12 June Niagara -on-the –Lake and four Wineries.

Up early, showered, organize a taxi, and then on my way to NOTL.  The taxi fare is set at $30 for the 20k journey.  Arrived just after nine, not many people about, walked around a bit until I came to the Prince of Wales Hotel.  Here I had breakfast of fruit, smoked salmon, cheese, grapefruit Juice, and coffee—very much different to breakfast at Perkins.  

The Prince of Wales hotel where I had breakfast nad afternoon tea.

 Once fueled I walked up and down Queen Street looking and  photographing  the restored old buildings, gardens, trees, and hanging flower baskets. 

Gardens and trees in the main street.

  Then I went down some stairs to the Information Centre to inquire about winery tours.  I was directed to a shop just across the alley, paid my money and six minutes later the bus pulled up, and my tour started.

A few minutes out of town, we stopped Reif Estate where I met the other members of the tour, four Americans.  The driver had left them tasting, when the lady from the shop rang him, and popped into town to pick me up.  As they had finished their tasting, I was given a special one-on-one tasting session.

The wine tasting group and tasting instructor at one of the wineries

 Back in the bus, we moved down the road to the next winery tasting and so on for two more until the fourth and last winery.  Here we had a complete tour, including the vines, processing hall, fermenting vats, barrel maturing cellar, wine tasting, and the inevitable shop.

At each of the wineries, we could pick three or four wines to taste from a list of whites, reds, and ice wines.  Along with the tasting, we had good clear explanations of each wine and useful advice.

I was surprised with the amount and variety of Ice Wines.  Until one nice gentleman explained that at the end of the season, they can let snow accumulate on the grapes and pick them at minus four degrees.  They don’t have to cheat by freezing the grapes after picking—in fact, they said that is a big NO NO.

Gary, another interesting piece info that came across the ‘bar’ from a couple of winery people  was that they, like us, always put their reds in the fridge for about an hour before drinking.  
 Other  facts picked up on the tour were:

• Native Canadian root stock used with European varieties grafted;
• Micro climate is governed by Lake Ontario on one side and the Niagara escarpment on the other giving moderated summer and winter conditions;
• Ice wine does mature with age and the deepening of colour is normal;
• They use corks, not a screw top in sight at the wineries I visited,  but we were told how to identify a corked wine.

Back in Niagara -on-the –Lake I walked down to the rotunda at the mouth of the Niagara River, as I wanted to see Fort Niagara on the USA side of the river.  Sure enough there it was, so close.  No wonder there was so much fighting here during the war of 1812.  As some would say so close they could spit at each other.

Looking across the mouth of the Niagara River to For Niagara in the USA.

From here, I walked along the road close to the river looking for Fort George— the one belonging to the Canadians.  I found it, but discovered I had walked right down to the far end of it, so nothing for it but up the grassy slopes around the end and back to town.  A complete circumnavigation of the fort—not what I had intended.

Now in town back to the Prince of Wales Hotel all hot and tired where I decided to ask them to ring me a taxi and have afternoon tea.  As the taxi had to come from St Catharines the afternoon tea would fill in the time.  The afternoon tea was in the Hotel’s drawing room and consisted of your selection of tea accompanied by a tiered stand with  8 sandwiches, four or five very sweet tempting cakes or pastries, and a large scone with butter, jam, and cream.  The price considerably more than the taxi fare.  In case you are interested, I didn’t eat everything.

Back at the Hotel went down to Wrigley’s Field, the attached bar and restaurant ,and had a long cool beer before heading back to my room to write this.

So ends day 5.

If you are wondering, what happened to days 3 and 4 they are coming—I think.