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George Medovoy, Editor (Above, the charming Niagara-on-the-Lake town center, with its distinctive clock tower, has shops, restaurants and cafes to please just about every visitor) My wife and I are driving down a two-lane road bordered by vineyards, a scene you'd say was vintage Napa Valley. Except for one thing: we've just pulled off the Queen Elizabeth highway after the hour-and-a-half drive around Lake Ontario from Toronto, on the north shore, to the storybook town of Niagara-on-the-Lake on the southern edge of the lake, where one of Canada's principal wine regions, the Niagara Peninsula, spreads across a flat, 30-mile plain.
(The famous gazebo in Niagara-on-the-Lake overlooks Lake Ontario) It's a getaway many Torontonians like to do themselves when they crave a comfy stay in a bed-and-breakfast, great local wine and cuisine, shopping in Niagara-on-the-Lake, and, of course, the acclaimed Shaw Festival, the only theatre in the world specializing in the plays of Irish playwright, George Bernard Shaw. If ever there was a "complete wine country experience," this is it, even including, if you like, recreational cooking classes at Strewn Estate Winery's Wine Country Cooking School that highlight the relationship between food and wine. And
if history interests you, there's plenty of it here, too. Before their retreat, the Americans burned the town to the ground as an act of defiance, but it was later rebuilt. The earthen and log bastions of Fort George, off the Niagara Parkway, played a key role in the war and are easily visited just south of town. Costumed staff recreates the lifestyle of the period.
(The Niagara Parkway, with its shoreline path, is ideal for walking, biking or roller blading. Winston Churchill called the parkway "the prettiest Sunday afternoon drive in the world" -- and he was right!) If
you fast forward to the present, it's useful to recall Winston Churchill's well-known
description of the parkway as "the prettiest Sunday afternoon drive in the
world," a description we can vouch for. The northern terminus of the Niagara River Recreation Trail is at Fort George. The trail is used as a walking, biking and roller blade path and can take you about 50 miles south, all the way to Fort Erie.
(You won't find nicer hosts than Michael and Erin Mitchell, the gracious innkeepers at Three Forty Gate Bed and Breakfast, pictured here with their lovable Lab, Trigger) Our hosts in Niagara-on-the-Lake were Michael and Erin Mitchell, the owners of Three Forty Gate Bed and Breakfast, who made our stay very welcoming in the comfy two-story house they share with their lovable Lab, Trigger.
(At breakfast at the bed and breakfast, fresh, local fruits were served over yogurt in a tall glass. Delicious!) Mornings at the inn began with fresh, local fruits served over yogurt in a tall glass, and pastries from local celebrity pastry chef Catherine O'Donnell. Michael, who loves to cook, surprised us each day with a different entrée, like German Apple Pancakes with Pure Maple Syrup, and Crunchy Brioche French Toast Stuffed with Bananas and Walnuts. What a treat! Every Saturday from June to September, there's a farmer's market in town, where Michael and his wife buy locally-grown fruits and vegetables. On our first full day in Niagara-on-the-Lake, we walked up and down historic Queen Street, whose quaint shops look like something on a Hollywood back lot.
(You can "shop 'till you drop" in the many quaint shops along Queen Street in Niagara-on-the-Lake's town center) But they're all very real and feature everything from imported Irish clothing to Greaves Jams and Marmalades, one of our favorites.
(A merchant, with obvious tongue in cheek, sold welcome mats named after a famous TV series) There are restaurants, too, including the Shaw Café and Wine Bar, whose statue of George Bernard Shaw looks down at you with the eye of the social critic that he was.
(As the sun sets, the lights go on at the Shaw Cafe and Wine Bar, with G.B. Shaw keeping a watchful eye on things) It's a short walk to the shores of Lake Ontario, but you can also hire a horse-drawn carriage in front of the Prince of Wales Hotel and take a leisurely ride around town to enjoy its neoclassical and Georgian-style architecture and, of course, its beautiful lakeside views.
(For a romantic ride through town, hire a horse and carriage in front of the town's Prince of Wales Hotel) The Shaw Festival, which is synonymous with Niagara-on-the-Lake, is where we saw Saint Joan in the modern Festival Theatre. Directed by Jackie Maxwell, the festival's artistic director, Shaw's play deals with recurring human issues like nationalism and justice versus political expediency.
(A scene from Shaw's Saint Joan, directed by Jackie Maxwell at the wonderful Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake) Before the curtain went up, assistant director Kate Lynch gave a brief talk about the play to a group of audience members in the theatre patio, while others enjoyed light refreshments in the theatre café. The Festival's production of Saint Joan will also take to the road in the U.S., with performances scheduled at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater from January 8-20, 2008 as part of "The World's Stage Series," and at Philadelphia's Annenberg Center, in the Zellerbach Theater, from October 30 to November 4, 2007. (The Shaw Festival presents "Four Lectures in the Provocative Spirit of Bernard Shaw" in Fall 2007, including Ken Wiwa, Mary Walsh, Sir Salman Rushdie and Tim Flannery. Click here for details). After the play and a restful night at the inn, we set off to visit wineries, officially identified by distinctive blue-and-white "Wine Route" signs. Numbering around 50, these wineries specialize in cool-climate varietals like Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Riesling, and, of course, Ice Wine, whose tough-skinned grapes are harvested in the dead of winter and, through the complex freezing and thawing process, produce exquisitely sweet wine.
(Just follow the distinctive blue-and-white signs of the Ontario Wine Route for a superb introduction to the wines of the province) To someone used to wines from Napa and Sonoma, wine from chilly Ontario may elicit a bit of wonderment. But the Niagara region is actually ideally suited to growing cool-climate grapes, which tend to be fruitier and more aromatic than their warm-climate cousins. What
may come as an added surprise, the Niagara Peninsula shares the same latitude
with Northern California, and is even a bit more southerly than the vineyards
of Burgundy and Bordeaux. We
began our visits at Peller Estates Winery, whose building stands on a hillside
above vineyards of Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc.
(Peller Estate Winery was founded 40 years ago by Andrew Peller) The winery was founded over 40 years ago by Hungarian immigrant Andrew Peller and in 2006 was judged "Best Canadian Wine Producer of the Year" by the International Wine & Spirits Competition in London, England. What added a special touch to our Peller visit was lunch in its signature CAA/AAA Four Diamond restaurant, whose windows surveyed a classic patio-and-vineyard scene warmed by the midday sun. Wine country paintings decorate the room's light yellow walls, and a big fireplace dominates one end of the long room, just right for cool-weather days and evenings. I remembered that Erin, our bed-and-breakfast host, had described Niagara-on-the-Lake as a "magnet for great chefs." "Many of them who worked in Toronto moved out here," she said, "because they're closer to a lot of fresh produce and fine wine. When you start reading about all of the pedigrees of the chefs, it's quite impressive." I'd
say Erin was "right on" when it came to the creations of Peller's Executive
Chef Jason Parsons, whose background includes six Relais & Chateau properties
and two Michelin-star restaurants.
(Peller's outstanding chef, Jason Parsons) It all began with an aperitif of Peller Estates Oak-Aged Vidal Ice Wine, which has intense flavors of honey, lemon, star fruit, quince and brown sugar, and aromas ranging from lemon marmalade and caramelized oranges to peaches and honey. Our Heirloom Tomato Carpaccio featured Salt Spring Island, British Columbia's very popular goat cheese, along with basil and cold pressed soy bean oil. This dish was paired with Peller's Private Reserve 2004 Sauvignon Blanc, a dry, medium-bodied wine with refreshing flavors of green apple and white grapefruit, complemented by juicy peaches and grassy notes and a bouquet of gooseberry, fresh herbs, grass, green apple and green bell pepper.
(Chef Parsons combines wine and food creatively at the Peller Estate restaurant) The main course was a flavorful Lake Perch, prepared with baby rocket, almond tagliatelle, black truffle and tomato pistou, and paired with Peller's 2005 Private Reserve Riesling, which had flavors of citrus and pink grapefruit and aromas of tangerine, mandarin, spring blossoms, pink grapefruit, apricot and pear. For
dessert, we shared two dishes which I'd say "redefined" the taste of
chocolate: Vidal Ice Wine Chocolate Mousse Cone with fresh Niagara strawberries
and mint crème anglaise, served with Peller's 2005 Vidal Ice Wine, and
a Valrhona Chocolate Souffle with crème anglaise and Niagara cherry sauce,
served with Peller's 2006 Cabernet Franc Ice Wine, a wine with aromas of sweet
rhubarb and ripe red berries and flavors of luscious red berries, spice and rhubarb,
and a hint of lime. To its credit, Canada has a close rapport with its wineries, a relationship illustrated in restaurants and on first-class VIA Rail service. At Biff's, a terrific downtown Toronto bistro, company president Peter Oliver, who owns four other restaurants in the city, including the elegant Canoe on the 54th floor of the Toronto Dominion Bank, encourages his employees to really get to know the wines they serve on an intimate basis. Employees can write an essay explaining why they would like to join Niagara-on-the-Lake's grape harvest for up to five days in October. Three winners are selected.
(A group of friends take an afternoon drive through the Peller Estate vineyards under the Ontario sun) One recent winner, Maja Baltus, a server at Biff's and assistant sommelier at Canoe, explained enthusiastically: "We stayed in a bed and breakfast in Niagara-on-the-Lake and worked up to eight hours a day on the harvest at different wineries. "I was right there on the platform clearing the grapes onto the de-stemmer and crusher and got the opportunity to inoculate my own batch of wine with yeast to get the process going." That kind of experience surely explains why our server at Biff's was so comfortable talking about the wine he poured. Another pioneering Ontario winery, Inniskillin, was founded by Donald Ziraldo and Austrian immigrant Karl Kaiser, who was making Pinot Noir in the 1980's with Oregon Pinots as his benchmark.
(Wine-and-food pairing with Inniskillin Ice Wine) Located south of Peller on the parkway, Inniskillin has acquired considerable fame, especially for its Ice Wine, known around the world. "In the U.S.," said Deborah Pratt, the winery's public relations manager, "there is almost a cult following for it. "We look at it as 'extreme wine-making' in extreme Canadian winters. So we've turned what was originally a negative into a very good positive." People come to visit in January, during the annual Ice Wine Fest, and watch the harvest. "They simply don't believe that we actually go out there in minus-8 degrees and pick the grapes," said Pratt. In 1989, Inniskillin won the Grand Prix d'Honneur for its Ice Wine at Vinexpo, in Bordeaux, France.
(Donald Ziraldo braves the cold with a tasty glass of Inniskillin's prized Ice Wine) Its 2004 Vidal Oak-Aged Ice Wine has a wonderful interplay of fresh tropical fruits, mango, litchi, apricot and papaya with layers of buckwheat honey and ginger. George Riegl, at Donald Ziraldo's urging, developed a special wine glass for Ice Wine. The large surface area of the glass maximizes the taste of the wine by forcing it further back on the tongue, hitting more taste buds and intensifying the flavor. We were charmed by Inniskillin's boutique, the Gaelic-named Brae Burn Barn, whose open-beam structure with a demonstration kitchen and wine bar was constructed in the 1920's from a design popularized by Frank Lloyd Wright in New York State. From Inniskillin, we turned west away from the Niagara River and drove down York Road to Chateau des Charmes, whose large winery surrounded by 280 acres of vineyards is a testament to Paul M. Bosc, who founded the winery in 1978. Bosc and his family were Alsatians who had lived in Algeria for generations and made wine there, but they moved to Canada and eventually settled in Ontario.
(Paul M. Bosc is the creative winemaker at Chateau des Charmes Winery in Niagara-on-the-Lake. His is still the only family-owned large winery there) Chateau des Charmes is still the only large, family-owned winery in the area, and Bosc is still its principal wine-maker. He and his wife are at the winery every day, the winemaker sharing a glass of wine with customers. The winery produces Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Chardonnay, a lot of Riesling and Gewürztraminer, and a Burgundy-style, floral Viogner. Bosc also makes a unique Gamay Noir Droit, a clone of the Gamay Noir. He has the exclusive right to the plant, which is the first vinifera grape created in Canada and is called Droit (French for "straight") because the vine grows straight up. When he's not busy making wine, Bosc can be found just across the road near the family's large home, busying himself with his five pure-bred Arabian horses. After visiting all of these rather large wineries, we decided to investigate one of the region's smaller ones, so we headed to nearby Coyote's Run Estate Winery, which sits on a 58-acre vineyard outside the town of St. David's north of the Niagara College Teaching Winery.
(Coyote's Run is a relatively small winery on the Niagara Peninsula) This is where winemaker David Sheppard, a big fan of Burgundian and Alsatian wines, focuses on wines that are "approachable and fruit-driven, with soft, ripe tannins, yet always showing true varietal character." About 25 acres of the property are planted with Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah, Vidal and Pinot Gris. The vineyard is located at the base of St. David's Bench, an area situated within a high temperature band to ensure extra ripening time. Other local wineries grow grapes in this area, as well. Whether they're planted on the edge of the Niagara Escarpment - recognized as a World Biosphere Reserve by the United Nations for its rare ecosystem - or whether they spread out across the flat plain beyond, the vineyards of Niagara-on-the-Lake have taken their rightful place on the world's wine scene.
(How could you ever resist this delightful dessert at Strewn Winery's Wine Country Cooking School?)
IF YOU GO… For more information about travel to Niagara-on-the-Lake, contact www.Ontariotravel.net or call (800) 668-2746. Information about Ontario wineries is available at www.winesofontario.ca. For a listing of Ontario restaurants which have received the current Award of Excellence from the Ontario Vintners Quality Alliance (VQA), visit www.doyouvqa.ca. For tickets to the Shaw Festival, visit www.shawfest.com, or call (800) 657-1106. To contact Three Forty Gate Bed and Breakfast, visit www.threefortygate.com, or call (905) 468-9043. To make a reservation at the Peller Estates Winery restaurant, call (888) 673-5537. It's Family Fun at the Niagara Parks For family fun, you can't beat the Niagara Parks, an area about 20 miles south of Niagara-on-the-Lake, which includes garden, nature and heritage trails, the thrilling Maid of the Mist Boat Ride, the Aero Car Ride across the Niagara Falls Great Gorge, and the Butterfly Conservatory. (Though gambling is available at three casinos in Niagara Falls, this wasn't on our agenda). We parked our car for free and got on and off a "people mover" tram whenever there was an activity we wanted to do. The Maid of the Mist Without a doubt, our most memorable experience was the Maid of the Mist boat ride, which takes hundreds of adventurous souls on a thrilling half-hour ride into the very basin of the Canadian Horseshoe Falls.
(Barely visible in the distance, the Maid of the Mist boat takes its passengers right up to the falls) The sound of the falls was deafening as we approached wearing disposable blue rain slickers, but the spray was a cool welcome in the afternoon heat. I couldn't help wondering how anyone in his right mind would attempt to go down the falls, but we do know that on October 24, 1901, Annie Edson Taylor, a school teacher, survived the plunge in a pickle barrel with just a small cut on her head. We preferred the boat excursion, which operates from late April/early May, depending on weather, to October 24. The Aero Car Ride & the White Water Walk Another ride we enjoyed was the Aero Car Ride, an antique cable car that travels 3,600 feet above the Niagara River's Whirlpool Rapids, where the gorge turns abruptly counterclockwise.
(The Aero Car ride travels high above the Niagara River's Whirlpool Rapids) We also tried the White Water Walk, taking the special elevator down to a boardwalk on the edge of the Niagara River's rushing waters. It's thrilling to stop at the observation points to see - and hear - the water. The Calming Butterflies
(A butterfly lands on my finger, ever so quietly) A
more calming activity is the Butterfly Conservatory, where 2,000 colorful tropical
butterflies float freely in a magical rainforest setting. Enjoy! (For
more information about the Niagara Parks, visit www.niagaraparks.com).
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