Wine tasting in Ontario, Canada

I have to admit, I know scarily little about Canada. I know it is big, there are lots of lakes and it gets very cold in Winter. Unfortunately, that is about it - a bit embarrassing really! We were heading to Toronto for my lovely friend Tenille's wedding, so spent a few days getting to know this fabulous town. One of the things we realised when planning the trip is that Toronto is very close to Niagara Falls, surely a tourist must-see! We hired a car and after some extensive faffing around (our luggage was delayed overnight in Chicago, but then turned out to have been delivered to the hotel already etc etc), we picked up our hire car and headed towards Niagara Falls.


One of the things I absolutely had not realised about Canada, is that they have quite a wine industry. I knew about Ice Wine, that complicated wine made when the grapes stay on the vines until they are frozen to around a temperature of -10 degrees, but had no idea at the extent of the industry. I picked up a wine map of the region and was shocked to see at least 100 wineries around the Niagara Falls area! Tenille had mentioned that her favourite is a winery called Thirty Bench, so with no other influencing factors, the decision was made.

We were greeted by the extremely effusive Janice. She started to tell us a little about the winery - small lot producer, hand-picked grapes, hand-made wines, Silver Award at the Riesling du Monde in France for the 2007 Triangle Riesling etc. She eventually drew in breath to say she was expecting some other guests for a 1pm tasting and would we mind waiting 10 minutes until then? We were happy to wait, sipping on a taste of the 2008 Winemaker's Riesling (light, refreshing, only slighty sweet, very drinkable) and wandering around the winery.

The winery itself is very beautiful, even in the unseasonable foggy cold weather we were experiencing. Apparently, on all but about 10 days a year (including the one we were there on), you can see Lake Ontario beyond the vineyards of the winery.



The other guests arrived and we commenced the wine tasting. The tasting cost $10 each for approximately 4-5 wines. Janice suggested we share the wines between the two of us, so we could taste the full range. The tasting lasted for about an hour, during which we tasted the winery's three remaining Rieslings - Triangle, Steel Post and Wood Post. I am not typically a fan of Riesling, still scared about the potential sweetness of the wines, but there was nothing sweet about these. They were incredibly light in colour, but packed a powerful citrus punch, in the case of the Steel Post, it was really too powerful, leaving a slightly unpleasant lime tang in the back of the throat.

We moved on to the Chardonnay, which Janice had us try out of both regular Riedel tasting glasses and then compared with Riedel Chardonnay glasses, which were squat, round and had a very open top. The difference was quite astonishing! The first one you would pass over as quite pleasant, if somewhat indifferent. In the correct glasses, the wine opened up in flavour, tasting buttery and yeasty, almost reminiscent of the flavours in Champagne.

We then tried the Thirty Bench Rose, which was a disturbing bright pink colour, but tasted better than it looked. It would have been the perfect picnic wine (with more appropriate picnic weather!). Next up was the Pinot Noir, which was probably my favourite of the still wines we tried - light in texture, but packed full of fruit flavour. We then tried the Merlot and two back vintage blended reds, both of which I thought were a little dusty in flavour.


Finally, we came to the grand conclusion - the Riesling Ice Wine and the Cabernet Ice Wine. Canada is the world's largest producer of Ice Wine and the region around Ontario is considered perfect - long warm Summers followed by very cold Winters. These wines were not cheap - $75 and $90 respectively (about £50 and £60) for 375ml bottles, but they are exceptional. Janice advised to hold the wine in your mouth for about 13 seconds 'until it changes'. That is actually reasonably difficult to do, but the wine did change in your mouth as it warmed up, becoming fuller and richer. To be honest, I didn't really like the Cabernet version (Kyle did), finding it a little too acidic, but the Riesling version was exceptional and like good tourists to Canada, we left with a bottle of this wine. Now we just have to work out an occasion good enough to open it for!

This area was absolutely stunning and the wines were impressive and varied. If you're ever in the area to see Niagara Falls, leave some time to visit a local winery, as I'm sure you'll be pleasantly surprised. Oh, and of course, the Falls were absolutely spectacular too!