Last weekend I had a trip to the wineries of Niagara-of-the-Lake. We heard a story of wine-making, we admired the barrels and, of course, we tasted the wines. It turned out to be such a delicate pleasure that I couldn’t resist sharing it with you. Tonight, I’m going to recommend you some of the wineries we have explored, and give some tips on how to organize such a trip. May be one weekend you’ll try it too!

First, let’s talk about the wineries themselves. We visited four of them, and two of them were really wonderful. The first one was ‘The Inniskillin Wines’. This winery is one of the most famous and the oldest wineries in town. We liked this winery, because it has a free of charge 45 minute tour! The tour starts at 2:30 pm and includes visiting the premises and the cellars, tasting the grapes – hmmm!- and, of course, tasting the wines! You will be shown how to taste the wine properly to enjoy the process the most. Tasting within the tour is free, tasting other wines is $1. In this winery, I, for the first time in my life, tasted ice wine. I fell in love instantly with its rich taste, aromatic bouquet and natural sweetness. Tasting ice-wines costs $4-$7 in the Inniskillin Wines.

The second winery I liked was the ‘Lailey Vineyard Winery’. For this winery, I have a separate booklet, please, pass it around.  It’s a small winery, and the tasting is cheaper – only $2-3 for ice-wines. However, the quality of the wines is the same, or even higher, as in the Inniskillin Wines. This winery doesn’t export much, some wines you can buy only in the winery itself. I tasted the Riesling Ice Wine there… and  I just couldn’t let go. I bought a bottle. Such wine goes only for special occasions. I’m going to drink my precious bottle with my dearest friend when we meet in Ukraine.

Now we’re moving to the second part of our story. I’m going to give you 7 tips that will make the wine trip easier to enjoy.

Tip #1
Plan beforehand.
Compile the list of the wineries you’d like to visit. You can find information in the Internet or in the guide on Ontario wineries. The guide is available in any Toronto winery, for example at 'Magnotta' (5823 Yonge street, Finch Subway station).
Also, decide how you’re going to drive back. One way is to designate a driver who will not consume wine; however I don’t think it’s fair. What we did, we started the tour in the morning, than made a pause, giving the wine time to evaporate, and left the town in the evening.

Tip #2
Do it slowly. Four or five wineries per day are enough.

Tip #3
Savour. Drink only the wines you like. If you don’t like the wine, you can empty your glass into the special vase. It’s absolutely acceptable.

Tip #4
Eat before you start and take some food with you. Food helps to metabolize alcohol.

Tip #5
Avoid wearing anything with the strong scent. Use deodorant without scent. The sense of smell is fundamental to enjoying the taste of wine. And don’t chew gum!

Tip #6
Stop the car! Take time to enjoy other places of interest that catch your eye. By the way, near the Lailey Vineyard Winery we discovered a very nice place, Kurtz Orchard Gourmet Marketplace. In this market you’re allowed to test completely free various jams, dressings, mushrooms in garlic sause, pickles… they have a plate of crackers on each table, you just plunge the cracker into the sause or dressing and enjoy!

Tip #7
Last, but not least... have fun! Make a weekend out of it. See, what an adventure it could be. Enjoy!

P.S. Some photos of the event:

RETURN to the entry about our own trip (Russian).

Less than an hour drive from Toronto, there is a beautiful patch of Martian-like surface, a picturesque outcropping of terra cotta clay left by the last Ice Age. They are called Cheltenham Badlands *. Undulating folds of soft velvet-red rock, like backs of sea elephants, hued with all shades of warm crimson, chocolate and winy, and lined with light-green bands. 

Where did the terra cotta hue of the slopes and ravines come from? How did the seemingly painted lime lines appeared?

Approximately 430 Million years ago the area that contains the Great Lakes was filled with a large shallow sea referred to as the Michigan Basin. Southeast of the Michigan Basin a mountain range the size of the Himalayas was forming. These mountains filled the streams with red iron-rich material, which was deposited in the Michigan Basin forming a large delta. Deepening waters compressed the red delta mud to form Queenston shale.

 

Then, the sea was gone. Forest covered the sleeping Badlands. Around the turn of the 20^th century the soil, under which the badlands slept, was farmed. Farmers cut all the trees, cattle ate all the grass; the weather washed the thin topsoil layer. The Mars-like ex-under the sea is now exposed. It is the presence of iron oxide in the shale that accounts for the red colour. The narrow greenish bands are due to the change of red iron oxide (iron III) to green iron oxide (iron II) brought on by the circulating groundwater.

There are a lot more things to tell about the Cheltenham Badlands. However, nothing could outmatch the first-hand experience. The day you will want one-of-a-kind hike, the Cheltenham Badlands are an absolute must-see! 

Directions, for traveling from Toronto:

• Head West on the 401 to Mississauga Road
• Exit on Mississauga Road (Regional Hwy 1) and travel North
• Drive approx. 20 minutes to Olde Baseline Road
• Head East (Turn Right) onto Olde Baseline Road (Country Hwy 12)
• Drive up some hills, go down a big hill, as you go down the big hill, you’ll see an out of place red landscape on your right.
• Slow down, and park in the designated wide shoulder stopping area on the side.

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*The term ‘Badlands’ is a geologic term for an area of soft rock devoid of vegetation and soil cover that has become molded into a rolling landscape of rounded hills and gullies. Cheltenham Badlands are one of the best examples of the badlands topography in Ontario.

When you arrive at the place you’ve been dreaming about all through your life, you want to have more than a visit. You want to have memory. Accordingly, when I came to Paris, it wasn’t enough for me just to take picture of the Eiffel Tower or Louver. I wanted to memorize Paris as it was – beautiful and dirty, piercingly gorgeous and serenely homelike. Capture it, pocket it, take away the imprint of its soul.

The first thing that gave me the unforgettable tender feeling of stepping Parisian earth was… stepping Parisian earth. Walking in its narrow paved streets, among stony gothic houses that managed to come from the medieval times almost unchanged. Wandering luxuriously through the tracery of Seine’s quays and bridges. Feasting my eyes upon the flowers in the Luxembourg garden – the royal blend of yellow, orange, light blue, night blue. I fall in love with this atmosphere of the Middle Ages, the proud beauty of the buildings, the smell of the flowers, the stony work of roads and banisters. This feeling was the first thing I remembered about Paris.

The second mighty impressive attribute of Paris was the inconsistency of its habitants. Their ability to organize the public entertainment in absolutely inappropriate places is stunning. In front of the beautiful City Hall they have beach volleyball. The sand is brought and nets are installed there deliberately. The Field of Mars in front of the Eiffel Tower is being used for barbeque. One of the exits from the Seine’s quays is transformed to a brazil garden – cactuses in tubs, nopals in vats and palm trees in pots. On the quay itself a tiny spot is allotted for throwing lead balls. This spot is fenced in silk ribbon – I take it the lead balls are educated not to fly across the ribbon. And so on. This complete unpredictability of imagination of the Parisian people was the second thing that impressed me about Paris.

The third memorable feature of Paris was, of course, French, the language that makes my heart melt. I couldn’t remember a word in English, there was only French in my mind. I sang in French, I spoke French to the hotel staff, I even dreamt in French, and it was so remarkably easy! It was as though I was a mirror, reflecting the surrounding reality, and it was so wonderfully French.

...After Paris, Toronto looked distinctly non-romantic and implacably square. I was taking a streetcar on Saint Clair boulevard, contemplating dolefully its squat parallelepipeds and sighing for curved turrets. One of them had just shown up from the corner. Astonished, I leaned out of the streetcar window and had pleasure to admire the Timothy Eaton Memorial Church, noble and proud and amazingly beautiful. When my neck started to ache, I turned away and returned to my sufferings – but lo! All of a sudden, I saw one more turret. This time it was Holy Rosary Church. My neck cracked alarmingly and I had to sit upright and look forward. When straight on the road I glimpsed fleetingly a nice masonry, I almost wasn’t surprised. I just thought that all the old buildings, scattered all over Toronto, could compose a small Paris.

Soon after that, I made quite a rash choice in my life. I left my solid, reliable and incredibly predictable boyfriend. I was again free, adventurous and reckless. In one week, I met another guy, and in two weeks he became my boyfriend. I believe this to be an absolutely Parisian way of doing things.

And finally, last week my own boss suddenly spoke French to me. And this was the time I remembered that French is a Canadian official language. I realized that here, in Toronto, I have an opportunity to communicate in French whenever I want to.

So, every time I see a proud stony church, watch somebody doing something admirably reckless or hear French, I feel I’m there. I feel Paris.