Something to Wine About (10/25/24)

To say that we have landed in a wine region would be quite an understatement. Our Wine Country Ontario brochure states that “Located between 41 and 44 degrees North, Ontario is situated in the heart of the world’s finest wine zone.” That same brochure then goes on to list the 150 wineries in the 4 appellations in Ontario. Just in the Niagara Escarpment Area that includes St. Catharines, there are 56 wineries, and there’s another 37 in the Niagara-on-the-Lake Area, which is just down the road from here. Crazy!

So today, we thought we’d spend a couple of hours this afternoon just checking out a few of the wineries near us, ending with having a glass at one of them. We met some nice people along the way and got some great photos. Jack went along for the ride and had some short walkabouts.

Our first stop was the very close 13th Street Winery, which also has a bakery/gift shop and art gallery as well as outdoor sculptures. We remembered the shop from last time, so had to check that out again to find a little locally made gift for our next homeowner.

The next winery was Flat Rock Cellars. This winery opened in 2005 and has a great view of the surrounding area.

After our photo visit to Flat Rock, we headed to Sue-Ann Staff Estate Winery, located on a 200-year old estate that previously had just supplied their grapes to other wineries.

We stopped at one more winery as a research/photo project. That was Calamus Estate Winery. They were hosting a wedding in their barn, but their tasting room was open, so we scoped out the wines to be sold and chatted with the nice host. The winery overlooks the Ball’s Falls Conservation Area, so a couple of their wines have the name Ball’s Falls.

Finally, we decided that we’d have a glass of wine at our last stop, which was Domaine Queylus. This winery focuses on a select number of grapes — mostly Pinot noir, Chardonnay, Cabernet franc, and merlot. We tried a glass of the Cabernet franc and cab franc blend with merlot. The host was very nice and gave us a number of recommendations for other wineries and restaurants to try.