New Year's Day in Niagara Wine Country
1 January 2018
It was a slow start to the New Year. Another wonderful breakfast – this time with baked apples and fresh blueberry covered French Toast – was followed by a lazy, sluggish morning. We did manage to get up and out though, and made our way down to the waterfront area where the Niagara River meets Lake Ontario. There's a great little park there with a pagoda I read was featured in a horror movie. Not what you'd think at all when you are there, it is just so peaceful. The water was lapping up against the shore, and freezing as it made landfall to the point there was like a giant ice shield protecting those of us along the shore from the cold lake waters. Sometimes we see jet skis and little boats pulled into this inlet, and we often thought about bringing up our inflatable kayak to go out into the lake. Not today though, it's brisk!
We drove along the river, stopped at another park near Fort George, and dropped into a few wineries that were open on the holiday. There were a few events going on, but we didn't feel like getting tickets to anything specific. We jumped on the QEW and headed out to the west.
There is always that one spot in your favorite destination towns, that one place where you have been so many times before but still you always stop there when you are back. We certainly have one of those places for us up here. As you head west along the highway through Jordan Station, there is an old ship that has run aground in the little marina area and has substantially decayed over the years. We first found it driving the highway out to Toronto and seeing the rusty mast stick up over the treeline. We went to investigate and have been stopping back ever since. The ship sits leaning on its port side in the shallow water, slowly surrendering its structure to the elements and time. This winter has been very cold, so the surrounding water was frozen solid. We were able to walk out to the ship this time, getting in close for a better look than we’ve ever had. The ice itself was beautiful, you can look through and see where it froze in layers. We nervously walked around, trying not to slip as we were watching the people out a bit further in their ice fishing huts. The ship was magnificent as always, and as many times as we’ve been here I still stand in awe. We walked around it in the full circle, getting pics and laying on the snow-covered ice while bundled in our heavy jackets. Usually the area is very green and blue, but the whitewashed scenery has a beauty all its own.
The ship was great, the frozen lake was great, everything was great... but wow was it cold! We retreated to the car and blasted the heat as we drove to Tim Horton’s for a hot chocolate to return some warmth (and are you really even in Canada if you don’t stop at a Tim’s?). Still uncertain of what was going to be open on the holiday yet still hoping to visit both a distillery and a winery we really love out this way, we decided to make our way back to town driving along the bench.
A geological bench is when the slope up of an escarpment flattens out for a while, before continuing to rise again. If it had risen up, flattened, then went back down, it would be a plateau (which I think is a feature far more familiar to people). But since the flat part is in the middle of a continued rise, it is a bench. The area of western of Niagara – along the south end of Lake Ontario between the Falls and areas east of Hamilton – is often referred to as simply "The Bench". Along the bench is basically a continuation of the Niagara Wine Region, while maybe lesser known and visited and with some different grape varieties, they are excellent themselves and join with NotL to form an extensive wine area. We have ventured out to The Bench a few times now and found wineries here that are every bit as good as the more popular ones in town, and the Forty Creek distillery is a great stop as well. We drove the back roads for a bit, but all the places we wanted to stop were unfortunately closed today. We hopped the QEW back to NotL to try more places there.
The Pilliteri Winery is a big stop along the main road, and for as many times as we have visited town we never did try them. Today that was going to change. We dropped in and found some truly amazing wines, especially the ice wine. For those uninitiated, ice wine is made when the grapes are allowed to freeze on the vine, concentrating the sugars and making a sweet, intense dessert wine. They are wines, but you drink them more like a cordial. Very sweet but also very good. The sweetness means they won’t replace your table wines, but if you approach them from a different mindset, they make a fabulous dessert!
Apparently, while we were sipping on wines in Pelliteri, Jack Frost strolled into town with an attitude. We stepped out the doors to a complete white-out. Visibility was extremely poor, the wind was pounding, and we knew driving was going to be a challenge. We trudged along the road slowly, just the same as everyone else, trying to make our way to an early dinner.
Another of our favorite places in town was found the first time we stayed here. We were driving down the road and saw an old, ivy-covered church. It looked pretty. As we approached we saw the sign for Silversmith, which naturally drew us in as Elizabeth is a trained silversmith. Upon closer inspection, we found it was the Silversmith Brewery, and all things combined there was no way we could pass it by. Like so many things in this town, we dropped in that time and have been coming back ever since. This time however, Silversmith has added a food menu to their normal brewery menu. We waited out the harsh winter weather with Korean spiced wings, ricotta cheese dip, and a hearty Horchata Porter.
The snow died down a bit, just enough to make it safely back to the B&B. When we got back we hung out in the house for a while, where we learned the unfortunate news that the owners have decided to sell the business. It can be funny the way some things in your favorite places can seem to stay the same, then suddenly there is a change that can reshape all of your experiences going forward. Unlike most hotels, B&Bs are shaped as much by the people you stay with as the room itself, and exchanged contact info to make sure we keep in touch. We wound down on our last night in town. It was just a short trip, tomorrow would be the long drive home followed by work the next day. We keep talking about staying here for more than just a few days at a time, to settle in and enjoy more of the parks and trails the area has to offer. Definitely when it’s warmer, where we can spend the days biking among the grapevines...
