For our final full day in Toronto, we left the city again on a private tour to visit three wineries in Niagara-on-the-Lake (NOTL) with lunch included at a local restaurant. I had researched small group and private tours from Toronto online and finally booked a private tour directly with Ontario Group of Touring Companies (OGTC). The cost was in the same range as the small group tours I looked at, but with the added benefit of being just the two of us with flexibility in adjusting the schedule to our own pace and preferences.
I dealt directly with Jim via both email and phone to arrange our tour. He provided a list of several wineries in the region and requested we select six from which he would then arrange our visit to three or four pending availability of tour and tasting times. There are over 100 wineries in the Niagara appellation and sub-appellations, so it was nice to have a narrowed down list to choose from, but also for Jim to see what type of experience we were looking for from our selections to best customize our tour.
Thankfully, we didn’t have to get as early of a start as our tour to Niagara Falls, so we enjoyed another leisurely breakfast in the hotel where we watched them transforming the baseball field into a concert venue for the next weekend. I thought I’d taken a picture, but I guess I didn’t. They were bringing out stacks of flooring segments with forklifts which were then fit together like a jigsaw puzzle to cover the field for chairs and a stage later.
Jim picked us up promptly at 9am in a comfortable Audi sedan and we took off once again through the traffic of Toronto towards the Niagara region. Being a Saturday, the traffic was lighter than our Thursday trip, but still significant in places due to construction zones.
Following a long career in the business world, Jim, who lives in downtown Toronto, has been in the tourism industry for the past 23 years. He filled us in on the history and growth of the wine industry in the Niagara region over the past 40-50 years.
For some reason today, I only took one picture on our tour and Dave didn’t take any. I guess because it’s hard to take a photo with a wine glass in your hand! So, unless otherwise noted, all the pictures included here are from the winery websites.
Reif Estate Winery
Our first stop was to Reif Estate Winery, one of the original NOTL vineyards and wineries. A family winery founded in 1982 by German immigrant Ewald Reif and later acquired by his nephew Klaus Reif, its vineyards were first planted in 1977.
Jim had arranged for us to join a tour of the vineyards and winery. Upon our arrival, we joined another couple for the tour which began in the vineyards where we also had our first tasting as our guide provided us with the history of the vineyards and their care. Unfortunately, neither Dave nor I can recall nearly a month later which white wine we were served. Reif produces whites and white blends (both still and sparkling) from Chardonnay, Riesling, Chenin Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc, Gewürztraminer, Pinot Grigio, Semillon, and Vidal grapes.
From the vineyard, we moved to the production area where we were shown the custom crusher and extruder units from which the juice is then sent primarily to stainless steel tanks to ferment. As we moved through the production area, including the bottling plant, we were given the choice between two of Reif’s red wines, which I believe were Baco Noir and a Cabernet-Merlot blend. Red grapes grown by Reif include Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Gamay, Merlot, Pinot Noir, and Shiraz for a variety of both single grape and blended wines.
Finally, we arrived at the last stop on the tour – a room containing barrel displays in a variety of woods – but more importantly, our ice wine tasting! Ice wines are what put this region on the wine map and what I was most looking forward to.
Ice Wines
Ice wines are made from grapes (usually Riesling or Vidal, but also Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, and others) which are allowed to remain on the vines until frozen. They must be picked quickly when the temps drop under 18-20 degrees Fahrenheit (a hard freeze) and pressed immediately while still frozen. The concentrate is sweeter and more condensed than that for regular wine production. A regular 750ml bottle of wine requires about 1.25-1.5 kg of grapes. A 375ml bottle of ice wine requires 3.5-4.5 kg of grapes – essentially 6 times as many. Along with the risk of the grapes rotting before a hard freeze and the number of grapes and effort required to produce commercial amounts of ice wine, it is one of the most expensive types of wine.
Of course, the ice wine was delicious! But, as explained above – it is NOT served with ice cubes!
Our tour concluded and we were brought back to the main tasting room where we could purchase bottles or additional tastings. We were intrigued by Reif’s fortified wine called Vinea. It is “Cabernet Sauvignon is fortified with brandy and then blended with our secret ingredients” per the winemaker’s notes. We wanted to see how it compared to the ports we had in Portugal (see Note 36), so we added a tasting of it.
I actually liked it better than most ports I’ve tried, but it only came in a 750ml bottle (which was very pretty – uniquely shaped) and we didn’t think we could manage it well in our suitcases going home. Plus, I knew I wanted to get several bottles of ice wine as the selections are much better here in the home of ice wine than in Texas!
We ended up buying a 375ml bottle of Grand Reserve Riesling Ice Wine and a 200ml bottle of Vidal Ice Wine at Reif and were ready to continue to the next stop. Unfortunately, they don’t ship to the US otherwise we’d have signed up for their wine club or at least shipped a few bottles!
Lunch
Lunch was a 3-course meal at The Old Winery Restaurant which has a Tuscan-inspired menu. As the lunch was included in the price of our tour, we were given a limited menu to select our courses from. We sat on the patio as it was a beautiful day with temps in the mid-80s, a little warm, but cooler than Houston! We both started with Ceasar Salads, then I got a pizza and Dave got spaghetti. For dessert, they had chocolate cheesecake with Oreo crumbles and chocolate sauce. Oh my! I needed a nap after that, but it was off to our second winery instead.
Stratus Winery
While Reif Winery has a very traditional almost Old World feel to it, Stratus is very contemporary.
Our visit here included a 4-wine flight selection each – so I picked a flight of whites, and Dave selected a flight with reds which included a red ice wine. I always find it interesting how much styles can vary between winemakers using grapes grown in the same region. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately for our wallets, we didn’t care for any of the Stratus wines we tried other than the ice wine.
While it was enjoyable to sit on their patio terrace overlooking the vineyards for our tasting, there were too many bachelorette and birthday party groups also on the patio ruining the ambiance with their enthusiasm! We didn’t even finish our tastings, deciding to go ahead and purchase the 200ml bottle of the red ice wine (made from Petit Verdot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Cabernet Franc), and move on to winery number three. This is where being on a private tour came in handy – we didn’t have to wait on others who might have enjoyed the wines here more than we did! Everyone’s tastes are different!
Nomad at Hinterbrook Winery
Our final winery stop was Nomad at Hinterbrook Winery. There were some cyclists there with us, but not this many! It is a popular way to get around NOTL. Can you get ticketed for cycling under the influence, I wonder?
This is more of a “boutique” winery with still yet another wine-making philosophy. Tastings are held at tables on the lawn under a fabulous tree (see previous picture) which we now can’t remember the species. I’m sure it’ll come to me after I publish this!
The one picture I took all day (hard to believe!) was of this weeping Mulberry tree as we sat under the tree which we can’t remember at Nomad at Hinterbrook.
We enjoyed both the ambiance and the wines better here than at Stratus. The staff were friendly and gave you excellent descriptions of each wine as you progressed through the tasting. We ended up purchasing a 375ml bottle of their Late Harvest Riesling.
Late Harvest Wines
A “late harvest” wine is made from grapes harvested later than those for regular wines when the grapes are more dehydrated (but not quite raisin status) and thus creating a sweet dessert-style wine.
Sometimes, the late harvest grapes get infected with a fungus called boytritis cinerea or “noble rot” which has a similar dehydrating effect and can produce a liquor like concentrate producing a sweet wine. Late Harvest wines while similar in sweetness to Ice Wines aren’t nearly as expensive to produce and therefore are typically much less expensive. However, grapes left on the vine in hopes of getting a good late harvest crop aren’t guaranteed either.
Around NOTL
As Jim drove us to all of our stops we were able to see quite a bit of Niagara-on-the-Lake or NOTL as it is abbreviated. It is a cute town sometimes inundated with tourists visiting all the wineries concentrated in a relatively small area. We drove by local parks and through quaint neighborhoods. Along the Niagara River just before it empties into Lake Ontario we drove by Fort George National Historic Site of significance during the War of 1812. I’d love to come back to this region for a longer visit some time.
In our conversations with Jim during the day, we learned that before the wineries took over the Niagara Peninsula, it was known (and still is) for its fruit orchards and vegetable production. At our request, he took us to a produce stand as we were leaving so that we could purchase a pint of fresh cherries for the rest of our trip. Again, a nice advantage to a private tour!
Then, on the way back to Toronto as Jim asked about our plans for the next two days in Collingwood on Georgian Bay, he called a friend who lived there, and she gave us tips on some local restaurants to try! Definitely above and beyond expectations! We had a great day with Jim in NOTL.
Back in Toronto
As we’d had a big lunch and plenty of wine throughout the day, we went to a nearby sports bar on Front Street for dinner that evening. Dave got wings and fries and I got fish and chips (aka fries!). Most of the patrons were there watching the Euro Championship games downstairs and luckily, we were seated upstairs where it was a little bit quieter with fewer customers!
Afterward, on a pleasant walk back the hotel as the sun was setting, I got this picture of The Audience Part 1 sculpture by Michael Snow on the Rogers Centre façade and one more picture of CN Tower.
Conclusion
We had a wonderful four full days in Toronto and the vicinity (Niagara Peninsula). I’d highly recommend all the tours that we did as well as all the restaurants we patronized. Next, a couple of days in Collingwood about 140 km or 97 miles away on Georgian Bay (east off of Lake Huron).
Notes By Nancy 
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