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So I Visited 4 WINERIES... No. Make that 5. Or was it 6? | Niagara-on-the-Lake... (50+ Photos)

Feel free to have a few glasses of wine before reading...



It's that time of year. You know, where we celebrate the harvest of grapes with our Grape and Wine Festivals and parades. It's also that time of year, more than ever, to sip and savour local wines at wineries across the Niagara Region. It was a gorgeous day so I thought I'd do the wine-tasting tour thing. I originally thought I visited 4 wineries but after looking through my pics, it appeared I visited 6 in one day - Konzelmann Estate Winery, Nomad at Hinterbrook Winery, Wayne Gretzky Estates Winery, Trius Winery, Stratus Vineyards Winery and Reif Estate Winery, all located in Niagara-on-the-lake.

It seemed the picture-taking got less and less too the more I visited each one.
As the day went on, I also found myself wanting more food than wine but anyhoo, let's get on with it.


KONZELMANN Estate Winery (17 Photos)

I drove by this place a million times and have never stopped in. It was time to check it out. It was fairly busy here when we arrived around 1:30pm.




I have to admit I'm not an oenophile (a connoisseur of wines). Hell, I'm not even a drinker but so? That doesn't mean I can't taste some fine homegrown wine.





Lucky for me, I had a few wine connoisseurs with me.




At times I found myself more excited about the foods they were pairing with the wines than the wine itself but hey... 



Chocolates... yum!





This Peachwine tasted great! So I bought a bottle.






What y'all staring at? Ah, the lake. You can barely see it in these pictures (sorry, I wasn't getting up there, too crowded), but trust me, it is there. Konzelmann is Niagara's EXCLUSIVE Lakefront winery.






We arrived at this winery just in time before a tour bus full of people showed up. It wasn't a huge winery but it was nevertheless an enjoyable tour. I ended up purchasing a fantastic wine from here also. 











Here they come!



By the time I was done with this 2nd visit I was wanting more! All this wine swishing, sniffing and sipping was making me real happy - and REAL hungry!



This place was so packed when we got there, there was no parking to be found - so we made one.

I remember thinking to myself, 'How come I didn't know The Great One had a winery? Where did all these people come from? Where exactly are we? Who cares. I'm having fun!'

By the way, we never got around to taking it but we heard their Wine & Whisky Tour is a must-try if you ever get the chance, especially the whisky part.








The Great One himself...



The wine-tasting section was very crowded. We didn't even bother to wait but OMG, those chocolate donuts though. Where did they get them from? They were sooooooo DELICIOUS! They just melted in your mouth. They were lightly powdered and filled with a rich chocolate centre. Pure Heaven! I should have asked the lady where they came from but instead, I was busy bribing everyone fore theirs.



Like all wineries, the grounds were well maintained but this one was a bit different. It had a big pool-like fountain with a couple of huge 9s planted on one corner of it. The weather was hot, I was hot, I felt like going in for a dip.





We discovered there was a path to another winery, Trius, which was not on our list of wineries to visit but we were curious - and hungry, so on we went...

  


TRIUS Winery (7 Photos)

The grounds and the building itself of this winery were magnificent! But it was the food (and the wine of course) that I was after.







Before sampling some wines, we sampled their craft cider, "No Boats On Sunday" cider and it was absolutely delicious! (Sorry I didn't take a pic of it but by this time, taking photos was the last thing on my mind). It was an apple cider that was refreshingly light with just the right amount of sweetness! 

Slider burgers with fried onions were paired with the wine-tasting here at Trius. It was delicious - but tiny!






I must say, the experience here was very pleasant - and the wines a bit pricey but looking for a value-for-your-dollar wine isn't what it's all about, is it? According to my wine connoisseurs, the wine they really enjoyed here was a red wine, 2014 Stratus Syrah, which they said will improve even more with age. 'It was almost akin to drinking the full-bodied wines of France', they claimed. 

Good for them. Good for France. 



For the wine-tasting, we were taken into a room called the 'Teknion Tasting Studio' where the walls were covered with recycled multi-planed mesquite wood. I felt like I was out in some mesquite-wooded forest area cause that's all I could smell when I entered the room. 'Cool!' I thought to myself. A most enjoyable atmosphere for a bit of wine-tasting. 

I felt like doing some BBQing ... and what were these things on the table anyways?




I forgot to take a photo of the entrance. Anyhoo, last but surely not least...



REIF Estates Winery (3 Photos)

Unfortunately, by the time I got to this last winery, I think I've tasted one too many wines cause these were all the photos I took of this winery which was too bad because I ended up purchasing a fantastic wine here. I must have been really curious about these flowers though...




Well, that's it for my day! As soon as I got home I wolfed down an entire pizza all by myself. Man, I was starving.

Overall, the entire experience was amazing and I would do it all over again. In fact, I'm already planning to visit 4 more wineries, all in the Vineland area this time around. But unlike the last time, this time I'll make sure I have plenty to eat before venturing out into this wonderful world of wine-tasting.


The Three Wines I Purchased...





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