Experience Wine & Food pairings on the Niagara Wine Trail! Each $20 ticket includes a wine tasting with a different paired food sampling at each winery, a commemorative wine glass & keepsake recipe holder and a copy of the recipe for the sampled food at each winery along the way.

Based on that description, I was expecting each stop to have some sort of dish along with recommended wines, so we could sample the wine with and without the food. In my opinion, only Freedom Run and Niagara Landing got this right. Other places simply had a plate of cheese stuck in the corner.

We started our trip at Arrowhead Spring Vineyards. I was happy starting here, as they gave us some nice wine glasses for the rest of the day. Had we started at another winery, we would have gotten other glasses (not as nice). So we were off to a good start. The guys took the dry route, while the women went sweet. Nothing really impressed me at Arrowhead. The Apogee was nice, but not worth $28.50 / bottle.

Next up was Freedom Run Winery. Again, the girls went sweet and the guys went dry. I started with a dry rose which was made especially for one of the employees wedding. A nice story, and a descent wine for a hot summer day. We eventually got to their 2006 Cabernet Franc – unfortunately I did not pick any of this up, although I should have. It was just my type… a wine that you could just open up and have a glass w/out anything else. In the end, the taster shared with us their Pinot Noir, another good wine. A special trip back to Freedom Rum may be in order just to pick up these two wines. Freedom Run also got the idea of pairing right, serving a chicken dish with a Riesling. This was a pairing that worked well, and I was looking forward to other wineries doing something similar, although the rest disappointed me.

Next stop was Eveningside Vineyards. A little barn in the back, they seemed a bit overwhelmed with the traffic coming in. Nothing there excited any of us, so we moved on.

I’ve had Niagara Landing Wine Cellars wine before, and we stopped there next. They almost had the pairing idea down, but hiding the food in the back with the wine in the front, I sampled a few wines and THEN found the food. My fault? Maybe. In any event, their Riesling was worth picking up a bottle, while Laura bought some fruity thing. Niagara Landing was the turning point in the tour for me.

After Niagara Landing, we went to Warm Lake Estate. The lake is warm because of the excessive amounts of manure they use, which can not only be caught in the nose, but also trapped on your tongue. Their Pinot Noirs both smell and taste like manure (I’ve had shitty wines before, but never wines that taste like manure). I’m not alone. Not only did the lady next to me make horrid faces as we tasted, but I mentioned this experience to Steve and he immediately knew of the place I was talking about. We’ll be sure to drive by next time.

Honeymoon Trail Winery was up next, and it was a nice change from Warm Lake. The bartender was hilarious, constantly chatting with us and telling jokes that you either have to be drunk to enjoy, or have a sense of humor like myself. Things were getting a little fruity, and I still had the taste of manure in my mouth, so I didn’t truly enjoy this spot, but we decided that next time, we’ll start here as they have nice glasses, too, and I want to give them another shot.

We then drove for a while to The Winery at Marjim Manor, an old, historic house that’s supposedly haunted and was featured in an episode of Ghost Hunters / TAPS. The location was beautiful, and the selection plentiful. The story about the location, their owners, and Thursday at 3:00 was fascinating. However, most (if not all) were blended with some fruit juice, and very sweet for my taste. I was done at this point, and just walked around for a bit.

We started to head home, with two more stops. The first was at Vizcarra Vineyards which, again, featured lots of fruity wines. All I remember was sweet, then I went outside to enjoy the sun.

Just down the road was Spring Lake Winery, our final stop, which was in another beautiful setting. However, I was wined out at this time and didn’t even finish one sampling. This was another location which disappointed with a lack of food.

Overall, we had a great time and look forward to heading out again. However, I think we’ll choose 2 or 3 locations (they charge like $1 / tasting, or 4 for $3), instead of a pass for all of the wineries, and bring a lunch with us. I’ll definitely be heading back to Freedom Run to pick up a couple bottles, and can’t wait to visit the locations we missed another day.