Inn for dinner and tonite's play, “Albertine in Five Times”.
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