Niagara Falls

Our trip to Niagara Falls this weekend was great! It's just a shame that it was raining all weekend. We arrived Friday night where we checked into the Marriott Hotel where our room was divine! On the left is a picture of the view from our hotel room. I'm lucky I managed to take this picture. The weather was horrible, and I think if it had been sunny, we would've had more fun. Nonetheless, I had an awesome time. After having settled into our lovely room which also had a jacuzzi and a guest room, J and I decided to take a trip to the casino. J played a little pai gao poker and lost $100, I went to play on a slot machine and won $50. After which we decided to call it a night since we had to wake up early for our wine tour. Check my Flickr site for more photos.

On Saturday after enjoying a buffet breakfast overlooking the falls, we were met by our tour guide from Crush Tours. She was very nice and had a lot of knowledge about the wine industry. Our first stop was at the Caroline Cellars Winery. Upon arrival we enjoyed a wide selection of different wines to choose from. The general rule of trying wine is to go from the 0's which contain less sugar and climb up to the sweet wines. J and I tried some reds, which I am not a huge fan of. I just find red wine to be too strong for my taste, but we tried a 2004 Vintage Pinot Cherry which I really loved and ended up buying. We also bought a 2004 Vidal which won a Bronze medal at the 2006 Toronto Wine and Cheese Show. After trying the reds and whites, we moved on the the desert wines. I had never had Ice wine before so I wasn't sure of what to expect. We tried the 2004 Vidal Icewine which was such a treat because we tried it with equally divine chocolates! Yum. This one also won a Bronze medal at the 2006 Toronto Wine and Cheese Show. Next we tried the 2004 Cabernet Franc Icewine which was even more divine! This one won a Silver medal at the 2006 Toronto Wine and Cheese Show, and a Bronze medal at the All Canadian Wine Championships 2006. Not bad for a small family owned winery! I was really impressed! If anyone ever decides to visit our beautiful Niagara Falls, make sure you visit this winery. Because they're a family owned winery, they were so nice and more personal compared to the others. (This was my favourite too!) After the tastings we had a lunch which was provided by Crush Tours.

Our next stop was at Jackson Triggs Winery. This winery had a totally different feel than Caroline Cellers. Jackson Triggs had a larger facility which was recently renovated for their guests. We toured the whole facility, and learned a lot about the process of wine making. We also got to see all the barrels that they had, most of which we American and French oak. We got to sample some more red wines which I wasn't very fond of. However, we tried a 2004 Unoaked Chardonnay which we ended up buying too.

Our third stop was at Strewn Winery which wasn't as big as Jackson Triggs. Our tour there was very short. We just went down to their wine cellar and treated us to a tasting from one of their barrels. It was a red wine that was so bitter! Luckily our next sample was a 1999 Vidal sweet white wine, which we ended up buying too. It's not technically an Icewine but it tastes like one. To be honest, I can't remember why they can't technically call it an Icewine. But for it to be called Icewine, it has to be harvested in the winter and it can only be frozen up to a certain temperature, if it's not at the right temperature (I forgot the exact number) the grapes will be ruined.

Our final stop was at Konzelmann Estate Winery. By this time I was feeling pretty tired and sleepy from all the wines, but I wasn't drunk or anything, because we were only sampling small amounts. We didn't purchase anything from there, and I'm not sure why. I guess it's because we got all our favourite ones so far, and at every winery we visited we pretty much sampled the same types of wines. Nonetheless, Konzelmann was pretty impressive because this family owned winery had won so many awards dating back to the 1980's. When we arrived at the Konzelmann Winery, we were taken to a room which was filled with trophies and awards and such. We sampled a Vidal and a Pinot Noir accompanied with cheese and bread. After that we continued into the boutique where we could sample more wines for $4 a sample. It was really busy, and I really wanted to try their Cabernet Sauvignon Icewine. It had a strong strawberry taste, and I'm not a fan of strawberry, so I didn't get anything from the boutique.

The whole tour took about 5 hours. By the time we got back to our hotel room we were exhausted, so we took a nap. We ended up sleeping for a good 2 hours, and by the time we woke up we were starving. We saw on a brochure that there was a sushi restaurant by the casino, since we were craving sushi we decided to walk there. On our way there we saw a Brazilian restaurant called Copacabana Brazilian Steakhouse. We wanted to try it since we've never had Brazilian cuisine, only to find out there was a 2 hour wait for 2 people. Forget that! We were starving. So we decided to just stick to sushi, only to find out that it had closed. We didn't know where to eat, so, we decided to just go to The Keg, which was across the street from Copacabana. Jo really wanted to try that restaurant, so we went back to see if it had died down, which it did. The wait was about 45 minutes. It was definitely worth the wait. It was basically all you can eat barbeque. By the end of the night, we were stuffed!

Sunday morning we got up extra early because J and I both needed to get back to Toronto because his nephew was getting confirmed, and I had to attend Katrina's shower, which I couldn't go to because we realized that J's car wouldn't start. We had to stick around and wait for his Dad to pick us up. I felt so bad so I called Katrina to tell her the situation. Luckily she wasn't at all mad. I'm excited about her wedding, it's only 2 months away!