Where to Find Tastes in the Mouth (WINE): Part 2

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By: Owen

Date Written: April 16, 2024

Date Posted: June 27, 2024

Home Away From Home (Quick-stop) Ranking: NA/5

Trip Planning Categories (linked): City: NA/County NA/Appellation: NA

If you’re entering here at part two of Where to find Tastes in the Mouth: Here’s a link to the previous post. must link here —

White’s First:

Types of grape varietals offer different fruit (and other) flavour profiles.

I’ll move from general flavours in wines to specific flavours for varietals.

What I’m about to provide for you are some ‘words’ you can utilize to describe the subtle nuances of the wines you will taste in the future.

Fruit Flavours:

Whites move from citrus, green/light fruit, to stone fruit, to tropical.

In citrus, you can experience lemon, lime, grapefruit.

In green and light fruit categories you may taste green apple, apple, and pear.

In stone fruit, you can experience peach, apricot, various plums.

In tropical flavours you can sense mango, pineapple, and banana.

Citrus and green/light fruit tend to be noticed at the first part of the sip, while tropical fruits seem to be after you’ve swallowed.

Other flavours in Whites tend to be varietal specific.

Minerality: like licking a stone, you may taste this with a Riesling.

Honey: Sweeter Rieslings can have the taste of honey. Cortese from Italy can also have a honey-like flavour profile.

Floral: Chenin Blanc and Viogniers often smell like white blossoms.

Grassy: With citrus flavours too, New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs can taste like you’re chewing a long stem of grass (don’t knock that before you try it either!)

Minerality, floral, and grassy flavours tend to arrive at the first part of the taste. Honey seems to be upon completion of the taste.

Breads/cheese/oak/vanilla: Chardonnays, which grow in all climates suitable to wine grapes are one of the most versatile grapes in the world. As they move through cool, moderate and warm climates, they can have all fruit-flavour profiles above. If made by having the lees (dead yeast cells) stirred up into the wine it can have a bready or cheese taste. If oaked, it can taste like wood, or smokiness, or vanilla or caramel.

These latter, more robust flavours (for whites) tend to be noticed more at the end of the sip.

Red Wines:

Types of grape varietals offer different fruit (and other) flavour profiles.

I’ll move from general flavours in wines to specific flavours for varietals

Fruit Flavours:

Reds move from red fruit, black fruit to aged fruit.

Red fruits start with raspberries, strawberries and cherries. Black fruits include darker ranges of plums and blackberries. Sometimes too, reds can taste like dried fruit, moving a plummy flavour more into the realm of prune.

Fruit flavours in reds tend to move from the front of the mouth to the back of the swallow as flavours intensify. Strawberry at the front, to plum and prune at the finish of the taste. Pinot Noirs, Merlots, Grenache (Garnache in Spain), even Cabernet Sauvignons and Cabernet Francs can have red fruit notes (the latter two will often have other tastes upon the finish as well as they will have flavours from having been oaked).

Other flavours in Reds:

Herbs (anise among others)/black peppers: Black pepper (sometimes white if you can note the difference) often ‘stems’ from Shiraz grown in Australia. Herbs and black pepper tend to be at the centre of the swallow. Like when you cup wine in your tongue to sense the heat of the alcohol (see previous article), you sense the heat of black pepper here too.

Forest Floor: Well-aged Pinot Noirs can taste like dried leaves. While this may NOT sound appetizing, don’t knock it before you try it. I found one like this and I was surprised to find the taste was quite stellar!

Coffee, chocolate, oak, smoke, caramel, vanilla: Once a varietal is robust enough to be oaked without the oak dominating (overpowering) the varietal’s other flavour profiles, then upon the finish of a taste you may taste these flavours. Imparted by oak impacting the specific varietal for that season, you may experience any of these wood-charred, oak-barrel flavours in your wine.

A surprising entry into the coffee/chocolate category is Pinot Noir from Bread and Butter in California. Pinot Noirs in cooler climates like ours (Ontario) can taste like fresh, vibrant strawberries and will be a light see-through gorgeous red in the glass. Ontario’s beer, wine and spirit retailer can recommend lovely Ontario Pinot Noirs to go with chicken and turkey – a typical wine-colour and meat-colour no-no (whites for white meat and reds for red meats (typically).

Yet Bread and Butter creates a dark, robust, Pinot Noir full of deeper, darker, fuller flavours. Yummo!

Tannin:

The last and sometimes very predominate trait/taste you’ll find at the end of your sip of red, is that mouth-drying, almost mouth-caking hit of tannin.

Tannins are found in the skin of red grapes. Some Spanish ‘black grape’ varietals are so pronounced … well Spain has an entire code for their black grapes based on how long their red wines are aged in both oak AND in bottle before being released. The longer these black-grape wines are oaked and in bottle, the higher the tannin content was in the grapes before they were made into wine and aged in barrel and bottle.

High tannic wines, as recently discussed here are more often meant to be consumed with food as the tannins work well with dark meat entrees. I recently experienced a tasting where a higher tannic wine went very well with a burger – a wine I might not have otherwise enjoyed because on its own it would have been too tannic (for me).

Putting it all together:

So, there you have it.

Look for acidity (mouth-watering) and citrus, light fruit, floral and  flavours at the beginning of a white wine sip. For reds, acidity, light fruit flavours are first.

Spicy, sweetness, and heat from alcohol levels are in the middle.

Bolder fruits, dried fruits, and flavours from oaking come right before you notice the tannins drying your mouth at the end of the sip.

Combine this knowledge with decanting wine, or utilizing different glasses (in a future article) and you can change the nature of a sip even further!

Closing …

Tell me, what was the nicest surprise flavour you’ve ever discovered in a wine?

Or, maybe you’ll want to tell me about how you’ve recently discovered a new wine flavour in your old standard wine selection because NOW you have language you can use to describe it?

And remember:

Sometimes you can hear a description of what a wine tastes like and … well … you just don’t get it. Other than the fact that one year over the other can be significantly different (due to growing conditions), maybe someone else is better than you at detecting nuances … maybe too, they’re just full of … well … something!

You get what enjoyment YOU get from the wines or other beverages you consume. If this article helps you appreciate things a little better … ? … then my job here is done.

Til next time, cheers …

Owen

Curious: Have You Made Your Own?

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By: Owen

Date Written: April 2, 2024

Date Posted: June 13, 2024

Home Away From Home (Quick-stop) Ranking: NA/5

Trip Planning Categories (linked): City: NA/County NA/Appellation: NA

Years ago, ummm, maybe ‘decades’ ago, we used to make our own wine.

Now-a-days I pay to have great winemakers like Steve Byfield of Cornerfield’s make my wine! Now, if he lived in my basement where I once made wine and he became my personal winemaker, things might be different!

We did the whole thing: buying the kit, bulk fermenting, cleansing bottles, filtering, bottling, corking …

Then one time we just didn’t complete the batch. It spoiled in our basement. Then, later, we discovered our filter was cracked and making more wine meant replacing it.

Somehow, we discovered that our wine-making days were just over.

I even bought a beer kit and made that too. I invested in the 500ml bottles and caps … again, the whole deal.

I even liked the beer, cloudy and all. But that was a one-time deal too.

Why Did We Stop Making Wine?

I can’t explain, exactly why we stopped this one-time hobby. I think we weren’t enjoying the wine enough, maybe … also we may have had too much … and also, I think our palates were evolving and we wanted nicer wine than we could make with the kits we were buying. Maybe too, because it didn’t keep long, we had to consume it faster than desired.

Another major reason for stopping was busy lives. There were so many other things to do, we were so tired at night after long days at work that doing the things we needed to when we needed to do them to make a successful batch of wine just seemed like one … more … thing: one more chore!

Once it became a chore, we were done. Coupled with the fact that we’d have to buy another filter and we were out of the wine- and beer-making business.

We love that our friends on the east coast still make their own wines to this day. (And it’s great, by the way!) Perhaps we also marvel at that fact a wee bit seeing as we gave up sooooo long ago!

My brother sill makes his own wine as well, but he does it at a do-it-yourself place, so not ‘quite’ the same: no home kits, no investment in gear. His is very quaffable too!

I’m sure, for some, it’s a saving’s thing. Saving money on wine may also come hand-in-hand with admitting you just don’t have a palate for tasting nuances of wine … or you simply don’t care to learn (about tasting the nuances of wine).

There ARE savings in home kits, for sure. And, I get the not wanting to learn part, as the sky’s the limit on what you can learn about wine! Learning about it can seem overwhelming!

In addition wine-making kits have advanced as demands for better products changed the industry. Wine kits are better having more juice and less water added to concentrates. There are more varietals and blends offered, and different batch sizes are available.

Future Driven

Me? Well. I’m leaning towards wanting to distil my own spirits: preferably making my own whiskey. Which, if it was going to be commercial (it most definitely will NOT be commercial) would require three years of aging before it could be bottled and sold, then I’d better get busy!

So far, I’m letting others make my whisky for me!

Seriously, I don’t have a clue about how to go about it.

In some ways, it may NOT be as complicated as I think.

When I was at Paradigm Distillery in London, Ontario, I was shown that distillery’s first still: a small micro still sitting on a shelf like it was on display as a family heirloom.

So, I may NOT have to buy a 100-gallon copper still to get started! 😊 Still (hah) thinking about it, where does one even go to buy a small 1-gallon still? I haven’t even worked up the curiosity to investigate that … yet!

And should you make a 1-gallon batch you lose a part of the head and the tailings of the batch as they are just not palatable … and how do you learn when the first and last parts of the alcohol you make becomes great and later, not so great — how do you learn when to accept the best part of the distilled liquor?

Baby Steps:

Now, perhaps I have taken a first step in my secret desire to craft … something. I’m currently reading Brew Like A Pro: Make Pub-Style Draft Beer at Home by Dave Miller (2012).

Just ‘starting’ to read it feels like making beer at home is unlikely. He recommends setting yourself up with a small keg, versus having to buy and clean individual bottles.

Having made beer at home once and bottling 48 bottles of beer (which were supposed to be kept cold) I do get what he’s saying. But a fridge and small keg? Hey! I live in a small home. There’s no room in the inn! And the shed is already full of stuff. I feel space-challenged already, and I’m only on chapter three of eight! (I started that book a few months ago too and haven’t progressed further due to logistical problems and sheer intimidation!)

Beer? A Baby Step?

Yes. Sort of. To make whisky, you make beer first, right? Whisky is distilled beer!

So, if you could make beer, then you’re a step along the way to making whisky.

But the Challenges …

Well, you know my first challenge: space. Following and in no particular order are: costs; lack of knowledge on how to make beer and whisky and worse, lack of knowledge on where to access supplies; malt, yeast, equipment, barrels for aging. It seems like such a monumental task! Just thinking about it makes my brain explode. As Kevin Hart said in Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, “Cake makes me explode!”

Some Questions for All of You!

In regard to making your own beer, wine or spirits …

Do any of you aspire to make your own?

Have any of you ever done this sort of thing? What was your experience like?

Do you have an acquaintance who you have helped make any of these things?

To Conclude:

I’m of an age where … I find myself in a hold pattern rather than being an adventurer. New things, even though I’m curious about them, seem more of a bother than a challenge. So, that mindset holds me back. And I’m just not as tech-savvy as maybe I want or feel I need to be to even research this kind of thing.

But, I guess I’m reading up on the subject like I’m going to kick the tires of making the effort down the road. Maybe instead of being just one-more-thing, brewing or distilling will become a viable retirement hobby.

Only time will tell.

But in the meantime, tell me about any of your experiences. I learn well from this sort of conversation!

Cheers

Owen

NOTE: more images to older stories will have disappeared as I’m at my free limit storage capacity. To have more capacity means paying … another trigger I just can’t seem to pull!

Return to Bad Apple Brewing Company

ontariocrafts.wordpress.com

By: Owen

Date Written: June 6, 2024

Date Posted: June 6, 2024

Home Away From Home (Quick-stop) Ranking: 7/5

Trip Planning Categories (linked): City: Bayfield / Huron County/Appellation: Huron – Emerging Region

After our time at Cornerfield Wine Company‘s fifth anniversary event, we drove south down the Bluewater Highway to visit Jason Ingram, brewer extraordinaire, at Bad Apple Brewing Company (73463 Bluewater Highway).

Never one to to be happy with the status quo, Jason has built a micro-brewing empire where there was once only a small retail section and a few tables.

Now with a large cooler to warehouse beer (to keep it fresh) he also has a vast pavilion where guests can sit and listen to performers.

This orange structure is very deep and houses lots of cold, fresh brews.

Trying to NOT take photos of people (other than the band) here’s a nice shot of where you can listen to music.

In addition he’s building up a list of products so large he doesn’t always have all of them available at one time. From The Red, Black, White, beer days, he’s added a number of beers as well as lines of Ciders and Seltzers.

Today he even has a ‘menu’, with soft pretzels, charcuterie and pizzas to titillate taste buds.

On this day, we came home with 24 units and a new T-shirt for my wife. In the two-four were 12 Strawberry Hard Ciders, six scrumptious Irish Reds, and three each of Hessenland Helles Lagers, and No Dog’N Lit Lager. Now let me get to the deets (details — deets is about me attempting to be cool!).

Strawberry Cider Backlash:

When I first met Jason’s Strawberry Cider last year, I think A: he was busy on the day. This meant B: that we didn’t chat about it. And so C: I bought a couple for my wife (who IS a cider lover) from a very attentive employee.

But. when we got it home we discovered heaven in a glass and had instant regrets that we didn’t buy more. So upon this occasion I wasn’t going to let THAT happen again: we came home with twelve.

You’ve heard of the story of the Three Bears? This cider, for Carrie and I is not too sweet for her, and not too dry for me. You can guess, because we both like it, it is ‘just right’ sweetness-wise. And the strawberry flavour is pure and tasty without being overpowering. A great elixir in a glass at 5.5%ABV!

Irish Red Ale:

Irish Red stands out, for me, because anything Red, Amber, or Brown has a great chance of hitting me in my favourite beer-tasting profile. I like many others — much to my chagrin — but here’s where I start when buying beers.

Irish red comes in at 5.25%ABV and has a relatively low IBU (International Bitterness Units) at 15. Low IBUs also sit well with me, though I’ve been known to enjoy higher levels of bitterness, there’s a greater chance you’ll again, hit my beer-loving wheelhouse with a low IBU over a high one. A great flavour.

No Dog’N Lit Lager:

This beer is Bad Apple’s entry into what some might call a ‘sessional’ beer. ‘Sessionals’ are lower in alcohol so you can drink more in a ‘session’ while not getting as tipsy. At 4.2%, No Dog’N Lit Lager succeeds in meeting the lower than normal 5%ABV ‘sessional’ category. At 9IBUs this beer comes in at the lowest in bitterness at Bad Apple in what any would consider is a flight of low IBU beers.

No Dog’N Lit is a nice light summer beer made for having a cold one after mowing the lawn or doing yard work. Perfect!

Hessenland Helles Lager:

Hessenland Helles Lager is a rich, full-tasting lager in the traditional style. Gold in the glass, this 15IBU, 5%ABV beer is crushable.

If you’re unlike me who only has one or two at a time, you’d be wise to buy more than the three I purchased if you like to sit around the evening fire with friends whilst you imbibe a few.

MIA?

Beers Missing in Action, which I would have loved to have purchased at the time of my visit were two-fold: Apple Blossom Honey Brown and his White beer. I found the Apple Blossom Honey Brown on the website as of today, but didn’t see any available for purchase that day. And Jason’s White Beer made with cardamom — a fave of mine (and after everything I’ve written about liking reds) — both doesn’t appear on the website nor in the fridge.

However, seasons do change and websites can lag after production and not be updated as quickly (meaning new beers could be available on site!).

Whenever you go there, you will always find something for your taste!

Canning Line:

Bad Apple is now the master of its own destiny as it now has its own canning line — an expense some microbrewers cannot afford, or maybe don’t even have space for, So, when it comes to canning, microbrewers are often out of stock waiting for their chance to get beer out of huge vats and into cans as they wait on a canner’s schedule before the brewer can sell a single beer. Not so at Bad Apple.

When a beer is ready, Bad Apple has stock! In other words, when the batch is ready, there’s virtually NO waiting before it’s for sale!

Other Products: Ciders, Wine and Seltzers

Not a beer lover? You no longer have to be. As evident by this post, Ciders are in abundance. There are four flavours. And there are two fruit wines: Strawberry and Peaches and Cream.

I won’t be lining up any time soon for a seltzer: something NOT in my flavour palate wheelhouse. However the two that Bad Apple offers, Pina Colada, and Blueberry Vanilla … well I’d love the flavours. I just don’t like the taste of seltzer, sadly. But for those of you looking for alternatives to beer … they are many.

At Bad Apple, there’s something for everyone.

It doesn’t hurt that Jason is just such a super nice guy you want someone like him to succeed. And if I have played any small part in his success, then … well … shucks. I’d be as pleased as punch. Go. Enjoy.

Cheers

Owen

Discovering Cornerfield Winery: A Family-Run Vineyard Experience

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By: Owen

Date Written: May 27, 2024

Date Posted: May 27, 2024

Home Away From Home (Quick-stop) Ranking: 5/5

Trip Planning Categories (linked): City: Bayfield / Huron County/Appellation: Huron – Emerging Region

When celebrating your fifth anniversary in late May, you couldn’t have asked for better weather. On a sunny, warm day we drove to Cornerfield Wine Co. at 7444 Bluewater Highway, just south of Bayfield, Ontario.

Our Shared History:

In fact, Carrie (my wife) and I have known about this winery for longer than five years. Cornerfield lies on the corner where we turned to go to our cottage before we sold it pre-covid. So, we have watched the vineyard evolve for many more years than it has been able to harvest and bottle their magical elixir. From watching the grape trellises slowly go up, to planting, and watching as the grapes grew and climbed up to maturity, we’ve been watching Cornerfield evolve for nearly a decade!

I wish we were amongst some of their very first customers, but as our trips to the cottage waned due to work commitments, we didn’t get up there as often. One day, on our way into Bayfield we realized that they had OPEN flags at the end of their lane. Seeing that, we drove right in.

That moment started a love affair between us and Cornerfield. We’ve been buying cases of wine there ever since.

Our first love has always been their Farmer and Frenchman blended white, followed by their rosés and their reds. In the past their white has been a blend of upwards of five to seven unique varietals grown either on the premises or sourced from other VQA regions (Niagara).

But let me take you to our visit and I’ll walk you through everything we experienced.

The Fifth Anniversary

Receiving an invite via email, we responded to say we would be there. On the 26^th, we arrived a half hour into their four-hour ‘party’ window.

Parking to the side, we walked between the buildings along the patio stones towards the quaint, rejuvenated trailer that serves as a station for pourings by the glass or by tastings.

This is a ‘family-run’ business folks. Adam Durand laid the stone for the patio and Carrie (Adam’s wife – yes, they have the same name!) did the gorgeous plantings. If they ever stopped running a vineyard, they could start and succeed at running a landscaping business.

The path leading to the trailer was covered in irises. Gorgeous!

The Keys to the Event:

At the RV, we walked up and there was Carrie Durand. She told us that we could walk to the gazebo where winemaker Steve Byfield would tell us about the most recent releases and give us a quick tasting. She handed us our tasting glasses and a smaller wine cup filled with charcuterie. There were cheeses, an olive, grapes, meats and even a chocolate at the bottom of the glass.

Obviously not from May 26, 2024, but you get the idea!

Of course we chatted her up a bit, getting reacquainted. We’re not buddy-buddy, folks, but we have been dedicated customers for years, so we talked about their lovely wines.

In fact, we told them we added one of their reds to our pasta and then consumed the rest of the wine with the meal and … the red was stellar. (I’d mention the name, but it’s currently sold out!)

So, taking our charcuterie and empty glass we walked through the patio area, selected our table and approached Steve and his lovely wife under the gazebo.

Meeting the Winemaker:

We sampled a new Marquette blend, their latest Farmer and Frenchman white and their Rosé (made from two grapes including Cabernet Franc (to give it that red glow!).

Steve is one of those people who can meet a conversation at any level and make you feel comfortable. I have enough wine knowledge to be dangerous, but he was graceful and spoke on terms I could readily follow. I’m sure if another winemaker approached him the conversation would escalate well beyond my capacity to fully understand.

Steve’s wife is a perfect compliment to him. Her enthusiasm is infectious as she helped to pour samples. What a lovely pair!

Meeting the Wines:

The tastes we had were astounding.

Fifth Anniversary Limited Edition Red was a blend of Marquette, Gamay Noir, Merlot and Corvina. In order of appearance of those grapes you find grapes principally grown in Canada, France, France and Italy. These four grapes come together with a bright red in the glass, lots of fruit flavour on the nose and in the first taste and a smoothness that promises a rinse, wash and repeat!

The Farmer and the Frenchman white had only four varietals in it this year. It has a vivacious acidity followed by some sweetness which perfectly balance in the mouth.

And the Rosé was once again a stellar blend of Vidal and Cabernet Franc.

One of the benefits of attending this soirée was that anything we tasted we could buy. So, sorry if you go and cannot find the most recent edition of Farmer and Frenchman White. The previous edition will be sold while supplies last and only then will this new vintage make it to the shelves.

Sitting and then Buying:

We sat and enjoyed our glasses for upwards of an hour. I had the Marquette blend. Carrie (my wife) had Peach Fuze a new wine cooler made on premises with notes of peaches. You’ll see some pictures here of the event.

In font of me.

RIGHT in front of me.

To my right!

Upon finishing we went inside to make our purchases. Inside the facility, we met up with Adam. He chatted with us a bit while we bought up the store. Coming home where three each of the Marquette, the Farmer and Frenchman old release, the Farmer and the Frenchman new release and the rosés.

In addition, we purchased a six pack of Peach Fuze. You’ll notice by the photo that two mysteriously disappeared (we went home sat on our back deck and well … continued where we left off from the anniversary party!).

Conclusion:

And that, folks, was our yesterday. On any nice day, go to Cornerfield Winery and you’ll have a great time sitting and imbibing! On a rainy day? They have a covered area just for that occasion. And … late in the fall, heaters will extend the season.

I’m sure too that the gazebo will be set up for some entertainment if you’re lucky enough to catch it.

Adam and Carrie are consummate hosts. You will love your time there, in this emerging VQA region!

Cheers

Owen

Whisky Basics

ontariocrafts.wordpress.com

By: Owen

Date Written: March 27, 2024

Date Posted: May 23, 2024

Home Away From Home (Quick-stop) Ranking: NA/5

UPcoming: Look for a review of Cornerfield’s Fifth Anniversary (Bayfield, ON); and from the Special Guest Stars (and not from here category): Charlottetown, and places to see in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

Trip Planning Categories (linked): City: NA/County NA/Appellation: NA

Seeing as Paradigm Spirits Company in London, at 100 Kellogg Lane recently won “Canadian Whisky of the Year” Award in 2024, perhaps we should review some basics about whisky.

Whisky or Whiskey?

Spelling of this delightful elixir is regional. Canada, Scotland and Japan use whisky. The United States and Ireland add an ‘e’: whiskey.

Gretzky’s Maple Cask Whisky can now be found in Ontario’s retailer of beer, wine and spirits!!!

A Brief History of Whisky in Canada

(For more details read: Canadian Spirits: The Essential Cross-Country Guide to Distilleries, Their Spirits, and Where to Imbibe Them by Stephen Beaumont and Christine Sismondo 2019)

In the early 1800s nearly every tavern had a pot still, and so, every one served whisky. In Ontario, there was a tavern for every 300 people … so lots of socializing and imbibing!

So, because taverns with whisky were as common as your local Timmies (Tim Hortons), you can see where prohibitions against alcohol might begin.

By the time of the American Civil War (1861-1865), the spirits industry was coalescing into larger manufacturers. Production transitioned from thousands of producers to five: Gooderham & Worts; Henry Corby; Hiram Walker; J.P. Wiser and Joseph Seagram.

In 1890 a law that compelled all whisky to be aged a minimum of two years sped the demise of small distillers who couldn’t withstand the hit of waiting two years before turning a profit on their product. The big five survived!

Later, the law was changed to a minimum aging of three years. NOTE: Canadian whiskies CAN be aged longer (often for a higher price point) but they MUST be aged a minimum of three years!

Repercussion of THE LAW Today

One major repercussion of the law that whisky must be aged for a minimum of three years is that new Ontario distilleries (2024) begin by making and selling gin and vodka. These products do not need to be aged and therefore allow distilleries to start earning profit immediately.

An interesting side note about gin, is that botanicals used to make gin become lodged in the open pores of a hot copper still. These botanicals are trapped in the pores as the still cools. If one should make vodka in that still, the pores reopen and instill the vodka with undesired ‘ginny’ flavours. Therefore, if one is making gin, there is a dedicated still just for that purpose – which, of course, increases start-up costs. (Two stills instead of just one!)

Rye, Bourbon and Single Malt

Whisky comes as a ‘class’ of spirits. Whether it is rye, bourbon or single malt, stems on two factors: where it’s made and what it’s made from. Rye is from rye grain and is from Canada (see next). Bourbon is made from corn mash and comes from the southern United States: typically, Tennessee and Kentucky. Single malts come from barley and Scotland.

NOTE: Canadian ‘rye’ has no regulations on how much rye is in the batch. So ‘rye’ can be more of a style than of a grain. You will now see “made with 100 percent rye grain” on some rye bottles, just so you can distinguish the difference.

Differences Beyond Where and What:

Rye (the named whisky, not necessarily the main ingredient) tends to give the person drinking it a chest-warming heat. The heat-warming effect can be called ‘the Canadian hug’.

Bourbon tends to be sweeter than the others (but doesn’t necessarily have to be).

Single Malts are of a class ($$$) and are often ranked by the number of years in barrel. Years in barrel equate to more time without profit. Years in barrel also means some loss of product over time as the alcohol seeps through the cracks in the barrel. So, single malts are often more expensive (but not always, of course) due to the need to recover the years of aging and to recover the loss in volume over time. Aging also smooths out the whisky and imbues it with more and more flavour notes.

Single Malts used to be made solely for the purpose of offering ‘blenders’ options on what they wanted to blend their whisky with (three parts A; two parts B; 1/2 part D). Today single malts can still help create ‘blends’, but are often more valuable to be sold on their own as a ‘single malt’. As an example of a blended whisky, Crown Royal is a blended whisky which is blended solely by nose (and not utilizing a specific recipe). A skilled blender KNOWS what Crown is supposed to smell and taste like and creates each ‘batch’ to match the standard, sweeter taste of Crown Royal!

Canadian rye and American bourbon can also be aged. Both ‘can’ be sweeter. Crown Royal, for example – a Canadian staple – is a sweeter rye than most other ryes. There are crossovers in each class. What I’ve written here are trends, not absolute facts.

Micro-Distilleries in Canada

Spirit In Niagara (SIN).

Again, with basic trends, we find that laws allowing micro-distilleries to open and operate seemed to have eased in British Columbia first and have since moved east through the prairie provinces. This easing of the laws then skipped Ontario, and moved to the East Coast and spread west back into Quebec.

Ontario is behind most other provinces, but laws are now coming in line with other provinces. Still, Ontario has fewer micro-distilleries per capita than most of the rest of Canada. We are catching up, however!

Consumption

Basic, bottom-priced whiskies tend to be consumed with cola, ginger ale or in the case of some, Seven-Up.

Part of the harshness people receive when drinking whisky stems from the heat from 40 percent alcohol by volume (ABV) and from the rawness of not having been in barrel any longer than three years. So, lower-priced whiskies need to be cut with mix to experience the taste without the harsh burn.

Once one starts to experience better quality whiskies you want to experience the beverage and taste its unique potential in the glass without mix. Mix, would be a waste of the money spent on the whisky.

Drinking Whisky Neat, With Water, Or On Ice?

There are many answers on how one should consume fine whisky. In the end, you consume the whisk(e)y you buy the way you want to. That’s the right thing for YOU to do!

Heuristics suggest the best way to experience whisky is with a wee dram of water. The theory is that whisky in a glass creates a surface tension across the top. Dropping in a few drops of water (and no, not like adding mix, but just a few drops) breaks the surface tension and allows the aromas of the whisky to float up to the nose and gives the drinker a richer, fuller-tasting experience.

Holding your thumb over the top of this straw, lift it over to your whisky glass and drop in that much water into the pour. That’s all you need!

Neat – no water, no ice, just warm whisky in a glass – seems to be the next method. You won’t fully experience the smell, but you will get everything else, the full texture, and being warm, molecules are more excited and will waft up to hit the olfactory sense as much as it can without breaking the surface tension with drops of water.

Ice seems to be the ‘wrong answer’ in most cases. It may break the surface tension like drops of water, but it continues to melt, watering down the flavour and the taste experience. However, ice does counteract the burning sensation of the warmth of the alcohol, and if you don’t like that burn, then ice tempers that experience and makes the tasting better for these folks.

Whisky Rocks: A different solution for folks who don’t like the warming heat would be to freeze whisky rocks and drop them into the glass along with a drop or two of water. This way, you open up the whisky with the water and cool off the heat of the alcohol without watering down the flavour.

Flavoured Whisky

Enterting a newer category, we’re discovering flavoured whiskies in Ontario. Wayne Gretzky Estates offers two: Maple Cask and Ice Wine Whisky (Pictured at the top!). I loved both of those, with the Maple Cask being a real winner.

And, of course, Wolfhead Distillery (Amherstburg, ON) has both Coffee and Cinnamon Whisky. The latter is nothing like the classic Fireball Whisky. Wolfie’s Cinnamon Whisky is more subtle, letting you taste the quality whisky its made with on the finish.

Close

And there you go. Whether you drink it with mix, on it’s own, with water, with rocks (literally), or ice, or, whether you want to experiment with flavoured whiskies: the product is versatile, comes from around the world and each profile offers something unique and distinctive.

Tell me about your favourite Whisky (especially Ontario-related) or about a new place I can go in Ontario to have my own experience — you know I’ll share it with you all later!

Here’s hoping this article helps you enjoy your next experience in a glass, just a wee bit more, laddies and lassies!

Cheers

Owen

Two Kinds of Reds

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By: Owen

Date Written: March 25, 2024

Date Posted: May 6, 2024

Home Away From Home (Quick-stop) Ranking: NA/5

Trip Planning Categories (linked): City: NA/County NA/Appellation: NA

First, Happy belated International Star Wars Day (May the fourth be with you!) Phew! Now. Onto serious business! 🙂

There are many ways to classify red wines: varietal (Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot etc.); region (US California County (Lodi) or Burgundy, France); nationality (obvious?), and light versus darker reds (Gamay versus Cabernet Franc).

But in this case, I’m going to relate to two kinds of customers who I often meet. These are people who don’t mind exploring new wines if they suit their palate, generally. A major distinction is whether they like fruit-forward wines versus tannic ones.

This article explores and explains the differences between these two principal flavour profiles.

Definitions

Fruit-Forward wines are those wines that give impressions of other types of fruit at the beginning of the taste. Strawberry and Cherry are often words used to describe the taste. Many, may I say all (I’m not exactly certain) varietals can have fruit-forward tasting reds.

These flavours range from unripe to dried (young fruit to prune) and through strawberry and cherry to plums, dark cherries and even currants. (Amongst others!)

Tannic wines ‘stem’ from varietals that typically lend themselves more to long-term aging (Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Shiraz, many black-grape varietals from Spain). In the production of this kind of wine the tannins are an element that comes from the skin of red grapes. When the skins of grapes with high tannins are left with the wines to ferment when juice is converted to alcohol, tannins impact the wine.

You’ll know a tannic wine on the swallow. Regardless of what you taste at the beginning of the swallow (there can often be fruit flavours here), you’ll get that mouth-drying, mouth-coating feeling at the end of each swallow. Tannic wines can be so ‘structured’, so firm, as to require years in both barrel and bottle to soften the wine so the tannins are not … quite … so … bold. In addition to this aging, they may require being exposed to air in decanters before consuming so those drinking it attain the intended flavours from the vintner without the impact of that really mouth-drying feeling at the end of the sip.

I once heard a wine consultant tell a customer that they should open the bottle and decant the wine in the morning for consumption for dinner that night. That’s a strong, tannic wine!

Tannins and Aging

Tannins are one element of wine-making that allow wines to survive aging without spoiling. Higher alcohol wines and sugar (sweet wines) are two other elements of wine that allow it to be aged.

Together, tannin, sugar and higher concentrations of alcohol all combine to help wines age. They also add to ‘body’ — that distinct quality that can be expressed thus: Body is the texture of the wine whether it’s like skim milk (thin in the mouth at 0% fat) or homogenized milk (rich and full in the mouth at 3.25% fat).

As You Like It

An adage utilized at Ontario’s beer, wine and spirits retailer is that you should consume the wine you like the way you like it.

You see, there are heuristics, general rules, as to how wines are best meant to be enjoyed. Red wines with red meats, white wines with lighter meats, sweet wines with spicy dishes (the sweet does counteract the heat) etc. There are good reasons for these general rules.

There’s one bet you can make about this selection of wines: The icewine will have more body than the rest because its high in sugar and that’s one element in wines that gives wine ‘body’. The Cabernet Francs and the Cabernet Sauvignon? They’ll have far more tannin than the whites as red grapes skins hold more tannins than white.

But. If you don’t like white and you’re eating chicken, drink a red. No one can tell you what you’re doing is right or wrong. What’s right for your enjoyment is what’s right for you!

Drink as you like it. Besides, we’re all feeling cost pressures. If you’re going to spend some money on wine with your meal, buy what you most enjoy!

Therefore if you like fruit-forward wines or tannic ones, those are the wines you should consume.

An Admission

I personally enjoy fruit-forward wines. My palate ‘can’ move into the slightly tannic type, when the fruitiness is good and strong on the front of the taste.

So, I find it more challenging to recommend tannic wines because I just don’t enjoy that profile. I really don’t like that mouth-drying effect in my mouth and so, I don’t delve into tannic wines and hence don’t know them as well in order to be able to recommend them.

ASIDE

What I ‘have’ experienced recently as a customer service representative is people searching for something different, something new. When I ask them what they like, and I discover it’s that full-flavoured fruit-forward reds (Cabernet Sauvignons and Shirazes often come to mind) I then recommend them to completely other and different varietals which still exhibit strong fruit-forward tendencies: Grenaches (Garnacha), (specifically) Yvan Mau Merlot, specific blends, or even Bread and Butter Pinot Noir.

But my palate doesn’t help me when someone enjoys the tannic. There may be good reasons why.

The Thing About Two Kinds of Reds

In asking a wine consultant with years of experience at Ontario’s beer, wine and spirits retailer, about these ‘two kinds of red’ I was surprised by one thing immediately.

She didn’t reject my question about this distinction. Clearly, she too had identified that people often like one ‘type’ over the other.

(So, fruit-forward wine lovers and tannic wine-lovers IS a thing!)

And boy, she’s good, too. She works in a true vintage store with new releases every two weeks. She knows which customers are going to like which wines because she has identified their palates. Even when she goes to a mass tasting, I’m betting she’s calculating which of her regular customers would like which wines.

What she did do for me was clarify the main reason why people drink fruit-forward wines over tannic ones.

People who like fruit-forward wines are drinking wine on its own, without food. People who like tannic wines are more often drinking it between bites of dinner.

These statements are not suggesting that fruit-forward wines do not go with food. They do. They can. They will.

But when high tannins are involved, they are less likely to be consumed on their own because, well, frankly, they are not meant to be consumed on their own – they ARE meant to be consumed with food.

These statements are not suggesting that tannic wines cannot be consumed on their own. They can be. They are. People do.

But the distinction ‘is’ there. Fruit-forward for before and after dinner (or just because, or because it’s after noon …) and tannic wines with food.

My Hurdle

Here’s my hurdle. I really don’t enjoy that mouth-drying impact of high tannic wines. Combine that fact with not having the knowledge to know how to pair these wines with the right foods and I don’t seem to have the ‘incentive’ to want to try to learn about which tannic wines go with which foods.

I think what I’ll have to hope for is a lesson in wine that helps me understand these nuances.

Maybe then I can make the move to the tannic-side … or … the dark side. Darth Vadar would be so proud! 😊

Cheers

Owen

Trip Tastings or Having a Glass: Benefits and Challenges

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By: Owen

Date Written: March 4, 2024

Date Posted: April 24, 2024

Home Away From Home (Quick-stop) Ranking: NA/5

Trip Planning Categories (linked): City: NA/County NA/Appellation: NA

Today I write about the ‘strategies’ of why we conduct tastings or have a glass of wine at a winery. Just what are the true benefits of taking advantage of these experiences?

The Main Reason for Tastings/Having a Glass:

For us a tasting or having a glass somewhere is usually planned spontaneous. Yergh! What does that mean?

First it can mean that when we’re in the planning stages of our trip, we plan to drop by a winery for a tasting at a time when we feel we will want a break from the road.

So, for us, after tripping to an Ontario Wine appellation (2.5, 3.5, or 5 hours away) we want to decompress from the drive. A winery near the end of that drive will be a target for a tasting or a glass.

A Tasting or a Glass:

For us there is a difference between a tasting or a having a single glass of wine. While tastings are relaxing to a degree, they contain a sense of ‘evaluating’ the wines. So, when performing a tasting we are sniffing and swirling, and noting the flavours on the palate, etc. We’re sort of … working (perhaps we’re ‘working’ just for ourselves here), determining what we might want to buy.

About this much wine in a tasting.

Sure, during the tasting we also relax and chat and remove ourselves from our busy lives. But we’re also thinking about the wines we’re tasting.

When we have a glass, we may taste and evaluate, but we do this once. After that we settle in to get reacquainted, to soak up the view, if there is one, to get a vibe about the space we’re in. We’re … more engaged with each other and the atmosphere and the glass of wine is just the reason why we sit down and appreciate each other and the world we’re in at the time.

(L-R, starting top left): Ravine winery (Niagara), Huff Estates (Prince Edward County), Cornerfield’s (Lake Huron), Broken Stone, (PEC); Harwood Estates (PEC), Flat Rock (Niagara).

Other Reasons for Tasting:

Second, say we’ve plans to be tourists in the morning. We’re going to visit a historic site, a butterfly conservatory … something the locals probably don’t do. After a few hours of this kind of visit we’ll plan to have a tasting or a glass at a winery, distillery, or brewery (for Carrie, a brewery means either abstaining or having something else from the bar menu).

Just One Butterfly from the Conservatory in Niagara.

Again, often the first winery, distillery, brewery, we see after the tourist destination acts as a transition. So, here, again, we’ll stop and have a tasting or a glass to decompress. We’ll talk about what we just experienced over a tasting or a glass. We’ll move into a different headspace from a long, rambling visit, to a more concentrated wine/beer/spirit-buying aspect of our trip (for example).

Planned but not TIMED Tastings:

When we plan our trips, we like to break them up with tours of wineries, etc, and other kinds of tourist destinations. We’re ‘sort-of’ bulk planners rather than ‘specific’ planners. We know that on this morning we’re going to visit Fort George and that after that we’re going to visit a few wineries for us, for the wine we have for the rest of the year, for posts for the web blog.

So, we ‘know’ we’ll want to, at some time after the fort visit, transition from a visit to a tasting to switch mental gears but we don’t want the pressure of having a booked time for a tasting.

There are all sorts of problems, for us, with ‘timed tastings’. First, we don’t want to limit our time at the fort, say, should we be having a great time and then cut the visit short to go to a pre-planned tasting. We don’t want to have to feel pressured to leave before we want to. We’re on vacation, dammit! We don’t want to be structured like that. Life is like that the rest of the year, eh?

Second, we also don’t know the timing of how long it will take to travel between locations. We could book a tasting and meet up with construction challenges. We do look things up, and we do plan where we’re going … roughly … but again, we simply don’t want to be pressured to meet specific deadlines because …

Third, if we see a sign for a brewery, winery or distillery that points to a romantic back-woods road that leads between a lush forest, we may want to take that path rather than the main road we’re on. We can do a tasting down that enigmatic road just as well as we can at a place on the main road!

So, we are somewhat structured, but we’re also flexible.

How we Plan … for Ourselves:

Our plans are formed – historic site – winery – lunch – winery tour (etc.) in the afternoon. But they are not engraved in stone. We don’t know how long the historic site will take to experience before we’re going to move on. So, we can’t actually ‘book’ a tasting somewhere because we don’t want to cramp our travelling style. We don’t want to feel pressured on our vacation to meet times and deadlines. We are ‘planned’ but ‘flexible’ to experience what we find when we find it.

A FAVE place for dinner!

We don’t know if we’re going to discover a wood-fired pizza oven at a place where we’re inspired to have a tasting, only to change our plans and condense this stop into both a tasting or having a glass AND lunch.

Coffin Ridge: a fave place for wood-fired pizza (a planned lunch and a glass 3.5 hours away from home!).

Likewise, we don’t know if, for example, we’re going to see a historic plague and then stop and visit the site, only to walk around it for half an hour before continuing on our journey.

Had we a scheduled tasting, we would not be able to stop and see the historic site.

I think what I’m describing is just who we are as people … what we like to do. It works for us very well.

The Advantage of Tastings or a Glass:

I’ve danced all around the most obvious advantage: you learn how the crafters/artisans owning this winery make their wine. So, you know if you want a bottle of what you’ve already tasted so you can enjoy it later at home.

Also, if you like what you taste, you can rest assured you’ll more than likely like that which you have not tasted. You can ask your server for details on the untasted types to further enhance your knowledge about what you ‘think’ you want to buy before actually buying it.

Secondly, you can unwind when you taste. You stop. You ‘smell the roses’. You ‘engage’ with your life, your spouse, the land around you (if you’re sitting outside).

Thirdly, you connect with the people at the winery. Servers are often experts in the wines on location. Sometimes owners walk buy and chat. Adding to the delight of stopping and engaging in one another and the wine (or whatever), you connect with others. Once you’re enjoying yourselves and the wine, connecting with others can really amp up the overall experience.

There’s a romance about these kinds of feelings you need to experience for yourselves.

And once you buy something to take home, then you truly know what I mean by the home-away-from-home ranking I offer you at the beginning of each blog post.

When the experience on site is wonderful, the glass, relaxing together at home with that glass, takes you back to those moments at that winery (or wherever) and you’re transported back to those precious moments.

Therein lies the blessing of having been there in the first place and that’s how you truly connect with one another, how you sustain the peace and joy and contentment of those special moments of your trip that keeps you filled with joy during the long stretches of ‘work times’.

The Challenge of Booking Tastings (or having a glass):

Sure. We can do that. We’re savvy enough to visit web sites and book tastings.

First, we find that those kinds of bookings lock us into an agenda we don’t know if we want to or ‘can’ follow when we’re in the moment on that vacation.

Second, we find there’s a certain amount of pressure to meet these timed obligations during the day that robs us of the joy of vacationing and truly enjoying our joie de vivre. We ‘like’ just driving around and seeing new places when and where we want to.

Also, we’re planning these tastings after multiple hours on the road. We’re NOT in our back yard anymore. We’re uncertain of the time it takes to travel between places, and we don’t want to put that pressure on ourselves to regularly have to go from point A, to point B just to meet a tasting time.

Third, we do book specific mealtimes at specific locations, and we recommend doing so. Tourist regions are notorious for filling up and shutting you out of places where you really want to dine. Spontaneity is NOT the way to go at mealtime!

We can accept that and give ourselves enough time to ‘get lost’ or be detoured when going to a meal. We HAVE to eat!

We don’t HAVE to have a glass or perform a tasting anywhere!

And so, that’s why it’s hard for us to have tastings at places that have tastings by appointment only. That kind of strategizing, sort of robs us of our flexibility and our sense of being on adventure.

I guess, there are just some places where we’re not going to have that taste, even when we want to when we arrive.

Cheers

Owen

P.S. Something New

Last year in the Niagara Apellation, there were at two different wineries that required advanced bookings for tastings. Tastings were ‘costly’ at both wineries, and the wines were equally expensive. Our ability to buy ‘sight-untasted’ becomes hampered when prices escalate beyond what we’d normally be willing to pay for wine.

Two Sisters and Peller Estates are side-by-side near Niagara-on-the-Lake and both require tasting bookings in advance.

Therefore a ‘tasting’ would be necessary to help us determine if we wanted to buy wine at these locations. Under these circumstances we may have to consider a new trip category: booking a tasting at a winery with ‘booked-tastings-only’ as a destination stop like a planned time at a museum or butterfly conservatory, or like making reservations for dinner.

We’d have to give the booking all sorts of ‘time-clearance’ in advance so that we knew we could arrive on time without delays, but I think we could build that into future trips.

We may opt out of this type of booking, but we could at least consider it. I’d say these kinds of scheduled tastings would rank as ‘an experience unto itself’ like attending a play.

We’ll see how this idea manifests for us for our trips later this year!

Owen

What is Your Local ‘Drop-by’ ‘Go-To?’ Here’s mine.

ontariocrafts.wordpress.com

By: Owen

Date Written: February 28, 2024

Date Posted: April 16, 2024

Home Away From Home Ranking: NA

Trip Planning Categories (linked): City: London/County Middlesex/Appellation: NA

I want to share with you my local Drop-by Go-To’s. Then I’m going to ask you for yours.

Local Go-To: Definition.

A local Drop-by Go-to can be many things, even to me. Now. Let’s say I have run out of breweries, wineries, cideries and distilleries to write about, and now I’m going to perform a quick drop-by to some places ‘local’ that I dearly love (and so I CAN write about them!).

Qualities of A Third Space?

Third spaces are places you love to go beyond the two you regularly live in: home and work. An example of a third space might be your neighbourhood “Cheers” bar (yes, like the one on television) whatever that ‘bar’ is named in your world.

For me, I write about all breweries, cideries, wineries and distilleries because they are potential third spaces for me. It’s not because they serve alcohol, but probably they are third spaces more-so, because I am a wanna-be owner of such a place.

A part of me, the riskier side of me, would love to own a place like that because I’d like to provide that kind of comfort for others. The ‘financial’ part of me (the more moderate side) doesn’t have enough mullah to even consider opening such a place.

Well my dreams aside, third spaces are also get-away places: where I vacate my home AND my job and I can learn exciting and entertaining new things; where I can meet great new people; where I can also while away time with my girl and not think about anything other than her — a home away from home!

Reasons to Drop-by

I’m going to drop-by, quickly, because: A: I feel comfortable at these locations; B: like their product and don’t support them regularly enough (because I’m going all over the province to check out other companies) and C: because they are close by. I further define ‘close by’ as ‘in London’ where no place is more than 30 minutes away.

Once I’ve told you about some great local third spaces, I’ll add in those places that I think about going to, but which are outside of that 30-minute, one-way window of travel.

My first two: I’d go to the ‘near-east’ part of London.

Today I thought of going to Anderson Craft Ales, and Paradigm Spirits Co.

Why? 1. They are close together. 2. I recently wrote about the fact that Paradigm won an award for 19-year-old blended whisky and though that version is sold out, I’m betting another year it was made is still available – I have Christmas money to spend! (nothing else in that class WAS available – sigh!) 3. I love Anderson’s Stout and it’s only sold on premises and it’s been waaaay too long since I’ve had some. (It wasn’t there either! – SIGH!)

Second choice for a drop by go-to? Powerhouse Brewery and Union Ten Distilling Co. Why are they second choice? I’ve been to Powerhouse for lunch recently and we purchased Union Ten products just a little while ago, so I just wanted to go to some place a little different.

Just outside of that 30-minute window? Forked River Brewing. I love going there, but today my time is limited and they just seem to be ‘that’ much further away to be able to get there in a reasonable amount of time. I like them because they have an interesting mix of tried and true brews combined with wide-ranging, one-off varieties that are well made and are very creative!

Always on my mind but outside the 30-minute rule for a drop-by go-to? Ranked by distance/time to get there (roughly). Already mentioned: Forked River. Next, a foursome: 1.5 hours away: Dark Horse Estate Winery, Torched Brewing Company, Bad Apple Brewing Company Ltd. and Cornerfield Wine Co. all in the near to Grand Bend/Bayfield, Ontario region. These destinations may actually rank as my number one trip anywhere!

Single destinations over three hours (and hence, NOT really a drop-by go-to)? Wolfhead Distillery and Restaurant (Amherstburg, ON), Walkerville Brewery (535 Argyle Road, Windsor) and Coffin Ridge Boutique Winery/Kilannan Brewery near Annan, ON. These are very special places to us as they can be and often have been one-off trips just to go, dine, and buy great products. I include them here because you can have a nice drive and a meal.

So. The question to you, dear readers is: what is your 30-minute drop-by go-to place and why do you like it there so much?

I’m dying to know. This way, I’ll expand my horizons too!

Cheers

Owen

Whisky: Paradigm: London, Ontario

ontariocrafts.wordpress.com

By: Owen

Date Written: February 22, 2024

Date Posted: April 2, 2024

Trip Planning Categories (linked): City: London/County Middlesex/Appellation: NA

Home Away From Home Ranking: NA

Congratulations to Paradigm Spirits Co. at 100 Kellogg Lane, London, Ontario, for winning the 2023 Best Whisky award at the 2024 Canadian Whisky Awards. This 2022-made ‘Heritage Collection’ Whisky is a 19-year old blended whisky that was definitely worth the wait.

The whisky aged in American Oak. This oak grows quickly under ideal conditions of warm summers and long seasons. Hence, the cell structure is large due to the longer growing season. So, larger cell structure allows the liquid inside to move more freely into and out of the wood over time. Unlike cold climate oaks, where the cell structure is tight and small the exchange of liquid into American Oak barrels is faster thus mellowing the whisky more and faster than say a European Oak.

In addition to being aged a loooong time there is also a touch of Oloroso sherry in the whisky as well. Oloroso sherry is also aged in barrel and is oxidized to roughly 17 per cent alcohol by volume. It gains notes of dried fruit and walnut from the barrel.

My first instinct was to buy a bottle of this $119.00 beauty and photograph and then sample it for you.

However, the announcement came in January of 2024 and by the time I thought of my plan, the entire batch was sold out.

This little slice of heaven in a bottle will never again come this way.

Cudos to Paradigm Distillery. The owners knew they had something special in a bottle, but knowing there were over 200 competitors in a blind taste test, they never considered they would win. Sadly, they weren’t even there when the announcement was made.

For now, we’ll have to settle for their very quaffable and well-made three-year-old whisky … or other variants of their 19-year-olds should they remain available.

Remember too, that Paradigm makes a very quaffable gin and vodka.

Also, the actual physical building is currently closed to customers. One buys Paradigm products at the shop inside the 100 Kellogg Lane’s main mall just down the hall from Shaw’s icecream!

Owen

Distillery: Spirit in Niagara (SIN): Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario

ontariocrafts.wordpress.com

By: Owen

Date Written: February 13, 2024

Date Posted: March 26, 2024

Home Away From Home (Quick-stop) Ranking: 4.5/5

Trip Planning Categories (linked): City: Niagara-on-the-Lake/County Niagara/Appellation: NA

Spirit in Niagara (SIN) at 458 Lakeshore Road, in Niagara-on-the-Lake (region) in Ontario, makes many of their products from peaches. Remember, you can make alcohol from anything as long as you have sugar, or you can convert starch into sugar (as in grain for whisky).

We first visited there a couple of months after opening in 2021. Now, two years later, we made it a dinner stop for two reasons: one, we needed dinner. Two we had noticed an explosion of new products since we’d been there when all they had for sale was gin, vodka and peach eau de vis.

What IS Eau de vis?

Eau de vis (meaning water of life) is, according to SIN’s own website, a subcategory of brandy. Brandy is non-regional version of Cognac. Cognac, comes from the region of Cognac, France, where AOC regulations enforce all Cognac production.

• VS or Very Special Cognac is made from twice distilled wine and is aged for two years in only two kinds of oak made from specific regions.

• VSOP or Very Superior Old Pale, is aged three years (same oak-type requirements).

• XO or Extra Old is aged 10 years in barrels of the same type.

Nothing else can be called Cognac because it doesn’t come from Cognac, France, and because its not regulated. Hence, anything with grapes made similarly is brandy. Not Cognac.

And Eau de Vis, is a subcategory of that. Capiche? Now back to our regularly scheduled story about SIN.

New Products:

On the website, SIN now carries six differently fruit-flavoured eau de vis, gin, vodka, three whiskies (Canadian, Brrrbon, Mixed Mash), and an excellent sweet Vermouth perfect for Negronis.

Dinner:

I want to break the meal down into three categories: the food, the service, the atmosphere.

The Food:

Food choices were wide, but on this night, some offerings weren’t available as the chef was off and he or she was the one who could bring those meals to the table, so to speak. For its class, which I’ll call at the entry point for fine dining, it was successful and reasonably priced ($23-$32 for mains).

We certainly found delightful dinners to order regardless of limitations. They were hot, well prepared, tasty and well presented. Meals come with a sampling of product suited to the meal of choice. I had mine. Carrie had come from the tasting extraordinaire at Nomad and so, declined.

I could have lived on the Hasselback potatoes that came with my short ribs. Hey! I loved my short ribs, don’t get me wrong. But as a Hasselback potato rookie, this version of prepared spud was SINsational (I had to do it!).

On a secondary note on my praise of Hasselback potato: I’m not normally a potato lover, so this makes my appreciation for this tater even more special!

The Service:

Service was timely, friendly and when it came to talking about the spirits, knowledgeable. We arrived a bit late for our time, and were graciously accommodated – we’d called to let them know we were still coming and they admitted they weren’t so busy that a late arrival would matter.

The Atmosphere:

There were only a few tables with patrons on this mid-week, early evening service (we were scheduled at 5pm, but arrived late due to our extended tasting elsewhere). I cannot tell you why the place wasn’t fuller, as the quality of the food in relation to the pricing should draw any diner to SIN.

More people in the dining area would have warmed the atmosphere. You see the space is three stories high and ‘industrial-looking,’ so we felt small in a giant space. I recommend to SIN that a few decorations hanging down from the ceiling could make the space feel more cosey as the decorations would break up the sightlines of the wide open space above.

A few large hangings along the walls did bring some warmth to the atmosphere.

The atmosphere is the only thing that brings down the experience from a perfect 5/5 home-away-from-home ranking.

Our Take-Aways:

This was our last stop on a whirlwind three day tour. You can well imagine, then, our state-of-mind: we’d purchased boxes of wine, and our heads were spinning from thinking we’d overstocked ourselves … again …

Now, not being Cognac, brandy or eau de vis fans – it’s one of the few categories of spirits we can walk past without feeling like we ought to try some – we were reduced to fewer items when making our selections.

Being a Negroni drink fan (1/3 gin, 1/3 sweet vermouth, 1/3 Campari), Carrie opted for the Sweet Vermouth. I had experienced the Canadian Whisky with my meal and so a bottle of that came home with me.

Back at home the Sweet Vermouth was a major hit as we still had a few days off to rest and relax from our trip. Carrie had a negroni or two while on holiday and said she was spoiled by the taste and quality of SIN’s vermouth.

The Canadian Whisky is one you can consume like a single malt. Very tasty. Because you wouldn’t want to mix it and Single Malts are consumed as a special treat, I still have some left in the bottle. I don’t consume whisky’s regularly, but I still look forward to a sipper or two in the future.

So, both products were excellent purchases. In fact, since the summer when we bought it, the Vermouth seems to have slowly disappeared. (I may have helped a time or two! 😊) We’re wishing we’d bought more than one bottle!

The price points on both products are what I’d consider mid-range, find themselves not at the bottom end, nor at the top of the pricing structure for either kind of spirit.

I think they are well priced for their quality. That’s fine praise from me!

Would I go back?

Definitely. Both their fine spirits and their food would bring me back. We’re already talking about making them a dining solution for one of our nights upcoming in this year’s trip.

In Conclusion:

This is a place you’re going to love.

It may be a little out of place in the heart of wine country to go to a distillery that makes spirits, but hey, I like the diversity of their products and their quality. Food is great and the people are professional and kind. For a little bit of the different … go to Spirit In Niagara.

Cheers

Owen

Wine: Nomad at Hinterbrook: Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario

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By: Owen

Date Written: February 6, 2024

Date Posted: March 21, 2024

Home Away From Home Ranking: 12/5

Trip Planning Categories (linked): City: Niagara-on-the-Lake/County Niagara/Appellation: Niagara

On the ‘in-land’ side of the Lakeshore Road Nomad at Hinterbrook Winery at 1181 Lakeshore Road, Niagara-on-the-Lake (again, a ‘regional term rather than actually IN NOTL) receives one of our ‘best-ever’ rankings for home away from home visits.

Getting There:

Hinterbrook is on a short lane with the name of the winery on a building right in front of you. Turning to your right to park, you discover the retail building. We went inside and paid for two tastings: Carrie’s was a white wine tasting. Seeing as her wines were typically less expensive than reds she’d receive four. I bought one for reds, but because they were slightly more expensive, I only received three.

We received tasting forms and proceeded outside on a late afternoon day in August where we pulled up a spot at our own table. We filled out our selected wines according to number-of-wines/tasting and waited for our host to join us. Not long after, he did. And that’s when the wheels fell off, and the fun began.

Best Visit Reasons:

Our host was a mid-fifty-ish-year-old man. He was European by accent, and explained that he’d been in the wine business for years. He was here, in Ontario, because his wife wanted to come. He rolled his eyes in that, ‘happy-wife, happy-life’ sort of way, and said, he’d come here to be with her. And so, here he was preparing to give us our tasting.

He really didn’t seem to be too distressed about actually living in Ontario for the summer!

We showed him our selections on our forms and he dismissed them saying he was going to give us a tasting of the wines in the proper order as he saw fit. Of course, our selections would be amongst them.

He started off with light whites, moved through Rosés, and later into reds. So, Carrie received her tasting long before I did.

Each time he’d bring over a couple of samples, some of them on our lists, some not, and he’d give a knowledgeable description of the wines.

Man oh man, were the wines lovely! (I had a sip of Carrie’s tastings.) He was the consummate salesperson and gentleman all rolled up into one exotic, accented package. Something about the right accent just makes everything more enticing and his effervescent personality just enhanced the experience.

Most whites and rosés hover around the $20 mark, so these wines are very reasonable and are exceptional value. The reds hover closer to the $60 mark, are exquisite and worth full value.

As the tasting(s) progressed, Carrie received one of each of the rosés, neither of which were on her list.

Rosé Aside:

I have to tell you both rosés served to her (with a sip for me) were sensational! In fact, two of each of them came home with us. In fact, one just went down over the weekend prior to my writing this post! Yumm. Sadly, what I can tell you is that of the 18 wines still listed on their website, no rosés can be found, indicating to me that they are sold out for the season. Hulk sad. (And you should be sad too!)

As the Tasting Continues:

I can’t tell you how many samples Carrie had by this point, but I could tell you that we were crowding on our restaurant time. Somehow, we happened to have a sheet of paper with our reservation on it and I was able to call and tell them we were going to be late … that we were immensely enjoying a nearby tasting. The restaurant granted us late status and we (Carrie) continued to imbibe.

When the reds started to arrive, I still only got a sip. You see, by now, I’d had a few mini sips of whites and rosés. So, to be able to safely drive to the restaurant, I continued to ‘mini-sip’. This strategy meant Carrie had to continue having all of my samples in my tasting as well.

So, Carrie enjoyed the lion’s share of my tasting too … don’t feel bad for me. It was okay. This was the most fun we’d ever had at a tasting anywhere. I had enough to taste and still be safe, loved the experience, and didn’t mind at all. (I only pouted for effect!)

In fact, we wondered what the owners of the winery might think if they knew just exactly what was going on over here!!!

(I’m sure they must have been pleased. Read on to see why!)

Inside:

Once we finally finished our tasting we went inside. The inside is rather stark. Rows of wines are on your left, the retail counter on your right. In front of you, the room opens up a bit, creating and ‘L’ shape as the room expands around the retail counter. Here, on the wall, are artistic-shaped displays of the wines we’d tasted outside.

The Purchase:

Now, as you know, late in the day, and even later in our trip, wineries can suffer by us not making as many purchases because we’re a wee bit overloaded.

Nope. Not happening. Nomad at Hinterbook sold us a full case. The selections include: two fumé blancs, Sauvigon Blanc, Autumn Snow Riesling, Franc Blanc, two Pinot Noir Rosés, two Garden Rosés, Wanderlust and two reds: a 2013 blend called Curiosity and a 2019 Merlot.

Evaluation:

Look. Never have two people had more fun at a single tasting … even when we were late for a planned dining experience – something that usually would have bothered me as I hate being late – but even that wasn’t a concern! Service was stellar. Wines were stellar. Prices were perfect for the wines we tasted. There is just no comparison for the amount of fun we had at Nomad/Hinterbrook. Let me qualify that statement.

This experience at NOMAD was just sheer, fun! And for that reason, it is a place that we will return to next year – in spite of our promise to ourselves to visit new and different wineries again next year!

I can think of only a handful of places that can compete with such powerful memories and they do so for different reasons. A few places I’ve had sensational conversations with owners. Those are just sooo much fun: meeting great new people, hearing them be excited by their craft, learning so much … I love it!

Other places give you such great finds (beer, wine, ciders or spirits) you have to love the experience!

On other days we’ve just sat, the two of us and had a glass and chillaxed together and we’re suddenly a million miles from our lives – we’ve ‘vacated’ our lives – well those spots are special too.

Memorable for many … different reasons.

But there’s no place that has competed with a tasting like we experienced at Nomad at Hinterbrooks!

Barring unforeseen events, we are coming back next year, even though we KNOW we won’t have the same experience!

New:

In fact, looking at their website we KNOW our return WILL be different as Nomad at Hinterbrook has revealed a new covered patio. You can, but won’t have to sit out in the open air like we did for our tasting. This addition to the facility will enhance your time there should the weather be inclement (rain!).

About our tasting in closing? All I can say is wow! It worked. We stayed, we enjoyed, we bought, we will return, and Nomad at Hinterbrook received as good of a review as I can possibly know how to give it. May your visit be 50% the experience we had and you’ll still have a great, great time.

Cheers

Owen

PS: more photos from older posts have been deleted to make room for new images here!

Wine: Pellar Estates: Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario

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By: Owen

Date Written: January 22 and 23, 2024

Date Posted: March 4, 2024

Home Away From Home Ranking: 3.7/4 (this is a no-glass, no-tasting ranking)

Trip Planning Categories (linked): City: Niagara-on-the-Lake/County Niagara/Appellation: Niagara

Link to County Map being used.

Pellar Estates Winery and Restaurant lies just outside of the town of Niagara-on-the-lake at 290 John Street East.

In this entry I’ll write about: 1. the striking similarities (and a difference) between Pellar and it’s next-door neighbour winery; 2. a unique retail experience; 3. the retail space; 4. the wines we bought and 5. conclude with a two thumbs up recommendation.

Similarities:

First, I could take the directions and exterior descriptions used for Two Sisters in the previous article with only one exception. Pellar Estates Winery and Restaurant is right beside Two Sisters and the look and feel of Pellar makes you think the two sisters are Two Sisters and Pellar Estates.

Both could be walked to from the village of Niagara-on-the-lake (but it would be too long of a walk back with a case of wine should you want to do that!)

Both have long lanes into the property. Both have a chateau look about them like Chateau Des Charmes. Both of them were busy outside in their parking lots like at Gretzky’s, which, as I have written before, is rare for wineries here in Ontario.

This long lane into Pellar Estates isn’t tree-lined like the one at Two Sisters. One of the few differences regarding their exteriors. Photo Credit: Owen Thornton.

Both of them offer exclusive tastings with an ‘almost’ mandatory booking in advance. Both have costly tastings with Two Sisters coming in at $30/tasting, and Pellar at $25/tasting (three wines).

Where Pellar Differs:

We couldn’t find service at Two Sisters. To be fair the place was jammed, though the personnel were many (but were just not quite enough to handle us upon our entry). However, when we entered Pellar, we were well looked after.  

Upon entry we were greeted by people at a main desk and were ushered over the large entryway over to the spacious retail location.

We were inside mere moments before staff asked if they could help us. In fact a number of people asked us if we wanted help. Ah … we were back to familiar confines of wineries in Ontario with that homey feel created by the warmth of the people who work there!

Unique:

In the first instance of my contact with staff, I asked my usual question of, “Please direct us away from any wines you might already sell in Ontario’s beer, wine and spirits retailer.”

I ask this question because there’s no point in traveling 3 to 3.5 hours to a winery and buying something I could get in a provincial retailer around the corner from my home that’s five minutes away.

I’ve had one other unique experience to the answer to this question. One was at Henry of Pelham, where I was pointed to only three or four wines that were NOT sold in Ontario’s main beer, wine and spirits retailer. Most other wineries point to a couple to a few wines sold in the main system while all the rest of the wines are unique to the winery.

Here my answer was, perhaps, the most unique one I’ve ever experienced: “There are no wines in this shop that are in the main Ontario retailer.”

Wow! Carte blanche! Everything was up for grabs.

The Retail Space:

The retail space was large and spacious. There’s one entrance so you walk past the check out counter on the way in. Wines lined the walls. There were other square displays in the central part of the space that stood six or seven feet high that were filled with bottles from the vineyard. Everywhere you looked there were bottles on display.

Prices here were wider ranging than at Two Sisters, with some products being lower, but many were priced at the similarly high prices we had just seen next door.

In addition to wine there was glassware, honey, jams and other items on sale, giving the place the feel of a winery combined with a high-end country store.

What we bought:

Unable to have a tasting here, even if we were interested (mostly by appointment only), we were limited to our buying “sight-untasted” routine.

Nearing the end of our trip we were once again limited by our feeling that we ‘had enough wine already’.

Working in line with our own hesitation of already having enough wine, prices here were high, so that fact combined with our sense that we had enough, we didn’t go crazy at Pellar.

For some reason I cannot remember why we left with two Cabernet Sauvignons, one Gamay and a Chardonnay. As you may well know, Gamays are light reds, and Carrie really likes those – so we thought it was well worth a ‘sight-untasted’ try! Gamays are also fairly uncommon finds in Ontario, adding another reason why we wanted to give it a try.

What’s Online:

Looking at the ordering website I found 11 ice wine packages (a couple of three-packs). There aren’t that many varieties, but each type comes in different sizes to accommodate your price threshold. There ARE red ice wines in the mix, and I encourage you to try these as they give an entirely different experience from the white ones!

There are nine entries for each of the white and red wine categories and there are five in the rosé and sparkling list. Some of the wines on these pages CAN be found at Ontario’s major wine retailer!

Summary:

I liked the Pellar experience. I may not have been in line with the scheduled tastings and some of the prices, but hey, every winery has its class of production. You will like range of types of wines, but prices may limit your purchasing power. The feel of the place was friendly. I’ll call it corporate boutique — far away from, say the sense of homey and family operated places. The staff are well trained, attentive, helpful — they were there when we had questions about they style of wine we wanted to buy — and they add warmth and charm to the atmosphere.

The wine here WILL turn your head. You will like the experience.

Go to Pellar.

You will have a grand experience.

Owen

PS: Upon leaving the grounds there was a sign on the laneway stating that the winery was closed to the public because of a special, private function. We didn’t even know the winery had basically closed around us while we were inside. A kudo to Pellar for how we were treated the entire time we were there … perhaps inconveniencing them a wee bit at the time!!!

Wine: Two Sisters: Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario

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By: Owen

Date Written: January 17, 2024

Date Posted: February 28, 2024 (Happy, almost leap-year day!)

Home Away From Home (Quick-stop) Ranking: 1.9/4

Trip Planning Categories (linked): City: Niagara-on-the-Lake/County Niagara/Appellation: Niagara

Two Sisters Vineyards (linked) lies just outside of the town of Niagara-on-the-Lake at 240 John Street East. Many wineries have Niagara-on-the-Lake (I’ve linked the town name to a map for you) as an address, but it’s more of a regional area than the actual town. However, in the case of Two Sisters, had we had our bearings, we could have walked there.

If you look at the map, we were able to easily walk to Fort George. With a different route, we really could have walked to two sisters!

Now ordinarily walking to a winery wouldn’t be wise for us, because the walk back with a case of wine would have been arduous – it was walkable, but not with a case of wine!!!

However, on this visit, we ‘could’ have made an exception. Our visit to Two Sisters was, perhaps the shortest visit on record.

I’ll record my experience first, then give you two different perspectives from friends who were there before us.

Our Mindset before the Visit:

In the morning of this fine, late August day, we had ambled over to Fort George and had walked the grounds to visit an Ontario Historic Site. She ‘be’ a windy, hold-onto-your-hats kind of day. We walked back to the B&B: Harrogate House, picked up the car and started exploring wineries.

On this occasion for Two Sisters, we were going to perform one of our traditional ‘quick-stop’ visits (availing it to have a maximum 4/4 ‘perfect’ ranking on my new, quick-stop, home-away-from-home scale). I’d had a tasting at Lailey’s moments before, so this driver wasn’t imbibing anytime soon! So, we were going to explore, pick up some bottles without tasting and maybe head on out to somewhere else.

Pulling into the Lane/Description of Facilities:

What a place! We drove down a long, paved lane lined with dark red maple trees. Parking was as difficult here as it has ever been at Wayne Gretzky’s Winery. It was challenging to even find a spot!

This fact alone is exceedingly rare for us.

The outside facility has the elegant presence of Chateau Des Charmes. Inside we walked down a hall and turned right into one of the busiest retail spaces we’ve ever experienced. (Had we taken a step beyond the retail space, we would have encountered the hostess to the restaurant. (This will become important later!) There were many serious buyers either at a long bar for tasting or at different locations where wine was on display around the room. Each person was being served by what appeared to be an attentive employee.

A checkout counter for purchases was just to our right. Someone or someones (I can’t remember if there was a line) was/were buying several bottles of wine when we entered.

The room was large, elegant, and well designed to display fine wines.

The Inside Experience:

Sadly, when a blogger enters a winery for the first time, it’s unfortunate that every single person working there is occupied. So, when we approached a wall of wine to look at the bottles, there was no one left to speak to us.

And someone WOULD have had to speak with us before purchasing wines at Two Sisters. Reds started at $50 and escalated to over $150. Whites started at the mid $30s and escalated upwards towards $90.

Had we had time for a tasting or a glass, we would have been able to assess what the wines were like. But on a ‘quick-stop’ visit, that wasn’t the case. So, even for wine-lovers like us, $50/bottle or more is a great expense when you have no idea what it is you are truly buying! That is why I wrote that it would have been fortuitous had an employee been available to guide us and answer questions about the wines we were looking at.

It could have made the world of difference.

Left to our own devices, we got a feel for the place by walking around to the various displays of different wines lining the walls.

Had We Had a Tasting:

Tastings are mainly booked in advance and are $30/person for a flight of four wines. Some of that price is reduced upon purchasing wine, but the amount returned to the customer is not disclosed. This is the highest price I’ve ever seen for a tasting. The website also indicates that walk-ins would be accommodated.

On this day, when we couldn’t even find someone to talk to because the winery was so busy (suggesting to us that all tasting spots would be filled), and with the notion that we really couldn’t do a tasting and drive, it wasn’t an option for us anyways.

The Wine: Our Exit:

We left with a single bottle: Eleventh Post, a 2023 Double-Gold winner from the All Canadian Wine Championship. Eleventh Post is the least expensive red in the winery and is a blend of Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and Cabernet Sauvignon and is $47.80/bottle.

Truly feeling, by now, that we were ignored, we approached the check-out, where at that point the check-out person left and never returned. We got the sense she’d been called away and that’s okay. A simple, “Someone will be right here to help you,” would have been perfect, had the line been delivered. We were simply abandoned. Wow! What horrible timing!

We waited some time to buy our bottle. Finally, I stuck my head out into the hallway that lead further into the building and to the restaurant, or out towards the exit.

At this point the hostess of the restaurant, (I told you this would come back later) asked politely if she could help. We explained that we wanted to make a purchase and had been waiting a while.

Seeing as she didn’t have anyone at her station, she came into the retail space and checked us out calmly and efficiently.

To me, this shows management cross-trains people so they can each do the other’s job, so her ability to check us out speaks well for the winery and how it’s run.

Perhaps on this day, in this instant, they were simply ‘overrun’.

We made a hasty retreat, single bottle in hand.

Two Other Reviews:

I returned to work at the provincial retailer of beer, wine and spirits and asked a trained wine professional about Two Sisters. This person, who has been around the world buying wine, merely commented that the prices were too high. She was clearly buying wine elsewhere.

But let me end this review on a Two Sisters high. A friend of mine had been to Two Sisters. It may be that his high praise for the winery was what inspired our visit in the first place.

I think his review and mine hinge upon state-of-mind before entering. I’m uncertain about some details of his visit as we didn’t discuss it thoroughly, but here’s why I think he liked it so much.

First, he was on a relaxing trip. However he heard about Two Sisters, he knew well enough to book tastings in advance. Second, his tasting was a real treat for he and his wife and so the price point of that tasting was a part of a planned, elegant visit to a high-end winery. Unlike us, he wasn’t ‘just stopping by’.

In addition, because he had a planned tasting, he probably checked in and was taken to the tasting and was well looked after by staff, so he never had to ‘find someone’ to help him. The help was built into his booking and his praise of the location makes me think that the staff were fun, helpful, knowledgeable, and attentive.

These are not things I ‘know’ but it is how I ‘guess’ one has a great time at a winery … otherwise the time wouldn’t be so great!

He clearly liked the wine, and I’m betting he bought some too, so the price of the tastings were reduced with the purchase of the wine.

In addition, because he’d had a tasting and knew the calibre of the wine he was buying, he probably had less sticker-shock than someone just walking in from a fresh tour of Fort George. He KNEW what he was buying. (We didn’t, and couldn’t find anyone to help us with our selection so we could feel confident the wine suited our personal tastes.)

Two different experiences. Almost like two different people … like … er … well … Two Sisters can be very, very different one from another. One you love, the other … you can take her or leave her.

What can I say. I was underwhelmed. My friend was overwhelmed.

Here’s the fair point I can make. If you want to go to Two Sisters, book a tasting in advance. Make an experience out of your visit. It is my firm belief you will have a splendiferous time.

But to just drop by …

Well.

Now you know.

Owen

Note: I removed all images from my “Barley Days” brewery review as I cannot confirm it if is still open. So, some images are lost to older posts, once again.

Wine: Lailey Winery: Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario

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By: Owen

Date Written: January 10, 2024

Date Posted: February 22, 2024

Home Away From Home Ranking: 3.5/5

Trip Planning Categories (linked): City: Niagara-on-the-Lake/County: Niagara/Appellation: Niagara

Lying between Niagara-on-the-Lake and Niagara Falls, Ontario, is Lailey Winery at 15940, Niagara Parkway Line Six Road, Niagara-on-the-Lake. Unlike others who have a regional address of Niagara-on-the-Lake, Lailey, truly is right there beside the town.

Arrival:

When we arrived in Late August, the nearby field of sunflowers were in full bloom. You don’t see fields with these plants normally, in this part of Ontario, so it was quite nice to see a field of gorgeous, tall yellow flowers. Sunflowers always seem like such a happy flower!

While I took pictures of the outside, a recent patron stuffed a case of wine into his trunk before leaving.

The Tasting:

On this day it was my turn for a tasting. Had we known our next two stops would be tastings-by-appointment only, Carrie might have joined me.

You’ll see by my photo that I was fair to whites and reds with two of each in my flight.

Checking their website for a full flight of wines, there are 13 whites and 12 reds for sale. Two in each category are reserved for wine club members only.

One of the first things we quickly noticed is that wines here were not for the faint of heart as many wines hover close to the $80/bottle range. Once you make it past the $60/bottle zone, you’ll not be seeing us buy as many wines as we might have otherwise! We immediately knew we weren’t leaving with a case.

Whites were of typical varietals. Reds included a Syrah, which is somewhat rare, a Zweigelt, and a Malbec: the latter two are not often found in Ontario wineries.

History:

Lailey was recently sold and so it is recovering from its previous owner’s plans to make it a nearly exclusive ice-wine producer. Non ice wines are now making a comeback.

For our entire stay during my tasting, we remained the only two people in the building, other than our helpful host. Our host was a true asset to Lailey. She was knowledgeable and kind. You don’t need much more from a staff member than that to receive a high ranking from us.

Awards:

Upon entrance we learned from an A-frame chalkboard display that two Gold medal winners from the 2023 National Wine Awards of Canada were on site: a 2020 Stonebridge Merlot Reserve and a 2019 Stonebridge East Reserve Chardonnay. Stonebridge looks to be Lailey’s higher-level brand.

In fact, the Merlot Reserve was also a United Kingdom Silver Medal Winner at the Decanter Awards.

Inside:

The retail facility had a very long bar, with racks of wine across from it. We entered at the right end of the bar where the check-out was. We sat, for my tasting, at a table at the far left end of the bar, where the space opens up for a couple of tables.

It was a brisk, windy morning on this day, or we might have sat at tables in a grass-covered patio off the right-hand side of the retail space. It looked lovely out there, except for the brisk winds.

Sometimes, I think, quiet places are a dream. Certainly, we’d rather be the only two people in a facility than two of a house of people jammed inside of a place. In this instance we felt a little like intruders in a place that felt like it was five minutes before closing … just not quite comfy. A few other people in the room may have warmed up the space a little. We wished we’d been a few minutes earlier so that the couple who had been leaving when we arrived were still inside. They may have warmed the place up a bit.

We knew the price point of the wines even as I carried my flight to the end of the bar to sit down. You see we walked past all the wines on rack to our left as we made our way to our seats. So, knowing the prices we knew we weren’t coming home with very much.

It’s difficult to assess a place like Laileys. With a 180 degree change in direction from being an ice winery, back to its original roots, it felt, by the tasting, that it was still trying to get its feet back under itself.

I didn’t feel their wines held up to their high price point. Don’t get me wrong. We’ve been to places like this before. Stratus, comes to mind. And, as you’ll read in two upcoming posts, two more wineries fallow suit … at least with their price points … and these two wineries were both neighbours of Lailey.

Maybe the pricing has something to do with the region?

Service and Our Purchases:

Now. We were made to feel welcome by the host. We had excellent service and polite company when we talked to the server/host. Everything was right, except, perhaps for the pricing structure.

In the end, we left with four: a Cabernet Sauvignon, one of its parents, a Cabernet Franc, and a Chardonnay and a Riesling – typical varietals for the region.

Lailey, for us, wasn’t a winery that invited us back. There are others we need to visit, and still others where we need to give them a second chance before we head back to this particular winery.

A couple of years seems like the right time for the winery to settle into itself … to get to know itself once again.

But don’t let me be your only judge. The people before us did leave with a case. Maybe a second chance is just what Lailey should receive from us.

Cheers

Owen

Note: More back issue pictures have disappeared from previous posts.

Planning Your Trip

Here are the steps we take to plan a trip where you visit breweries, wineries, cideries or distilleries. It’s taken a few years to become savvy enough to ensure we plan successfully and to suit our travelling style. From big picture down to planning where to dine at the end of the day, this is the video you need to watch as your guide.

Awards 2023: The Best of the Best

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By: Owen

Date Written: November 20 and December 15, 2023, January 5 2024

Date Posted: February 12, 2024

Home Away From Home Ranking: NA

Best Restaurant at a facility where libations are produced:

WINNER: Sin: Spirits in Niagara (458 Lakeshore Road, Niagara-on-the-Lake): Once visited days after opening a couple of years ago, we returned to Spirits in Niagara for dinner. I’ll give the food a 9/10 for creativity, flavour and presentation. The atmosphere was hampered by two things, and I mean to fix one of them here. First there were too few patrons, making the place feel less cozy than it could have. So, as more of you go there, that will take care of that!!! Second, the facility is an open, working distillery that’s three stories high making patrons feel small in a larger-than-life room. Some long-hanging fixtures at normal ceiling height could warm the facility, close it in a bit and make it homier.

Place Most Missed:

WINNER: Back 10 Cellars (4101 King Street, Beamsville): We’ve had two weird days this year, both near the end of our trips. Later in our trips, without significant plans, or on getaway day, we have simply been antsy to go home. So, we’ve short-changed our own experience. Back 10 was supposed to be visited on get-away-day, but we ‘got away’ too soon and it wasn’t open for a couple of hours. And so we missed this lovely home-away-from-home stop. There may well be an on-line order coming.

In the honourable mention category: Flat Rock Cellars (2727 Seventh Ave., Jordan Station) missed for its great wine and lovely space to sit and imbibe and; Silversmith Brewing Company 1523 Stone Road, Virgil) missed for its fine beer and for a planned and missed lunch stop. It may compete for best restaurant if we can ever get there!

Glass of … Most Enjoyed (A place where we stayed and had a glass):

WINNER: Cornerfield Wine Company: (74444 Bluewater Hwy., Bayfield): Plan for an outdoor tasting here (on a day when it is NOT raining) and you’ll have ambience to the N^th degree. We love sitting along Lake Huron Shores, looking at vines. This lovely patio changes and expands annually with new features making it more wonderful each year. There are heaters to extend the season and a gazebo which doubles as a performance stage too. WONderful!

RUNNERS UP: Ravine Vineyard Estate Winery: (1366 York Road, St. David’s Ontario): Ravine captured our imagination. With great wine in our hands, nothing but time in the day, and overlooking vineyards in the distance we sat on a vast patio, virtually on our own, and simply whiled the day away. What a lovely spot for a glass on a bright, sunshiny summer’s day! We were so inspired; we know we will come back!

Also in the runner up category is Coffin Ridge Estate Winery and Vineyard (and now home of Kilannan Brewing too!): (599488 Concession Road 2, Annan, Ontario): This northern, southwestern Ontario (VQA Georgian Bay Emerging Region) winery and cidery and now brewery just envelopes you in warmth and personality. Carrie’s glass of mulled wine was yummo. My flight of beers from Kilannan were spectacular. We make the 3.5 hour drive on good-weather fall Saturdays just for lunch and a glass and to store up on wine. (The beer I’d have taken home too, but was there a week before the first batches were even canned! Dang it!)

Tasting Most Enjoyed (multiple sips of different items) (maybe all-time!):

WINNER: NOMAD at Hinterbrook Estate Winery: (1181 Lakeshore Road, Niagara-on-the-Lake (more like a region than a town)): I may be letting the kitty out of the knapsack a bit, here, but we found a server delighted to give us what he/she thought we should taste, not what we ordered. Oh, we did get what we ordered eventually, but not before tasting a lot of other things. NOMAD/Hinterbrook did well with this server as we bought a case at the end of our trip, which, if you’ve ever read this blog, is exceptionally odd for us! Oh, and even though I promise to visit new wineries? We WILL be going back here. That’s ‘like, fer sure’!

There may have been runner’s up in this category, but anyone would be soooo far back in second place. We had a riot at NOMAD/Hinterbrook!

Best New Taste 2023:

WINNER: Bad Apple Brewing: Strawberry Cider: (73463 Bluewater Hwy: Zurich): Just down the same highway from Cornerfield Winery, (labelled as in Bayfield (which it is NOT in the town) you’ll find Bad Apple, which is also NOT in Zurich! Anywho, when at great beer stops like Bad Apple (Hey Jason!!!), I sometimes feel guilty for buying stuff I cannot share with Carrie. So, at last, Bad Apple is selling its own ciders and I picked up a few for her (to compensate for all the beer I was buying myself). When we got home, “Hulk was sad” because I didn’t buy enough! With the best-tasting Strawberry, I’ve ever experienced in virtually anything I’ve ever had that contained strawberry, Bad Apple knocks this seasonal cider out of the park, the next park, and the park after that. That’s a home run cubed! Way to go Bad Apple! I may have to rename you Bad Cider! (Umm, that may not have come out as complimentary as I meant it to!)

RUNNER-UP: Kinsip House of Fine Spirits: Maple Whisky: (66 Gilead Road, Bloomfield, ON): This was a close category. If you like the taste of maple and of whisky then this concoction comes in at a perfect balance. It’s not sweet like you would imagine a liqueur, rather it is maple flavoured whisky (does that description help?). You find a lovely maple flavour at the beginning and still get that whisky taste at the finish of the sip. This is THE bottle I’d order on-line before waiting to return to Kinsip for another one. Okay. I might order MORE than one bottle at a time!

Best Christmas Special Product and Best Gin 2023 (and maybe ever):

WINNER: Union 10: Christmas Gin: (656 Dundas Street, London, ON): A Double Winner!!! Oh, the taste. Less ‘junipery’ than most gins I like, this special edition Gin has notes of Christmas. Carrie detects cinnamon, nutmeg … notes of a wonderful Christmas cookie right inside your rock’s glass with some Fever Tree Tonic. But, “Oh the glory” of the gold dust inside. Turn the securely lidded bottle over and give it a good rhumba swirl and you’ll turn the entire bottle into a gold dust snow globe. GORGEOUS!!! Two sad notes about this gin? 1. It’s seasonal. (Which may make it even MORE special.) 2. The retail space at Union 10 is in the heart of homeless London (also tragic) which deters customers from dropping by. The retail space was open in December but will be a pick-up only locale the rest of the year. Check out their on-line ordering system to get yours while supplies last. So, because the lovely retail space is also closed most of the year, just shopping there makes even that experience MORE loverly.

Best New ‘Beer, Wine and Spirits Retailer’ Product In Ontario retail space:

WINNERS — IT”S A TIE!: Wayne Gretzky Estates (1219 Stone Road, Niagara-on-the-Lake) Wayne Gretzky Maple Cask Canadian Whisky (Product Code 17885); and Wolfhead Distillery and Restaurant (7781 Howard Avenue, Amherstburg, Ontario) Cinnamon Whisky (Product Code 29193):

Gretzky Maple: No longer will I long for this Maple Cask Whisky as it’s now in a few beer, wine and spirit retailers around the province. If you’ve ever read a review of mine about Wayne’s winery and distillery, one of the things you’ll note is that its one of the few wineries/distilleries in Ontario so busy you can’t find a place to park. Once, I drove through the full lot and left, knowing I could come back another day later in my trip. (I don’t have to go anywhere where it’s not easy to even stop the car!) So, going to Wayne’s in Niagara, is a long way and sometimes inconvenient … no matter how great this whisky really is. And it is terrific. Placed in used Maple Casks, this whisky has the beautiful flavour of maple, without it being overpoweringly sweet. You get the notes of Maple first, and upon the swallow, you taste the great whisky on the finish. You’ll drink this product like a single malt rather than with mix. It is special!

Wolfhead Cinnamon: No longer will I long for this Cinnamon Whisky as it’s now in a few beer, wine and spirit retailers around the province. I recently wrote an article about representing Wolfhead’s Coffee Liqueur. In it I slathered additional praise for their Cinnamon Whisky. If you’ve ever read a review of mine about Wolfhead, one of the things you’ll note is that we’ve been to the restaurant three times and we take the backroad, 3-hour drive to get there for lunch – so it IS a worthwhile experience. Once there, I’ll have the fresh perch dinner. Carrie has had a myriad of sandwiches and has loved them all. Now, there’s a covered outdoor pavilion to increase the number of tables in warmer weather! Why do I love this Cinnamon Whisky? It is ‘not’ like the others in that most have a ‘red-cinnamon-heart-like’ burn to the taste which overpowers my tastebuds. But this cinnamon flavour is gentler, like the whisky has been ‘seasoned’ rather than overpowered. So, you taste the cinnamon flavour, and then you taste the good whisky notes in behind. You’ll drink this product like a single malt rather than with mix. It is special!

Best trip not taken:

WINNER: Stratford on the Avon. I was ‘this’ close to making this trip this year – a couple of years overdue – when an unexpected delay forced a cancellation. AAAAARRRRGH! Gone were visits to three great microbreweries and one distillery: Heritage Hops (21 Market Place Stratford, ON), Black Swan (no website to link to) (144 Downie Street, Stratford, ON), Job Site (45 Cambria Street, Stratford, ON) breweries were missed this year along with Junction 56 Distillery (45 Cambria Street, Stratford, ON). Honorable mention of a non-alcohol-producing business goes to Rheo Thompson Candies (55 Albert Street, Stratford, ON) – however we did order a box for Christmas (with flawless delivery!). As Arnie would say, “I’ll be back!”

Biggest Promises:

Promise Made to Actual Producer: Between-the-Lines (991 Four Mile Creek Road, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario): For the first time ever, I called a winery and promised to make an actual tasting date. We’ve visited Between-the-Lines in Niagara twice and both times we made quick stops to just buy product and both times we couldn’t find anyone to help us. So, in the best interest of the winery I called them to tell them we loved them, but we had this problem. I ended up promising we’d do a tasting there this year. We just wanna give them a third try because we love their wines sooo much!

Hoped-for Promises to Self of Places to Either Order From or Visit: Walkerville Brewing Company: (525 Argyle Road, Windsor, Ontario): I have promised myself to buy either a predetermined or my own mix and match two-four from Walkerville. If I never ranked them as the best stop at a microbrewery ever, I should have. I love their beer and everyone at Walkerville and I want to support them. There’s only so much product I can ship to my wife’s workplace, you know? And I just can’t have it come home for fear of porch thieves, eh? Railway City Brewing: (130 Edward Street, St. Thomas, Ontario): I love their Copper beer, which, I’ve been informed they no longer brew. One of the few beers of which I’d buy many multiples. I have to go back and do a tasting to find a new fave! Wolfhead Distillery and Restaurant (7781 Howard Avenue, Amherstburg, Ontario). I just like going there and having lunch. But it’s a 3.5 hour trip, you know, and my days off don’t coincide with my wife’s so it’s challenging to get there! Also a promise to myself to MAKE the trip not taken to Stratford. (See the links above!) Great city, great beer, great distillery, great chocolates – gotta go there! Last, Back 10 Cellars (4101 King Street, Beamsville): I love this winery, and the peeps who own it. Again, it’s A: taking the time to order wine when you already have some at home and B: not being able to send it to my home and C: finding the time to imbibe it all. Grrrr!

Conclusion:

Yeah, I DO get around. The fact is, I don’t get around enough! There are so many places I’d go if A: I could manage the time and B: my liver could withstand the strain!!!

Look.

I share these places with you because I want you to share in the experiences too … because they’re great places to go, with great products and people to enjoy. That’s why I do this.

Love you dear readers. I do, I do, I do.

Owen

Here’s a video talking about blogging future

Wine: Caroline Cellars Family Estate Winery: Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario

ontariocrafts.wordpress.com

By: Owen

Date Written: January 2 & 3, 2024

Date Posted: February 6, 2024

Home Away From Home Ranking: 5/5

What an interesting place. Caroline Cellars Family Estate Winery at 1010 Line 2, Niagara-on-the-Lake is like a place out of time.

History:

Named after the woman who loaned her children the money to buy the 50-acre property (Rick and Frieda Lakeit) Caroline Cellars feels like it’s a step out of time. Entering the property, I felt as though I’d stepped into the 1970s. It’s all wood interior, aerial photos of the farm on the wall, a picture of Caroline front and centre, racks of gear … well none of it is out of step with modern wineries … and still the place feels out of step with the times.

How we Found Caroline Cellars:

Perhaps too, surprisingly, the prices of their wines are lower than most with some $12.95 entries. Other’s near or break the $20.00 plateau, and their array of icewines are competitively priced!

We discovered Caroline Cellars via our hosts at our B&B, Harrogate House Inn. Kenton is excellent to probe about wineries as he feels it is part of his and Elisabeth’s responsibility to his patrons to check out area attractions so he can either pan (or caution) or recommend wineries.

In the case of Caroline Cellars, he hadn’t been there, but it something the place was doing had created enough ‘buzz’ for him to mention it.

The Tone of the Day Before the Visit:

On this beautiful sunny day in August, we’d been to the Butterfly Conservatory, Ravine, Big Head and Between the Lines. After our somewhat lacklustre visit at Between the Lines where we bought excellent wines but couldn’t find someone to help us buy them, we opted for one more stop: Caroline Cellars.

The stop was a spontaneous one and was based on the fact that it was too early to go back to the B&B, that we were looking for some place new (to us) to go that was in the direction of our B&B, and that Caroline Cellars was in line with home for the night, and it didn’t hurt that we’d talked about it that morning. It was top of mind.

Carrie’s Tasting:

Upon entry we decided Carrie would have a tasting. A sign outside recommended making a reservation for a tasting, but on this day, we had no problem. We pulled up seats to the tasting area and Carrie sipped away.

Our host was extremely helpful, professional and knowledgeable. Tastings were inexpensive at $5 per and I believe Carrie had three.

I had a sip of each one too.

She tried a Foch, a Riesling, and their plum wine.

How the Tone of the Day Directed Our Purchases:

The Niagara Region is three hours by back roads away from where we live. So, when you find a wine you like, you have to buy it then, as you just can’t ‘pop over’ and get a bottle before dinner when inspiration strikes you. And, we get excited at wineries. There are so many good wines in Ontario. We want to buy a little bit of everything when we’re there.

Because we get excited, we probably buy too much at one place and by the end of a day and especially at the end of a trip, we’re getting hesitant to buy as much as we’re excited to buy, for two reasons: one, wine does come at a price and two, there’s only so much you can drink and be responsible.

About the Tasted Wine (Plum):

So, I think Caroline’s suffered from us having bought two-and-a-bit cases in the past couple of hours.

But here’s the thing. Each wine we tasted was truly smashing. The Foch was fruit-forward and rich-tasting on the mouth. The Riesling was superb.

But oh my God was the Plum wine spectacular! (Sadly for you, it’s sold out on the web site!)

We like fruit wines when they’re made well. We have found that red fruits, strawberry, cherry, raspberry can make bold statements about the fruit. But sometimes the paler fruits like plum and pear … sort of taste like there’s a hint of the fruit inside the bottle – they don’t give you that burst of fruit flavour you might like.

Not so with this spectacular plum wine. I have to say it was one of the most fruitacular, bold-fruit flavoured wines I’ve ever had and that’s saying a lot for the humble plum! Sinsational!!!

Inspired Purchases:

Now, we were … odd … ? … in our purchases at Caroline Cellars. Often, once we’ve had a positive taste experience of three wines, we’ll turn around and not only buy those wines but several of their others.

We didn’t do that in this case. That’s odd for us. What we did do was buy three each of the Foch and the Plum and one of the Riesling. Buying three of one bottle is also strange for us. Rarely we’ll buy a half case of something really special. But beyond one or two of a single kind of wine … we don’t do that very often either.

So, we didn’t buy wines outside our tasting and we did buy three bottles of two of them: both odd-for-us considering our normal buying patterns.

I think how we bought was partly due to the number of wines we ‘had’ bought at other places that day and we felt we had to reign ourselves back in. We might have only bought two of the Foch and the Pear, but I think I pushed a little to make it three (in part because they were so damn good!).

The logic here, if there was any, was: we have enough and don’t really need more, but these wines we tasted were so good we really ought to bring some home with us. So, we bought lots of what we tasted, and nothing else simply because we felt we didn’t need any more wine at that time. I mean, any more back at our house … ev-ver! That’s the framework we were in at the time.

Recommendation:

How do I recommend Caroline Cellars? I think this place is ‘a find’. It’s a special place that inspires second and third and maybe even fourth visits.

It’s friendly. It most definitely is not pretentious. We’ll meet up with pretentious wineries in the posts to come, where lower-priced wines were $60-$90!

Caroline Cellars makes great wines. There are 32 products, that I found on the website. There are a few ice wines in the mix and they have Cab Franc, red ice wine as well as a Cabernet Sauvignon red ice wine (which is a tad more expensive that the Cab Franc). I mention these ice wines specifically because if you like sweet, then red ice wines are a knock-out experience should you ever find them and have the time to taste them! Based on the wines I’ve tasted from Caroline Cellars, everything you buy there will be stellar.

I liked this place. You will too.

There’s a restaurant, reasonable prices, friendly folk and great wines. The atmosphere will take you back to a simpler time … and that’s in keeping with the vibe Caroline Cellars projects. Sort of like the feel we received in Prince Edward County. More … family rather than corporate.

Go. Visit. And when you’ve gone once, you’ll vow to return.

Cheers

Owen

Wine: Between the Lines: Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario

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By: Owen

Date Written: December 27, 2023

Date Posted: January 31, 2024

Home Away From Home Ranking: 2.8/4 Quick-Stop Ranking (see changing evaluation system below)

Travel Searches by Category: Town: Virgil / VQA Winery Region: Niagara / County of Ontario: Niagara

For the second consecutive year, we made a quick-stop at Between the Lines at 991 Four Mile Creek Road, Niagara-on-the-Lake Road. (Just so you know, Niagara-on-the-Lake is more of a regional address, than it is a huge city, so to say something is at Niagara-on-the-Lake as in the actual town is misleading!)

We drove up the long gravel lane to the main building. Interestingly, this winery must have some ‘buzz’ or it’s in bed with a LOT of tour companies as it was a bustling concern, again, on this second visit. By bustling what do I mean?

Customer Numbers: By Comparison.

For example, whether it’s the time of year, or the day of the week or the time of day we visit, Carrie and I often find ourselves to be either the only people in a winery, or … a couple amongst a couple of other couples. That’s about it!

In exception, whenever I’ve gone to Gretzky’s, the place is so jammed I can rarely find a parking spot … in a VERY big parking lot. These numbers of folks in wineries are the two extremes we typically experience. Alone or almost alone (most visits), or shoulder-to-shoulder (only a few). In the past, a few other places have been in the shoulder-to-shoulder category: Trius, Inniskillin, and Reif Estate. Of the dozens of visits I’ve made to wineries, I’d say less than ten would have made anyone claustrophobic because of crowds (and two or three of these would all be at Gretzkys).

Interestingly Between the Lines has been in this category both visits. Wine tours and other random visitors fill the tasting area and make parking, not difficult, but at least … er … challenging?

Me? I’ve never been to Between the Lines for a tasting … the timing’s never been right. Besides, upon both occasions, I’m not sure I could have found a place to sit down to experience a tasting had I wanted to!

Interesting side note, then. If you should want to go there for a tasting, book it in advance!

Interesting Wines:

And maybe I should perform that tasting. Between the Lines has Lemberger (red: regular and reserve), Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Riesling, Cabernet Franc, ice wines (white and red) and now a Gewurztraminer. There are regular wines in the mid $20 range, and reserves escalate towards $60. One Ice Wine is $90.00. On their website there are 15 products in stock with seven more, different wines being out of stock at the time of this edit (January 17, 2024). (Total 22 when in stock!.)

A Quick-Stop:

So, a quick-stop for us is stepping into the retail section, buying sight-untasted and leaving. Quick-stops are usually a result of either just having had a tasting, or a glass, or we know we have a booked tasting upcoming. As safety for us and the other people on Niagara-on-the-Lake roads is paramount, we cannot taste everywhere we go. Last year at Between the Lines, I think we left with four bottles. This year, it was six.

The Wines:

We left with a Pinot Noir, a Cabernet Franc (my second fave after Grenache), two Lembergers, a Riesling and an unsung Gewuerztraminer. Unsung because we like it and somehow, even when we see it, we select others before it. We are looking forward to trying all the wines we purchased. They WILL be good, maybe even great!

Locale Description And Service:

The retail space is small and straight in front of you when you enter. The space might be seven feet wide and the racks of wine are all on the wall directly in front of you. The host/hostess station is to the left, just in front of the wines on display. The bar to the tasting room is through an opening to your left. The place is all naturally hewn wood and stainless steel vats … at least the part I took photos of …

If, when you visit, there’ll be a hub and a bub noise coming from the left. It’s a place that’s alive with excitement and energy. Obviously that’s where all the people are; the ones who belong to the cars and wine-tour busses jammed in the parking lot!

Our Purchasing Experience:

At the host/hostess station in the retail section? Well, both times we’ve been there, it’s been unattended. Both times we had to stick our heads into the busy tasting area to find someone to help us. Both times we waited for a bit before anyone came to help us with our selections.

Always, once we found someone to help us, they were gracious, charming and knowledgeable.

Grace. Always grace. There’s been a shortage of people to hire in winery regions. Jobs may be seasonal, have odd hours, and are located at places where employees require a car to get to them. So, without public transportation, it would be challenging to get the right number and mix of people to work at your winery who can also drive there to get to work.

For example, in the fall of 2022 we missed a rather large winery we wanted to visit on our exit from Niagara-on-the-Lake because the winery couldn’t open at its traditional 10am time because there wasn’t enough staff to ensure good service. So, because we left before 11am, we missed them.

It happens. We were sad to miss them, but we understand.

So, when you enter a retail space with no staff and have to wait around for service before buying product, we DO get that.

Between the Lines may be a victim of their own successful wines and public relations. While on the routes of several wine tour companies (both times we were there, multiple different tours were there), these tours require a lot of staff.

The problem is, when the host/hostess of the retail space is engaged with customers in the tasting area, it leaves the retail space wanting for staff. And this is the two-time situation we’ve found ourselves in at Between the Lines.

Your Projected Experience:

When you go there (and you should), and it may be on your one-day wine tour, you will enjoy spectacular wines from a newer vineyard, working to make a very good name for itself. There are unique varietals to surprise you, and they’re all very tasty.

Changing Evaluation System and this Winery’s Ranking:

I’m permanently changing my evaluation system. Previously, all locations were ranked on a 0-5 scale. However, I’ve recently written that quick-stops without a glass or a tasting can only ever rank as high as a 4/5 at best because it’s the people at long stops who escalate the ranking to 5 (or more) out of five.

So quick-stops will now be on a 0-4 ranking, while stops for food, a glass or a tasting will be on a 0-5 ranking: the difference being the ability to connect with people in the latter score!

So, Between the Lines is on the first ever 0-4 scale. I’m giving them a 2.8/4. Great location feel, great display, great wine. But upon this second visit it marks the second time we had to go searching for someone to help us, and even then we waited before we could purchase our wines. Had someone even discovered us and told us they’d be right there, I would have ranked the visit higher. Quick-stops to buy, aren’t quick when you have to search for staff and wait for them to arrive.

Once you have their attention, like most other places the retail staff are tree-mendous, knowledgeable, and kind! They do put you at ease. They are just too overrun in the tasting area to help those at the retail section.

You’ll love the wine here. It’s worth the wait. But. Wait you will. At least, that’s our experience.

Will we go back? The quality of the wine, and the excellent atmosphere demands it!

Cheers

Owen

Wine: Big Head Winery: Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario

ontariocrafts.wordpress.com

By: Owen

Date Written: December 12, 2023

Date Posted: January 22, 2024

Home Away From Home Ranking: 7/5

Trip Planning Categories (linked): City: St. Catherines/County Niagara/Appellation: Niagara

Welcome to visit two at Big Head 823, Line Six Road, Niagara-on-the-Lake.

Last year Big Head was a new winery to us, recommended by Kenton Needham of Harrogate House Inn. Harrogate House is ‘our’ B&B/inn place to stay in the heart of Niagara-on-the-Lake, a two-minute walk to downtown. It’s an “Inn” in that it has five rooms completely detached from the living quarters of the owners, Kenton and Elizabeth. It’s a B&B in that they step through the magical door that separates their home from the Inn in order to serve guests breakfasts … and ‘oh’ what breakfasts they serve. (Kenton is a master at the coffee machine too!)

This lovely couple keeps tabs on the wine happenings in the region and once Kenton is untethered from the morning breakfast making, he will come out and share his thoughts on where he and Elizabeth have visited.

Big Head was on the tip of his tongue last year. When we went last year, the main entrance was under construction and we’d just had a full tour of Niagara Parks Power Station tour (Canadian Side) with a tour of the non-working power generating station, a meal at Skylon Tower and a walk around the Falls.

Returning from The Falls from our tour and lunch, we came down the escarpment and headed in from The Niagara River towards Big Head.

There we made a quick stop and bought a few bottles to give them a try.

Obviously we liked them and made the effort to return. Good news for Big Head, and great news for you.

This time Carrie had a tasting. Before bringing you the details of that, it clearly went well, as I’m giving Big Head a 7/5 on the home-away-from-home rating.

Here’s why. Carrie’s selections were poured one-at-a-time by a dedicated server who knew a great deal about the wines. It almost felt as though we were getting such details as, “and this grape was picked on November (date). It was a cloudy Tuesday as I recall and …”

But no. Conversations weren’t that detailed, but her server offered great answers to any questions asked, provided knowledge we couldn’t know to ask about and was cordial, and well-trained. Big Head is lucky to have him.

While we were conversing about wines and the facility and the vineyard in general, he even pointed out that there was a terracotta vat being used to produce a future special wine. This type of vat will add a different flavour profile to the wine inside from their more traditional concrete eggs, or the types other wineries utilize: steel, or oak barrels.

Going back a third year in a row may be in order simply so we can try a glass from that vat!!!

Big Head offers a large open space. Many concrete vats are about. The tasting bar juts out into the room. Tables to sit and have a glass or a flight are amidst the concrete vats where wine percolates away while you’re sampling.

Big Head wines, by the nature of the name, are not shrinking violets. If you want full-flavoured wines pungent with the best of the berries from the vines, this is da place!

What we took Home:

This year we came home with six bottles. Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, and two lesser-found varietals in Ontario, Savagnin Blanc and a Malbec.

Previously our only interpretation of Savagnin Blanc was from Burning Kiln in Norfolk County (emerging region). That version was a lovely, sweet wine. Big Head’s version is dry so we’re looking forward to trying it.

A Malbec?

This visit to Big Head marks the first time I can remember ever seeing Malbec on a bottle label. Seeing as the region is considered (overall – there may be micro-pockets of terroir where the climate is ranked differently) a cool climate zone, Malbec is way out of its normal successful growing range. It’s a warm-loving climate grape!

While I love trying the outliers from a region, growers may not love growing them. Perhaps the best Shiraz I ever had from Ontario at Cooper’s Hawk, near Harrow, Ontario (inside the Erie North Shore Appellation) – also a warm climate grape – when I called to order a half dozen, I was told that they were the end of the line. The vines had been pulled up and something less risky to grow had been planted in their place.

While I was saddened by the news, I understood that Cooper’s Hawk is running a business and you just have to go with production that wins, instead of absorbing the cost of replanting over and over again because the vines die in the cold, mid-continent winters of Southwestern Ontario.

So, when Big Head boasted a warm-climate varietal like Malbec, more of a traditional Argentinian wine, I just had to reach out and grab it.

Location Description:

Big Head offers a warm and woodsy feel when you enter the tasting and retail, and production space. It is an open concept, which gives off more of a production vibe than a romantic one for guests. And while many vats are concrete, they are the same colour as the surface of the wood bar, and that enhances the woodsy vibe. Amongst the vats are also large wood racks of wines for sale.

Me? I know I’m in wine country. I like sitting adjacent or in an active production area. Being beside vats gives me a feeling of being an actual part of the process of making wine from vine to glass. Being inside a part of the process makes me feel like I’m being invited into the business … that I’m not just an end-user, but that I’ve shared in the making of things.

For me, that builds the relationship between myself and the people who work at Big Head. The idea of being amongst the production makes me a part of things.

If you like everything polished and posh, with a tasting area separate from production, you may feel out of sorts.

Me? I think Big Head’s plan for its space is perfect.

Outside/Food:

Outside we found a white-tented seated dining space for pizzas and glasses or tastings. A quick call to the winery at the time of writing this discovered it is closed for the season … but that is something else to consider when heading out to Big Head!

What they sell there/on-line:

Looking at their website to check out types of wine, I discovered: 8 reds; 10 whites; 10 raw wines; 1 sparkling; 4 desserts; a rose and an orange wine; dozens of past vintages going back to 2012; and some gear: hats, bags and gift cards.

There are other surprises in the varietals being offered, including: Petit Verdot, Chenin Blanc, and a Viognier.

Prices vary from about $25/bottle to 2020s The Biggest Red, which leads the pack by far at $95.00.

So. There you have it. I wrote about it and didn’t even get a big head! Sigh. It had to be written.

Go. Imbibe enjoy. Big Head is a unique experience with unique wines.

Cheers

Owen

Note: 11 more older photos have been deleted from the storage area so not all back stories will now appear with photos — there will be broken links!

Wine: Coffin Ridge Vineyard and Winery: Annan, Ontario

ontariocrafts.wordpress.com

By: Owen

Date Written: December 18, 2023 (Bro’s birthday)

Date Posted: January 17, 2024

NOTE: more images from previous posts have been deleted due to storage limitations. For best viewership, keep abreast of my posts by joining my blog.

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Home Away From Home Ranking: 6/5

I interrupt my trip to Niagara winery region for another special article.

Besides Coffin Ridge Vineyard and Winery (599448 2^nd concession, Annan, Ontario) recently partnering with Kilannan Brewing Company things keep ticking along for this Northern (Southwestern Ontario), ‘emerging region’ winery.

We were there on a nice day in November when the pizza ovens were fired up. So, we made our 3.5-hour trip up and back for lunch and a box of wine. I suppose we could have ordered a case and had it shipped for less time and money … but that’s not the point.

Coffin Ridge is a wonderful experience … one I love sharing with all of you!

This is truly a boutique winery, however, there are elements about it that aren’t that boutiquey!

First, it has a cidery and those lovely Forbidden Ciders are throughout Ontario in many beer, wine and spirit retailers.

Second, it has Back from the Dead Red and Into the Light White wines also in the main provincial retailer. To make enough wine to sell across the province, you have to be more than ‘boutiquey’! You must be a reasonably large-sized producer!

Third, it has a brewery in Kilannan and I’m betting, though I have no real knowledge of it, that we’ll soon see some of these beers in the Ontario retailer chain as well. (I was there a week before canning began, so none came home with me. Hulk sad. But these beers are spectacular and SHOULD be on shelves where more people can buy them!) Hint-hint, nudge-nudge, nuff-said, eh?

We had chicken and pesto pizza with red pepper and tomato soup as a starter. The soup was sensational and so thick, it was like Scottish oatmeal: thick enough ta stop a bullet! YUM! The pizza? I was worried about it as I’m not always fond of the style once you leave the tomato sauce off. This one, however was a real winner. I gobbled it up like seals rounding themselves up on fish for a long winter at sea.

I recommend going to their website to check for times Coffin Ridge is open AND when they’re serving pizza. Times are more limited in the winter months and pizza isn’t always available! The first name reference to the winery is linked for you.

Carrie had the mulled wine. I had a sip and it was SINsational! Me? I had four different beers from Kilannan in a flight as they were all new to me and I knew in advance no cans were coming home. They were all terrific, by the way (see a previous post for a review of Kilannan Brewery!).

You might think it odd that we really didn’t sample wine at a winery where I’m writing a blog about said winery.

Here’s the thing. Coffin Ridge wines are always sensational. You don’t need to try them to know you’re going to love them. So, in this instance, we knew we were safe to try other things, and still buy wine.

Already a couple of Rosés have gone down. Their Rosé is an off-dry style with a perfect sweetness for those who, like us, aren’t sweet enough already.

Their Divine Intervention series is there top-tier wines and are tremendous. I also love their Marquette – a hybridized varietal whose vines survive in their more mid-North-America-continental climes than Cabernet Sauvignon or Pinot Noir would.

Back from the Dead Red now steals virtually all their Baco Noir (another hybridized varietal that also survives more extreme cold), so there is no Baco single varietal wine anymore. I find this sad, as their Baco Noir rivalled their Marquette in quality.

We brought home a bottle of their Riesling (crisp and dry) for ourselves and, having a request from a friend for a bottle, we brought one home for her too!

Lots came home with us.

Our server, Barb, and our pizza maker Spencer Wareham made this stop an exhilarating one, so my home away from home ranking for this stop is 6/5!

I like the atmosphere at Coffin Ridge. There are a handful of tables, a retail space, outdoor plastic bubbles to sit in to help people endure the elements in the off-season, and a staff that makes you feel like fam.

I think Barb was rather shocked that we’d drive 3.5 hours just to dine and pick up wine. Well, when the place is great, the trip just streams by!

(And we knew by the forecast we wouldn’t have any inclement weather to deal with either. We did see piles of melting snow at the end of many parking lots, however, so snow had been around in droves just a few days earlier. You’ll want to watch the weather should you travel there in the winter!)

Coffin Ridge reminds me a little bit of Bad Apple and Cornerfields down near Bayfield, Ontario. Every time you go there you find some kind of expansion. Patios have been extended, a canning line has been added, a gazebo has been built, stage areas for performers have been built or expanded … that sort of thing.

Coffin Ridge is the kind of place where the business continues to grow like in the partnership with Kilannan. What owners Gwen and Neil Lamont always manage to secure, however, is that feeling of friendliness … of home … of always being welcome. So, no matter how much Coffin Ridge appears to change, the friendliness, the care they place in their employees and their business … that always remains the same. It shines right through the people and into their products, whether it be wine, cider or beer!!!

You’ll notice that when you visit too!

Cheers

Owen

Oh. PS. WE also noticed how muddy our car was on the way back home. Coffin Ridge is on a dirt road and that day was after a rainstorm. Ergh!

Beer, Wine and Pizza: Kilannan Brewery, Coffin Ridge Boutique Winery: Annan, Ontario

ontariocrafts.wordpress.com

By: Owen

Date Written: December 11, 2023

Date Posted: January 10, 2024

Home Away From Home Ranking: 6/5

Trip Planning Categories (linked): (Town, County, Wine Appellation)

I interrupt my trip to Niagara winery region for ‘another’ special article.

Rarely do a set of circumstances set up such a classic movie line as I’m about to quote. In this case, it’s from the 1931 classic, Frankenstein.

Could any winery other than one named Coffin Ridge, partnering with a rejuvenated microbrewery set this line up any better? Well with the reopening of Kilannen Brewery on the grounds of Coffin Ridge, I have to write, “It’s alive! It’s alive!”

Yes, Kilannan is ALIVE!

Recently in Rrampt, a high-end glossy magazine I’ve learned the background to the history of Kilannan.

First, Spencer Wareham is the owner and entrepreneur extraordinaire (I’ll get to that reference in a bit.).

His previous plaza locale left much to be desired. Other tenants inspired regular OPP raids. And so, when rental renewal time came up, Spencer opted to not renew. I get that!

Sadly, for Spencer (at the time) Covid struck hard upon the closing. Opening elsewhere seemed like a very bad idea. But when one door closes …

So, he went to work for Coffin Ridge as their cider-maker. (They have brilliant ciders, by the way … in case you were wondering!)

Now, it gets a bit richer here. The title promises you pizza too.

Well, Spencer is the mastermind behind Coffin Ridge’s artisanal wood-fired oven pizza which has amped up Coffin Ridge’s business to a full-fledged, lunch-providing spot – one of the things that drew us up north on a 3.5-hour journey (each way) to buy wine at Coffin Ridge, dine on some excellent pizza and sample some of Spencer’s first big batches of brewskies.

When there, I told Barb, our lovely server, that I was a blogger, that I’d blogged about Coffin Ridge many times and that I’d be writing about them and Kilannan in the future. I handed her my ‘card’. She said, “Give one to Spencer. He’s not only our beermaker, he’s our pizza maker too. If you catch him coming in delivering your pizza, he’d love to have one of your cards.” I caught him, and did give him my card. Our visit was brief, but he appreciated the sentiment.

The path to Kilannan is lined with black bark bits. When you enter the grounds to Coffin Ridge, turn to your left to see Kilannan. Photo Credit: Owen Thornton.

Here’s the worst part of my trip. I was there the week before Spencer canned his ‘five’, count ‘em, ‘five’ new brews.

The four choices I selected for my flight were: Kolsch (5.4ABV); New Zealand Red (5.4ABV); Kilannan Alt. (5.8%ABV); and Men Who Stare at Goats Oatmeal Stout (new to the restaurant and not listed on the menu that day). (Servers are great when they tell you about exciting new beers not printed on the menu, right?)

I loved each of my samples. Had there been cans I’d have taken two of each and two more of the fifth beer that went untried, just because the first four were so great: there didn’t seem to be a way to lose on that small risk!

Why I loved the beers is difficult to describe but I’m going to try.

All beer styles have a range of flavour profiles that allow the brewers to place their brews within a category, say, stout, for example.

Microbrewers ‘should’ be on the outer ranges of these categories because they leave the middle of the range for mass producers – otherwise, why be a microbrewer making what the big brands are making? Big brands will do it cheaper on a mass scale and if a microbrew is similarly tasting they will lose out based on price every time. Sure. Some people will pay more for a similar-tasting microbrew, but many vote with saving mullah. Price, because of mass production, will win! Microbrewers will lose this battle every time.

Now, sometimes microbrewers push the category too far. People then respond to this kind of beer in one of two ways: They are willing to include this new entry into a further extension of the stout category, or it falls so far outside what is an acceptable notion of what a stout should be, people don’t know how to evaluate the beer. It may fail ‘as a stout’ but be something good in a unique way. But when the beer pushes the envelope too far, its flavour profile may fall outside of people’s expectations and then, may not be liked as a stout. Their palates feel ‘tricked’ and then, they may not even really like the beer. (Though it may be quite likeable for its own unique properties had it not been labelled as a stout in this example.)

Am I making any sense here? Microbrewers need to live on the edge of the styles of beer, but cannot go too far.

This is the risk microbrewers face: how far to challenge the palate within a beer style’s category range without going too far.

Like baby bear of Goldilocks , Spencer gets each of his entries into each class of beer ‘just right’. His brewing takes you to the edge of the category, but introduces a beautiful elixir of flavours suited to the style he’s producing. They were all delightfully different but still wonderfully pleasing at the same time. I loved the richness of the flavour profiles in each category I tasted. In other words …

Kilannan Brewery nails it. Perfection.

So. How well do I think Coffin Ridge’s partnership with Kilannan and Spencer has ‘meshed’? Let me express it this way.

Everything I’ve had at Coffin Ridge is stellar!

So. Now at Coffin Ridge you can have great pizza with a lovely red wine, or you can have some beer with it, and you’ll love the beer. (And we’re not even writing about their ciders or ‘white’ wines!) What’s not to like?

Spencer is a pizza guru. He knows cider. He knows beer. Coffin Ridge knows wine. So, for an already excellent winery stop, their pizza and now Kilannan Brewery … well it is a brilliant addition to the Coffin Ridge home.

To the owners of Coffin Ridge, Gwen and Neil Lamont, one of my favourite places in the world that’s also in Ontario, I say, “Well done. Perfection! And I offer a hand-kiss Muah to my appreciation of Coffin Ridge and Kilannan, one of the great hidden gems to visit in all of Canada.”

The only challenge I face after my visit? I visited on a rainy day on a dirt road, I really, really must clean my car! Sheesh-kabibble!

Cheers

Owen

Trip Planning

ontariocrafts.wordpress.com

By: Owen

Date Written: January 10, 2023

Date Posted: January 10, 2023

Home Away From Home Ranking: NA

Trip Planning Categories (linked): (Town, County, Wine Appellation)

You will notice a new line in the introduction: Trip Planning Categories. This is a link to a page where you can search for breweries, wineries, cideries or distilleries near or in towns of Ontario, counties of Ontario or VQA winery appellations.

Here’s how I envision it working. The Trip Planning Categories link above, will take you to a page where you can find places I’ve written about so you can read reviews of locations where you, yourself will be going. If you’re going near Owen Sound or Niagara-on-the-Lake, you’ll see the town name listed, and you can click on it to find the article about places near that location.

On this page I’ll also include a link to maps of counties of Ontario, and a map of Ontario to help you plan.

I’ll do this for all new reviews. I won’t be going back and modifying old post. Still, by the end of the year, you may well have upwards of 45 links to search for places near where you’re travelling.

I’m hoping this new feature will guide you to your own new discoveries. Let me know if you like the idea and will use it.

Cheers

Owen

Spirits: Representing Wolfhead: Amhertsburg, Ontario

ontariocrafts.wordpress.com

By: Owen

Date Written: December 05, 2023

Date Posted: January 4, 2024

Home Away From Home Ranking: 5/5 (All three times)

I interrupt my trip to Niagara winery region for a special article.

Why I ‘represented’ Wolfhead:

It was a work thing. Asked to perform a tasting of anything I wanted, for senior staffers, I picked, naturally, an Ontario product … I picked Wolfhead Distillery and Restaurant’s Coffee Whisky Liqueur (the business is located at 7781 Howard Ave., Amherstburg, Ontario).

Wolfhead’s Coffee Whisky Liqueur:

Where to start?

Let me gush about this product, then I’ll set up where I represented this fine beverage.

With the help of a friendly staffer, Margaret Thomas, who gave me the details beyond my knowledge of the product, (which is YUMM!) I was able to promote one of my favourite beverages.

Why would I do this?

1. Selfish motivations. If the product sells well, it remains available on local store shelves. So, by promoting it, I guarantee it will stay around for the times when I want to buy it!

2. Sharing the experience motivations. I like telling people about great Ontario products. I like sharing experiences with them. So, I get to show off something I feel I’ve discovered and share it with those who may not know the beverage. Then, in turn, they too can experience wonderful taste sensations by themselves or with their family and friends.

So. I told the guests who came to my “Wolfhead Kiosk” that their Coffee Whisky is made from Costa Rican Free Trade coffee beans. Those beans are transported to Colonial Coffee in Windsor, Ontario where they are roasted to perfection – about 20 minutes away from the Distillery.

A bit of sweetness in the beverage comes from sugar cane.

Annually, Wolfhead produces 24,000 litres of Coffee Whisky for Ontario’s retailer of beer, wine and spirits.

‘Why do I like this beverage,’ I asked my guests to my Kiosk? I like it because there is perfect balance between the flavours of coffee and of whisky. You cannot miss the coffee taste at the front and the whisky hit at the end. I like that no one flavour dominates the other, but that they compliment one another.

I like the viscosity of the beverage as it clings to the glass as you roll it in your hand. There’s a richness to the texture of Wolfie’s Coffee Whisky (in your mouth), but it’s not thick and cloying like Kahlua.

I don’t mind a bit of sweet and this beverage walks the line between bitter and uggy sweet. So, sweetness-wise, again it is perfectly balanced.

And at 30% alcohol by volume (ABV) you don’t get the traditional alcohol burn you might with general spirits that are normally 40% ABV.

This is the perfect sipping whisky in a rocks glass. You can add a cube to cool it if you desire, but it’s unnecessary. You can also drizzle it over cheesecake.

You could put it in your iced coffee in the summer to give that beverage an added je ne sais quoi. I’m busy wondering if you could turn it into cubes so you could just drop them into the iced coffee … hmmm!

Or you could go to Wolfhead’s website (linked) and find some special recipes.

Where?

I represented Wolfhead at my company’s head office in London, Ontario. The room was full of senior staff members from around southwestern Ontario.

When you go to Wolfhead:

Wolfie’s has a beautiful outdoor pavilion under which you can dine in the summer. Inside, there’s a restaurant with great food (I’ve rarely dined on anything else other than fresh perch) but Carrie has had an array of different meals. We keep going back (and we make it nearly a three hour, back roads trip one way) so it must be good!

If you sit facing the door to the retail space beyond, you have a glass wall on your left where, on the other side, you can see the production of your favourite libations being made! BIG, gleaming, silver vats!!!

On your right is the rest of the restaurant seating and beyond that, a window with a view of the patio and aforementioned pavilion.

Other Beverages LIKE Wolfhead’s Coffee Whisky:

I like Wolfie’s Coffee Whisky like I like only three other beverages I’ve ever had in the Province of Ontario. Wolfie’s Cinnamon Whisky is a hit for nearly all the same reasons as their Coffee Whisky. As far as I know you’ll have to order this by delivery or go there to buy this gold nugget.

I like it because the cinnamon doesn’t burn like a Valentine’s Day cinnamon heart. I like it because the cinnamon taste hits you first, and then you, again, taste the whisky it’s paired with.

The other two beverages of this nature are both Maple Whiskies – liked for the same reason. You can taste the maple flavour, but it’s not sickly sweet, and you can still taste the whisky in the finish. Both Wayne Gretzky’s (Niagara Region) and Kinsip’s (Prince Edward County) make superlative versions of this flavoured whiskey. I’ve linked both of these beverages to their sale’s page!

Anywho. It was a laugh riot temporarily representing and supporting Wolfhead.

The beverage was well received. One person even took a picture of the bottle so they could remember to buy one for themselves.

I’d say that was a job well done.

If you’ve been to Wolfheads, please, share your experience(s) here by leaving a comment. Or, if this article has inspired you to go there or to buy the Coffee Liqueur, let me know about it.

Happy New Year

Owen

Blogging: New Year (2024) UPdate

ontariocrafts.wordpress.com

By: Owen

Date Written: December 27, 2023

Date Posted: January 02, 2024

Home Away From Home Ranking: NA/5

Welcome to the New Year, 2024.

Thanks for the Encouragement

I want to thank all of you for the lovely visits in 2023. You encouraged me to continue with my blog this year over last.

You see at the end of last year I was reaching fewer than 40 people/month. That meant that on average, each weekly post was receiving only 10 viewers. You might think that was okay, except that in 2021, there were 15 readers/per average post over the same time period.

So at the end of 2022, the blog was in decline. I didn’t think I was doing anything different, so rather than growing readership I was losing it. I wasn’t even holding my own with previous readers.

Why I’m here

Here’s the thing. I do this for fun: to share with you my experiences. I share it ‘my way’. I’m pretty convivial, so, if people who are interested in beer, wine and spirits find me — and ain’t that half the battle — then they either like my style or they don’t. I know there are tricks to writing in such a way as to grab people/readers. If I learn these organically, fine.

But as I’m older now, I just want to write ‘me’ because it’s easy, natural, in my wheelhouse. I want to come across as authentic to you, not as someone whose writing to manipulate a fan base because I conform to the right style in order to attract blog readers.

Maybe that’s not the right way to think about it … not the right way to succeed and grow readers …

So, if readers drift away because I’m not all that interesting or I am not writing about an interesting topic. Hey! I can find other ways to fill my time, you know? This is just a FUN project! But … there has to be readers as they’re a part of writing. Writing without readers? Just pointless words … unless, of course, it’s therapeutic, like a diary.

So, when numbers were in decline at the end of 2022, I was feeling pretty low. Here are the numbers for the past full three years:

The Numbers/The Results

202o visits, first three months of the blog (Oct.-Dec.): 315

2021 visits (first full year): 815

2022 visits (second full year): 691

2023 visits (third full year): 1427

My enthusiasm for ontariocrafts.wordpress.com has changed this year! I am encouraged to continue. As you can see, my views/readers more than doubled this year over last. And this year set a viewership record of more than 600 readers than in my first full year when the numbers were solid!

I ‘am’ playing a bit of a game to see if I can increase readership year over year. “How big can I make this grow?” So, when I’m losing my own game because readers decline, it doesn’t feel like I’m winning. Everyone likes to win.

First Change:

What have I done differently? Well, first, I never used to tell staff and owners of the places I visit, that I’m a blogger. But now I do. I hand them a business card with the various links on it, often meet the public relations person (or get a card of theirs) and so, when I post a blog about a producer, I send a person a personal email telling them I’ve blogged them (I don’t send the email to a generic corporate inbox).

The response in turn, then, is to see a link on some or one of these producer’s social media accounts, which then directs people to the blog. That strategy has definitely boosted viewership.

Owen Thornton is a guy who works in the industry, travels the province to visit producers and hopefully chat with owners and staff, who reads books about single-malts, who studies about wine, who learns about production from the people who make it. He tells bad jokes, wants you to have some enjoyment out of life and loves to write … as long as there are readers to read.

I used to think that I ought not introduce myself … sorta be like a food critic dining at a restaurant: incognito. Primarily, I didn’t want owners/public relations folks ‘giving’ me anything for free, as that’s not what this blog is about: I really just want to share fun places with people in Ontario, or people visiting Ontario.

I have received a few beers for free, but only those I would have purchased anyways. I still feel a little guilty about that. I know how hard producers work to turn their businesses into profitability — giving away product can’t help the bottom line. But, sometimes, when over 100 people visit my site because of a link to these businesses’ social media … maybe it does pay for itself (?).

But I repeat, getting free stuff is always surprising and appreciated, but it’s not what this blog is about. It’s about me, sharing with you, great places to have beer, wine, cider and spirits in Ontario, where entrepreneurs have risked a life’s savings on a hope and a dream.

Second Change:

Second, I ‘think’ I’m including more photographs, which helps to draw you into the places I visit, and, hopefully, draws you into the writing about these places. Of course, this blog post hasn’t leant itself to using a lot of photos!

(But I’m GOING to add some!)

Third Change:

Third, I’m using more hashtags in links to my posts. I cannot be sure how much this has improved readership, but I believe it has played a part in increasing viewership.

My Goals: for the industry, for you, for me.

Me? I’m a booster of the industry! I’m a cheerleader. I will, however, call it as I see it when the experience isn’t so great! I’ll even go back and give those places a second chance! Everyone gets at least a second chance! And I cheerlead for these producers in such a way so that you too can have a similar, fun experience.

That’s the goal here: Pairing you with great places to have great experiences … where … should you take any of their products home … you recall that great time when you were in a home-away-from-home.

So, by boosting the industry, A: I’ve promoted the business, B: you’ve had a great time there while spending a little money: and C: because you went, bought and enjoyed, the business is there for me when I want to return! Yay! Win-win-win!!!

Invitation to Join me here and to keep Reading

In this world of hard work, work stress, depression, homelessness, wars, cah-razy drivers (have you noticed how driving has gone downhill?), we just need a break away from difficult news.

So come here, read for a while. Enjoy some sips at a place you didn’t know anything about before coming here, courtesy of a guy who works in the industry, who reads books about single-malts, who studies about wine, who learns about production from the people who make it. I promise you good tastes and good times. And maybe, together, we’ll build a slightly better world.

Thanks for the visits. I appreciate all of you!

Wishing you all the happiest of New Years in 2024. May peace reign, people prosper and love triumph!

Owen

Wine: Ravine Vineyard Estate Winery: St. David’s, Ontario

ontariocrafts.wordpress.com

By: Owen

Date Written: November 29, 2023

Date Posted: December 27, 2023

Home Away From Home Ranking: 6.5/5

Here’s hoping you had a lovely Christmas …

Leaving the morning’s non-winery stop at the Butterfly Conservatory (we loved this spot), we began seeking wineries. Our first spontaneous and NEW WINERY stop of the day will become a repeat stop in the future: Ravine Vineyard Estate Winery at 1366 York Road, St. David’s Ontario.

Wow! What a neat place. First, you can’t miss the name as it’s plastered onto the side of one of the buildings. And you can’t miss the grapes as the laneway takes you right through the middle of some of them.

As memory serves there are three buildings. The one with the name on the building looks to be the production facility. The next one (a large white-wood house) is the retail space and the third, furthest to the right is the restaurant (as of yet, unexplored).

Between the production and retail buildings you can take the well laid out path to the vast patio out back.

We checked in with the server in the retail store and gravitated to the patio, pulled up a shade-covered table (rooved, open-sided) (other tables had their own umbrellas) near the railing which overlooked the vines as they tailed away down the slope below us.

Here we had a mahvelous tasting, dahlings!

Our well-informed server knew just the right mix of leaving you alone and being attentive. Later, when we’d go back inside the retail building to buy wines, she was a great help in our making perfect selections for our palates.

But for now, as you would expect, I had a red, and Carrie a white. Here we could talk wine, where we were going next, and where we’d been from (the butterfly conservatory).

Ravine has the ability to sweep you away from your life … to ‘vacate’ your everyday and just be your ‘self’. It’s sort of funny how you can settle into a place so far from home and feel as though you’re in your own backyard … well … you know … with your own personal server, a selection of wines you’ve never had before and with a much nicer view! What I’m saying is we felt very comfortable here, like we were returning home, yet we’d never been here before. A wonderful, curious feeling!

First, we noted we didn’t hear any ‘bangers’ going off in the nearby fields. When we asked, our server explained that the vines were too close to town and bothered their neighbours.

So, that explained why Ravine chooses an alternate method of protecting their berries: they net them.

After a prolonged period of time tasting and talking about wine, vineyards and butterflies, we ambled inside.

There we found a live-edge wood sales counter, racks and racks of vintages, two very helpful retail experts, gear (always an earmark of the serious producer), and a box that needed to be filled with wine from Ravine.

Coming home with me, was: a Merlot (an oft unsung varietal in both Carrie’s and my playbook); a Meritage; a Gamay Noir; a Cabernet Sauvignon and my personal favourite a Cab Franc. I had some help with the last choice as there were a number of Cabernet Francs and prices were of the height that I would have to choose between them. Here’s hoping that my friendly retailer suggested the perfect fit for Carrie and me.

Carrie brought home a Rosé, (I might have had something to do with that selection too), an unsung Gewurztraminer (first, not often found in Ontario and then sometimes missed by us to boot), a Riesling and a couple of Chardonnays – at least one was the wine Carrie tasted on the patio.

It will be fully into winter by the time you read this post. So, here’s what I want to tell you about the wines we will be having during the colder, more ‘insidy’ season.

When we pull out a wine from Ravine we’re going to let those wines transport us back to Ravine and that beautiful summer day we spent amongst lovely hosts and great views.

In fact, we just had one, and that’s exactly what happened. Further, when talking wine with family over Christmas, my brother-in-law was also speaking highly of Ravine, so it’s not just me who loves this place, folks!

Don’t forget, my ‘home-away-from-home’ ranking is all about going to great places (and letting you know about them) and then coming home and resharing those experiences in the comfort of your own home. So, I’m giving Ravine a high ranking. First we stopped and sipped, which means it can receive a full 5/5 should the hosts elevate it to that level. For the beauty of the surroundings, the great-tasting wine and the wonderful staff, Ravine comes in at a 6.5/5. Pretty darn good, I’d say!

In the meantime, should you go to Ravine and buy a bottle based on my recommendations and this blog, you’ll be sharing something with Carrie and I too. And so that connection adds to the experience … to the tasting … to the richness of life that I’m trying to create here for me, for Carrie, and for all of you.

God bless you all as you go to Ravine or enjoy one of their wines in the comfort of your own home. We’ll be thinking of you as you sip and enjoy and transport yourselves back to Ravine’s patio and that beautiful summer day we ‘shared’ together … through great Ontario wine!

Cheers

Owen

Wine: Tawse (Part 1)/Redstone (Part 2): Vineland/Beamsville, Ontario

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By: Owen

Date Written: November 20, 2023

Date Posted: December 18, 2023

Home Away From Home Ranking: 4/5, 4.5/5

Right on the beaten path where any Niagara winery journey ought to begin (King Street/Highway 8), Redstone Winery and Restaurant (4245 King Street, Beamsville) is not just a winery: it’s a restaurant (with ample parking) and it has its own helipad in case you need to drop in at the last moment.

You’ll note by this sign in 2022, that even Redstone’s Restaurant is no longer open on Mondays. Hulk Sad. We were sure glad they saved us when we visited them on a Monday and they WERE open, however. (A year or two earlier!) That visit started a long lost love affair with Redstone! Photo Credit: Owen Thornton.

We have dined at Redstone three times. I think the number ‘three’ in that statement suggests what we think of it, but I’ll elaborate.

On our first stop and, really, our first big winery excursion, we ended up in Niagara on a Monday evening. Shoot! We didn’t know. We could either dine at Mac’s Steak House (MacDonalds) or pretty much no where else because many nice places (at least the ones we checked) were either closed on a Monday, or were booked with reservations.

Now, we have a further complication than most. We don’t own a cell phone, at least not one with a data plan. So we were limited in checking the places we could find by sight as we were driving. It had always worked for us before so …

Somehow, we arrived at Redstone on a whim and we found them open – much to our delight. In addition, we arrived early enough to beat the reservation crowd and we dined outside – not something we usually do (we don’t like bugs!)

We enjoyed our meal and our wine on that occasion. I think, however, that the wine retail store closed while we were dining and so we left from that first visit without any wine.

The next year we planned to dine with them … outside. So, seasoned from our first trip, we stayed away from going to the region on Monday (for fear of closures) and we made reservations at Redstone for Tuesday.

Having enjoyed ourselves the first time, we again dined outside. (Where ARE the bugs?)

I don’t know what it is about Redstone, but we seemed to be relatively bug free and so we really liked being outside. This time we took a bottle of what we had with our dinner home with us.

If you walk around a bit, outside, you’ll be amongst the vines … which is something we just love.

Here, at Redstone you’ll learn why it received its name. The earth, exposed at the base of the vines, is about as red as what you’ll find in Prince Edward Island.

Taken not far from Redstone (Back 10 Cellars), you can see the redness of the soil also found at Redstone. Photo Credit: Owen Thornton

So. If you thought that because Moray Tawse owns both properties that wine would be made to taste similarly (certainly it’s made with care, always), the red earth drives the notion from your thoughts. Certainly, the unique terroir, led by the red soil, will make the same varietals taste different here than they do at Tawse.

The changing soils, the up and down elevations, the off-shore lake breezes extending the growing season (where said breezes can be found) make Niagara one of the most interesting and diverse places to grow wine in the world. Literally from one field to another conditions change and therefore each wine is unique too!

On the third occasion we dined inside – just to absorb the different experience. We learned two new things about the winery at this time.

They pay their servers a ‘living wage’ not the base ‘server salary’. Notes on the table explain this operational strategy and also suggest that you don’t need to tip servers ‘because they are paid a living wage!’ (We tipped regardless.)

Next, we learned that wines bought from the server (to take home) that we paid no more for the wine, and the server received a benefit from the sale. I don’t know if the trend continues, but the story reveals that there is ‘care’ for valued employees … something I care about and appreciate about the owner and vineyard.

Now-a-days, because we know the wines are great at Redstone, we can make it a quick-stop. This is not to say we wouldn’t dine there again, but … every time we dine there, that’s one less new place I can experience for you when writing this blog.

Oh, the inconveniences I endure for you! 😊

When you park at the main lot, entrance to the restaurant is under the arched gate. You’ll walk through the outdoor seating area (helipad and vines to your left, restaurant to your right) to get to the indoor experience.

When dining in late August, when we go to Niagara, you will hear the bangers that are attempting to drive birds away from the berries. If you’re going to jump every time you hear one? Maybe you should make reservations for inside. The noise is reduced in there!

If you want to visit the retail space, you must follow the sidewalk around to the front of the building that faces the road.

Inside you’ll face a tasting bar right in front of you. Between you and the bar is a lower display area for more unique wines. Wines from the past vintage are in racks on walls all around you except for the glass front of the building.

Now. As to ratings.

On the day of our visits to Tawse and Redstone we found Tawse jammed with people and Redstone? Well … we had the place to ourselves.

So, on these two quick-stop stops, Tawse receives a 4/5. My new ranking makes this the ‘perfect’ rank for a quick-stop stop where you don’t experience the place or the people – other than to deal with them regarding the sale of the wine. Only places where you get to talk to people, to sit and enjoy the place can the ranking go higher.

Now, I’m giving Redstone a 4.5/5 ranking. Even though we were only experiencing a quick-stop which ought to result in a ‘perfect score of 4/5,’ because we were alone with a knowledgeable person — whom we simply couldn’t help but talk to about wine as we shopped — our time talking to the employee boosted my evaluation.

Having her attention on this fine, quick-stop day, we were able to talk about the production techniques of some of the wine we were buying or wanted to buy, and about the varietals and how they responded to the terroir at Redstone etc.

So, thanks to the lovely conversation, our quick-stop was enhanced by a knowledgeable employee who added value to the transaction by sharing a part of herself with us. When you take an instant liking to someone, the experience is always going to be enhanced.

Clearly, we looo-oooove Redstone!

This isn’t to say that we couldn’t have had that experience at Tawse. I’m sure we could have. But when we arrived there, all employees were engaged and what they could do was serve us well in the time they had.

So. Both wineries have great wine and personnel, Redstone just had a little more time to spend just with us … and so … on this occasion Redstone wins.

I have no doubt, were we to make the same stops again next year those numbers could be reversed due to the ‘busyness’ of the customer service representatives.

Either way, everyone I’ve ever dealt with at these wineries are top-notch … just like the wine!

Go to Tawse and Redstone. They will never disappoint. And for those who say they don’t drink Ontario wine? I say, you’re just not having the ‘right’ Ontario wines.

Merry Christmas Everyone.

Owen

Last. owensfreechristmasnovel.wordpress.com is up and running. If you want to read a comforting Christmas story on-line here are three links:

Our Contract for a Free Christmas Novel

The Forward and Dedication:

Chapter One:

Huron County Beer and Wine Tour

Here’s a 4-stop beer and wine tour of Huron County. I’ve built in two extra places so you can create your own tour. Everything I’ve had at all these places is terrific. You can NOT go wrong.

Merry Christmas.

Wine: Tawse (Part 1)/Redstone (Part 2): Vineland/Beamsville, Ontario

ontariocrafts.wordpress.com

By: Owen

Date Written: November 20, 2023

Date Posted: December 11, 2023

Home Away From Home Ranking: 4/5, 4.5/5

Oddly, Tawse Winery (3955 Cherry Ave., Vineland) and Redstone Winery and Restaurant (4245 King Street, Beamsville) – which are both high-end wineries owned by Moray Tawse (and are operated in the Burgundy tradition (Chardonnay/Pinot Noir) – are now what I’d call ‘quick-stop/long-stop’ wineries.

A Quick-Stop winery is defined as a winery that so regularly produces top-quality wines, that you really don’t need to stop and think about what you’re buying. You just … fill the box(es).

OR

A Long-Stop winery is defined as a winery that is so nice and has such great ambience you don’t have to worry about whether you’re going to enjoy yourselves or not should you stay for a tasting or dinner, because you know you’re going to sit, relax and thoroughly enjoy your experience.

So. With Tawse and Redstone you get to choose what you want: a quick-stop or a long-stop. Either way lots of great wine will come home with you.

Tawse Part 1:

Just off the main road (Highway 8, King Street) on Cherry Ave. up Cherry a little more than a kilometre, (on the left), you’ll find Tawse. The first reference to Tawse above is linked to their web page and if you want to visualize the place, the first page of their website has overhead video of the grounds. In summer the words, verdant, elegant, ‘built-into-a-hill’ come to mind.

The black fencing and hedge to the left hides a lovely spot to sip and enjoy wine outside!

Each year it becomes more difficult to find one of the few parking spaces outside the retail/production building available. (So, they must be doing something right!)

When you walk up to the property, the retail space and tasting area is to your right. A pretty, outdoor courtyard opens to your left. Stop here and have a relaxing glass at a well-distanced table from your neighbours for your long stop.

Go inside, past the break in the wall of wine for sale that will be on your left, and you’ll find a bar up a few steps where you can have a tasting with knowledgeable staff. This strategy would entail another long-stop.

After either long-stop you will join the quick-stop people in the retail section to make your purchases. You will find a bevy of choices … so many you’ll dither about which wines and spirits come home with you. The retail area includes another bar where samples can be tasted … or where your box of wine can be filled and sold.

Prices here are higher than most, but they are worth it.

Look for special selections … 10-year ‘Library’ releases … which are often on stands in the middle of the room and not along the wall of bottles where the most recent year’s wines are stored and sold.

“From the Library” releases will be pricier still but will always be worth it.

If there is the same varietal from multiple blocks (different fields where the particular varietal (say Chardonnay) is grown ask staff for explanations and tasting details about each of them and they will expertly guide you to the right wine for you — especially if you can only afford to take one home..

Better yet, buy both or all of them and do a taste test at home to explore your palate and to share some great wines with friends! That’s something I’ve always wanted to do!

The Tawse website lists 57 unique entries you can buy. The more unique ones include: canned wines, different flavours of bitters, a white vermouth, gin, whisky and grappa, or what they call La Pressatura. Some entries are for wine club members only … an incentive to join the club, for sure.

A nudge to Tawse. In the past we participated in a zoom wine-tasting done during a pandemic lock-down (or nearly so). They sent four wines and the appropriate stemware to each participant. Together, with winemakers, growers, and retailers, we learned of the wines we were drinking and shared in a collective experience.

Below are images of the glasses and the wines we bought and tasted for our on-line tasting. (We bought two of each type of glass!)

If available, I’d love to do another one of those. If you, dear reader, ever see the offer come out, don’t hesitate – especially if you A: love wine and have B: a natural curiosity about how it is grown and how it is made.

The on-line tasting note above leads to a natural segue to Redstone (first reference is linked to its website!).

The link? Well beyond both having the same owner, that on-line tasting we did had two bottles from Tawse and two from Redstone.

More on Redstone in Part 2 …

Cheers for now.

Owen

Wine: Kacaba: Vineland, Ontario

ontariocrafts.wordpress.com

By: Owen

Date Written: November 15 and 16, 2023

Date Posted:

Home Away From Home Ranking: 5/5

I am a dunderhead! For the second time I’ve been to Kacaba Vineyards and for the second time my camera stayed locked in my car. So. No images other than the wine I bought. I am soooo sorry!

(Fortunately I thought to email them in advance and they kindly sent me their own photos from the vineyard to give you a little taste of what you can see when you’re there!)

Entrance to the retail space is through the third arch from the left. Photo Credit: Kacaba.

That being said. Just off King Street (3550 King at (Vineland, Ontario) I encourage you to take the entrance furthest from the building so you can cross the interesting ‘bridge’ that crosses a deep ravine. The bridge ‘pivots’ so as you cross you tip the balance, and it tilts down to the other side with a rather large clunk. I’m quirky but fun, eh?

There’s a note on the bridge saying it can carry a tank, or something, so my little car is very safe on it!

(Come to think of it, maybe if I bought a bigger car, I could take more wine home on these trips. Hmmm. Maybe not! 😊)

We never entered the tasting room at this stop, but we did have a taste. Huh?

Okay.

We entered the retail space with a seasoned professional staffer. She was really incredible. We are looking at a host of different kinds of wines and to help us make our selections we would ask her what ‘such-and-such’ wine was like. Sometimes we might have added a descriptor to our question, like, “We love big fruity reds and we’re not so fond of mouth-drying tanins.” She was able to walk us through what she thought we would like from their produced selections.

Now, how we got a ‘taste’ in a non-tasting environment. In their reserved red wine selection, there were eleven different wines ranging from $50, to $100. I am not averse to paying these prices, but I’m certainly not going to buy one of each (especially without at least a sip!). We narrowed down our selections by us telling the customer service representative what we liked and by her giving us an idea of which ones best suited our palates.

To encourage us, we received a couple, small, one-ounce sippers so that we would have a better idea of what we were buying.

This mini tasting was a brilliant idea for Kacaba to provide as I’m sure it not only helped us buy more, but to buy it with more confidence that we would like the offering!

This visit, as I said, marks my second trip to Kacaba. So, that’s an endorsement all its own.

However, my relationship with Kacaba goes further.

Look! As you know, I obviously go to vineyards. Rarely do I order from them.

In the case of Kacaba, however, I have ordered a case from them and had it sent to my workplace. (Ha! To use the word ‘case’ two ways in the same sentence!)

I can attest to the fact that that experience went flawlessly and that the wine was great which, in part, compelled us to revisit!

The retail space at Kacaba is small but efficient and effective. Wines are lined up around the walls and in built-in shelves so that each kind of wine is displayed well.

There is a retail counter for transactions.

Now, the place not visited (erg – nor photographed) where tastings occur is not in this building. You have to walk outside and go to your left to find the tasting room. Seeing as this was our second stop this day, and we’d already had a glass at the first one, we didn’t taste, so didn’t seek out the spot to do so. We knew we just wanted to go in and chat and buy some wine.

I know.

Owen, you say, you’re writing a blog and it behooves you to investigate a bit further, even if you are not utilizing all the services!

Yes. You’re right. Human error, I guess. Sometimes I’m just me being practical.

Anywho. We didn’t check out the tasting room. To be fair, I didn’t even know they had one. Did I miss signs outside? I did learn of the tasting room from our CSR, but by then, had a case of wine in my hands and was returning to my car with a full box. We loaded up and left.

I think in this instance, I wasn’t a blogger as much as I was a customer so didn’t do some of the things I ought to have done.

What I can say is this. Should you go to Kacaba and go to the tasting room, the wine will be great, and if my CSR tells me anything, your server will be great too.

This is a top-drawer winery without some of the top-drawer hoopla you might find elsewhere. Let’s say there’s less hoity and less toity and more pal-with-my-friendly-arm-around-your-shoulder kind of vibe at Kacaba. Don’t let that vibe fool you into thinking wine at Kacaba isn’t a serious business. It is. Let the arm-around-your-shoulder-feeling both warm and comfort you … as in making you feel like part of the family … all while you buy excellent wines!

I like this place. It’s my kind of place. I don’t need the hoit and the toit to know I’m getting first class service and ‘first class wines!’

If I like it, you will too. Really. Trust me.

Cheers

Owen

Wine: Peninsula Ridge: Lincoln, ON

ontariocrafts.wordpress.com

By: Owen

Date Written: November 7, 2023

Date Posted: November 29, 2023

Home Away From Home Ranking: 3/5, and 5/5 Possible?

Sadly, this story actually might have a covid-19 tie-in.

Our first Niagara wine-tour stop – and we’ve made it first because we love the wine and the vista so much – was once again, Peninsula Ridge.

Located at 5600 King Street West, with its own round-about access, Peninsula Ridge offers wonderful hospitality and flavours.

Peninsula Ridge did well by us this year, coming in at close to a case of wine on the first stop.

We keep saying we have to stop spending so much at the beginning so that we can feel right about buying a larger amount at the end, but it’s difficult, you know? You have great tastes and you’re just starting out and you’re enthusiastic and bam! You’re buying up the entire winery!

This year, Peninsula Ridge gets the dubious distinction of two ratings: a 3 and a 5 out of 5 experience(s).

A note about us.

You’re at a restaurant, and you witness an emotional, heated exchange where the customer is not happy with what is being served and you watch the server do his/her/their best to recover and make things right.

You know the people who cringe when someone openly complains and wishes they could crawl under a rock until the complaint is finished? That’s us. We’d pretty much eat raw food before we complained.

Now. Enter in the covid part of our tale. Carrie and I both got it in the spring. The bad news is that her sense of smell has been compromised ever since. It’s coming back, but it’s been slow. My sense of smell was less compromised, but it’s not as good as it once was so …

Back to Peninsula Ridge.

On this occasion, she ordered a Sauvignon Blanc, and I a red. So far, nothing unusual for us.

However, she took one sip of her wine and didn’t like it. Thinking her taste was off due to our bout with Covid, I tried it too. I didn’t like it either.

You know the grassy, New Zealand style of Sauv Blanc? This glass started with that striking quality (we like that), but then turned as the sip continued, like the wine had been … I don’t really know what the taste was other than it was unpleasant to us.

Have you ever seen someone who bags their grass and puts it in a large pile?

I remember my buddy Tom did this for his grass-cutting business. The damp grass, in a pile, like damp hey in a barn, sort of cooks as the wetness and the compression from the weight of the pile and the isolation from the air (on the inside of the pile) makes the grass heat up.

This glass finished like the smell of grass that had been slightly cooked. Yergh! Off-putting!

I don’t think I put that all together at the time.

What I wondered was if the bottle used for tasting had been open for a while and the air had pushed the wine past its prime. It can happen. Nobody’s fault!

Overcoming my impulse to NEV-VER complain, I went back inside and asked if they thought the wine was okay. Sniffing the glass, they thought it was like any other bottle.

So. The 3/5 is for the taste in the glass. Where Peninsula Ridge receives its 5/5 is how the staff reacted. They cracked a second bottle. We sniffed. It smelled the same. They offered Carrie a fresh glass from the new bottle, or another tasting.

Now. Here’s where I think I was a bad customer. Thinking, well … if there’s nothing wrong with the wine and … if that’s the way it is supposed to be and if we ordered it and simply just didn’t like the way it was made … and now having compelled them to open even another bottle on our behalf and not wanting to waste too much wine … I agreed to the new bottle tasting.

I should have said, we’d like something else and then we’d have had an entirely different experience.

Needless to say, my red was gone long before Carrie’s second glass of white … which tasted no different to her than the first glass.

To this day, we’re still not sure if it was the wine or if it was our ability to taste it since we’ve experienced Covid. Certainly other flavours have changed for us since we had it and so … ???

Now. All that aside, my red was fab! And lots came home with us (just not any Sauvignon Blanc!).

This experience was the beginning of a new point of ‘actual’ learning for me.

I’ve written how Ontario-made International Domestic Blends (IDB) found in your local retailer of beer, wine and spirits (this same store also carries higher end VQA wines) may be acceptable wines, but they may not be wines that lead you to the actual wineries where limited batch vintages are so grand they compete with the rest of the worlds’ wines. The result then, is that people don’t go to these wineries based on IDB and VQA found in common retailers, so they never discover the small-batch gems at the actual wineries!

So, here I was at an old favourite, re-experiencing a place I know is great because I don’t trust my own advice to go to other wineries in the region where their every-day retail wines don’t inspire my personal visit.

I love ‘knowledge’! You can make a point and still not believe it. Here’s what I mean. I still don’t go to some different wineries, because their every-day in-store wines don’t inspire me to visit their wineries. But every time I’ve gone to a place where I wasn’t convinced made the best general retail wines, I’ve found spectacular wines on site.

So, the question is, not that I shouldn’t repeat a tradition and go to Peninsula Ridge, but why am I still going there and not experiencing what might be the greatest NEW experience of my wine-tasting life?

This is a challenging question. I have customers that buy the same thing every time because they like it. Should they do that or should they experience the new which might be even better?

There is a lot to unpack in that question, and one big factor now-a-days is risking buying something new and not liking it, at ever-increasing costs, when you can buy that which you know is very good (still at increased cost, however!).

Peninsula Ridge? I love these peeps. I love the view from the patio. I love their wine.

Should I go back because we’ve always started our Niagara trips by going there first, or should we try the new?

It’s not punitive to not go because we didn’t like one glass of wine (especially when the staff was so accommodating about it), because we’ve loved every other glass of wine we’ve ever tasted there.

But seeing as I run a blog about wineries, perhaps this factor alone should convince me to shake up the old agenda and try a new one. It ought not to take an off-tasting experience to send me elsewhere.

Likewise, I should go back to places that didn’t have the greatest vibe, because hey … one visit cannot be responsible for the entire impression of the place! Everyone deserves a second chance. Or a third. But then, how far does that theory take you? Do you still go back over-and-over again when previous experiences haven’t excited you to return?

So. Here are two pieces of advice: one specific and one generic.

One, go to Peninsula Ridge. You will love your time there and the wines you taste and purchase. You will be treated well by knowledgeable, well-trained staff.

Two, should you ever experience a wine you don’t like … and you screw up your courage to say so … take the different wine when you’re offered it! You’ll enjoy the entire visit far more that way.

Cheers

Owen

Distillery: Union 10: London, Ontario

Breaking News! Union 10 (656 Dundas Street), with it’s terrific Christmas Gin (with gold flakes that make the bottle look like a snow globe), and its Northern Cream liqueur (a winner) has opened its retail space from now until the New Year!

Hi: I stole this image from Union 10, so I’ll take it off if they’re unhappy!

One of the best local gins you will ever discover is tasty, and gold and sparkly in the glass. Go. Why are you still reading this? Get it while supplies last!

Cheers

Owen

Recalibration: Changing Things Up: Inspired by Seven New Wineries (to us) In the Niagara Appellation

ontariocrafts.wordpress.com

By: Owen

Date Written: October 11, 2023

Date Posted: November 21, 2023

Home Away From Home Ranking: N/A

NOTE: This is already the busiest traffic month on the blog. So … Thanks!

You can ‘know’ something and still not follow your own advice. Is that weird? I’m feeling weird about what is to follow.

Some time ago I ‘waxed philosophical’. Many successful Ontario wineries produce and sell large-batch wines made from grapes from anywhere in the world. They are found in the category of International Domestic Blends (IDBs) at your local beer, wine and spirits retailer.

These same wineries may also produce Vintners Quality Alliance (VQA) brands. VQA wines are 100 percent assured to be grown on dedicated properties by the specific producer. You might say the pedigree of the grapes is traceable. Customers know which field or fields in Ontario, the grapes come from. The wines in this category match quality standards compared to wines made from any other country in the world.

Last, at your local retailer of beer, wine and spirits, you might find some VQA wines reaching the height of the Vintages category.

Until I took a course on wine, Vintages was a category I basically stayed away from. I stayed away from it because I didn’t understand it and I was under the misapprehension that the wines here were all too expensive. Once I understood the category and entered it, I have found some great wines from around the world priced even as low as the IDB category.

But here’s the thing.

I have visited some of these larger-producing wineries in Ontario, and they have what I will call a mind-blowing fourth class of wines.

They have their own, exclusive, often super-small-batch wines that compete with the best wines found anywhere in the world.

The challenge (?) or problem is, other than Ontario VQA wines found in the Vintages section (a section often ignored, evaded or unexplored by many shoppers), few of the other wines found in IDB or VQA sections in Ontario major retailer stores would lead people to believe Ontario wineries are producing exclusive, superb, internationally award-winning wines at their own retail shops on site.

Some smaller wineries wouldn’t even have a single bottle within the walls of Ontario’s major wine retailer.

So, without any exposure to their wines or winery, how would you discover them?

Back 10 Cellars is a small (10-acre) vineyard not found in the local retailer, where sensational wines can be found.

The question is … if the wines on the floor of your one-stop retailer don’t reveal, in most cases, even the hint that greater wines can be found back at the producer’s exclusive retail shop, then what would make you think to go there to try them?

Well, one quick answer is to follow this blog. I have gone to many of these wineries from boutique to big-batch IDB producers and everywhere I have gone I have found wines to knock your socks off … wines that in a blind taste test would compete with the best wines in the world.

Flat Rock Cellars recently won a top international award for it’s Riesling.

Another answer to this question is to have a fun sense of exploration. Say you go to one of the major Ontario appellations for winegrowers and producers and you are doing all sorts of other touristy things on your week-long trip, and you spend one day doing a wine tour. At least then you might experience 3-5 producers and the great wines they sell on location.

Now, I’m getting to my point. I ‘KNOW’ everything I’ve just written.

But. I have fallen victim of just what I have written. I have been to the Niagara Appellation and have driven by wineries that make ‘acceptable’ wine sold at my local retailer. I define acceptable as wine, say, you buy by a glass in a restaurant, and you sip it and it’s okay to have and finish. But I wouldn’t buy a second glass (I didn’t like it that well), nor would I rush out to a store and buy a bottle. It was just … okay. However, should I go to someone’s home, and they offered me a glass I would drink it and enjoy it and it would become a part of our enjoyable ‘together experience’ because the wine was … okay … something nice to share with a friend.

Jackson-Triggs offers world-class wines. They are also in the IDB and VQA categories at local beer, wine and spirit retailers. There Entourage, (sparkling Merlot) is sensational … as are any of the wines found in this image.

I’m not trying to snob-factor myself in this scenario. It might sound like that. Acceptable wines are acceptable, drinkable, quaffable. Offered one and, ‘sure, that’s a solid wine’. They’re just not memorable enough to want to buy again against old favourites and all the other ones out there left to try. They’re not memorable or … inspiring. They don’t inspire me to drive to the winery for even better wine …

Here’s the thing. I’m dropping my stealth snobbery. It’s a wine snobbery even “I” didn’t know I had. I have tasted a sip, a glass, maybe even a bottle of wine from Ontario wineries that were ‘acceptable … okay’ but that wouldn’t inspire me to go to these wineries. Then, when I was right next door, I remembered that non-plus experience and I drive right on by.

But wait, Owen! You KNOW that there could be great wines inside that exclusive producer’s shop. Why aren’t you stopping?

And there you have it! I’ve created, for myself, no. Carrie and I have created for ourselves wine routes where we stop to buy favourites based on previous successful visits and as we’re on these routes we drive by other wineries that could have just as great finds as the wineries we normally visit.

And that trend is going to stop.

How did I identify my own barrier?

One. I realized and wrote about the problem of acceptable wines in regular retailers not inspiring you to think great, small-batch wines await at those same producers. (I still didn’t know that I had mental blocks about some places we naturally have driven by in the past, but I was getting there!)

Two. We went to a regular stop, where we’ve had great wines in the past and discovered a real bomb (a wine that was unacceptable) when we purchased a glass. That experience had us considering not stopping by in the future. The impact of this event, has us considering going to new and different places because everyone deserves the chance.

Three, somehow, we ended up going to seven new wineries of the 12 places we visited this year in Niagara, and we discovered some great new wines. These seven wineries were either simply unheard of before this visit, or they had been places we’d ‘driven past’ because previous experiences suggested they made … well … acceptable or ‘okay’ wines but not necessarily great ones.

And reading that last sentence over again makes me feel so … human. I was in the pattern – that of IDBs and VQAs not leading me to great wines at the producers’ private retail shops – a fact that I had myself noticed and I hadn’t broken free of ‘said pattern’.

So. Here’s my first resolution. I will go to more and different wineries than I have before – even though that may mean sacrificing great tried and true places (at least for a while).

And here’s my second resolution. I hope to overcome single, negative experiences, either with a tasting or an unfortunate personnel issue and I will attempt to expunge that experience with a new one. This latter resolution may even be more challenging than driving by places that hitherto have not previously inspired a stop. You know, once you’ve had a bad experience somewhere, it’s challenging to overcome it.

Everyone deserves a second chance. (A later question I’ll have to answer is, how many chances do they get?)

In this latter case, you may have experienced something like this. You have a meal which might even be a favourite. Then, shortly afterwards you become ill. Whether you are right in thinking this or not, you blame the last thing you ate for becoming ill and somehow, you can never bring yourself to eat that thing again.

That’s what a negative experience at a winery is like. When there are so many other great places to go in a winery region, why would you go back?

Well, you – or in this case “I” or in the case of Carrie and myself “we” – may be depriving yourselves/ourselves of another great future experience because of this ‘mis-attachment’.

So, there you have it.

I have fallen victim to the very pattern I have identified and will in the future attempt to evade, avoid and destroy that pattern so that I can bring to you more, new wineries in the future … maybe I’ll even revisit those rare bad experience places too. 😊

Cheers

Owen

And Next time?

On to the first of 12 Niagara wineries!

Wine and Beer Trip: Huron County: Grand Bend to Bayfield, ON

ontariocrafts.wordpress.com

By: Owen

Date Written: October 5, 2023

Date Posted: November 15, 2023

Home Away From Home Ranking: 4/5, 6/5, 7/5, 8/5

Carrie and I escaped one day. We just went “woo-hoo, let’s go somewhere”, and here’s where we ended up.

Grand Bend, Ontario lies about one hour North and West of the thriving metropolis of London, Ontario, where we live. It’s on Lake Huron and offers a tremendous beach experience.

We started with Dark Horse Estate Winery at 70665 B-line Road right beside the Huron County Playhouse. Now, I’ve given Darkhorse stellar home-away-from-home rankings before, but those usually include sitting and tasting. We didn’t do that upon this occasion as we were just starting out on our whirl-wind trek.

I wrote an earlier news-post about the new lines at Dark Horse earlier: Alegro, is becoming Stirling Gate (and we just saw a farm with the same name on another trip up that way … coincidence? I think not) and Maeryn is a new line (fourth) of experimental wines, which is dedicated to one of the owner’s daughters (who recently passed. Blessings and prayers sent to you should you read this!) Unapologetically (lowest priced wines) and One Horse Town (mid-priced wines) are the other two.

A fan fave around here is one of your local retailers of beer wine and spirits potential offerings from Dark Horse: their Brilliant Rosé: A just off-dry, brilliant pink sipper to die for!

Defining my own Ranking System:
So, here’s something new. I’m settling in, now with my ranking system, and I’m coming to believe that a non-tasting stop where we are met with kindness and good service, ranks as a 4/5. Dark Horse certainly scores this ranking on this visit. Rankings move upwards when we stop and have a glass or a taste and the staffing and tasting experience improve upon the 4/5 score. Rankings move downwards when there is something wrong with the physical presentation of the products, or when staff ignores you or doesn’t treat you with kindness and sound product knowledge. (Later, watch me break my own rules. Turns out chats with owners blows my new system out of the water.

Owen

One cautionery tale about Dark Horse: Hours are Wednesday to Sunday, 12-5. They are closed Mondays and Tuesdays.

We left Dark Horse with a case of great wines we know we will enjoy.

The closure notes at Dark Horse, make a nice segue to Torched Brewing, our next stop.

Torched Brewing lies at 36 Ontario Street North, the highway parallel to the shores of Lake Huron. AND, Torched is also closed Mondays and Tuesdays … meaning should you strike out for an adventure of your own, you’ll miss these two stops on these two days of the week. Torched has more complicated hours: Wednesdays: 2-7; Thursdays to Saturdays 12-9; Sundays 12-5.

I’ve given Torched a newsy-article and it’s own blog in previous posts so, check those out. I will tell you the owners are personable and that they make great brews. Torched ranked 6/5 on my stop and I DIDN’T have a taste*. What’s the reason I’m breaking my own new code? I had a chance to talk to two of the owners for quite a while, and that’s what elevated this stop on this tour day.

Next, I met up with my bud Jason Ingram at Bad Apple Brewing at 73463 Bluewater Highway between Grand Bend and Bayfield (lake side of the highway!). Jason might be alarmed that I call him my ‘bud’. We don’t socialize and have never even gone on a double date. But, whenever he’s there we talk a great deal about beer, cider, his place and how much we love the region. I feel sympatico whenever I’m talking to him. He just strikes me as a great, great guy whom you want to see win at his business.

There’s now an open-air building where the blue tent is. And an additional building beside the barn where brews are kept super chilled. This photo is now a blast from the past. Photo Credit Owen Thornton

So, just when I write that 4/5 is the best you can do when we stop but don’t taste, I’m giving Jason a 7/5 – because I stopped and we had a great spontaneous catch-up regarding Bad Apple. He just makes you feel that great when you chat him up! And you just know he’s crazy busy as he’s a microbrewery entrepreneur! (But he still makes time!)

Bad Apple now sells its own ciders. It has a covered but open-air performance area and has its own canning line as well as its own deep cooling fridge to perfectly store all that canned brew! It’s great to see businesses like this expanding a little bit, every time you drive by. I love Bad Apple, and its beers. I am its number one long-distance fan. I am jealous of what he’s accomplished and am so pleased for him and his family!

Jason may not know this, but I don’t drink a LOT of beer. So, when I was there and bought two full cases that one time … its something I have never done before or since. In, fact, I don’t think I’ve ever bought 24 beers at once, unless it was for some sort of group function and that was my task as part of the party! And that would have been AGES ago!

His Strawberry Cider is the best thing that crossed my lips this year and that includes any rave I made about Kinsip’s Maple Whisky! It was close, but the Strawberry Cider won!

Last, we kept moving North towards Bayfield and we stopped at 74444 Bluewater Highway where Cornerfield Winery is ‘pulling a Jason Ingram’.

By that I mean every time we slip by this little slice of heaven, there’s something new.

Now there’s a gazebo at the end of the lovely outdoor tasting patio!

The patio is rather cleverly laid out in that it takes you past the main retail building and tasting trailer and furthers your experience by inviting you onto the grounds closer to where the grapes are grown, and the chickens are couped up! Yup! Another place with chickens. And Cornerfield staff didn’t even hen-peck me to write about how I love their seven-varietal white: the Farmer and the Frenchman. Mai Non!

We stopped here and had a glass. So, you know what kind of ranking is coming: 4/5 if everything is okay sans a taste and good service. So, with great wine, great people around you, great ambience and sitting out near the vines … Cornerfield knocked it out of the park with an 8/5. Sorry, Jason. Had I tasted at your place, you might have won the day.

But seriously. Pick a day everyone of these businesses are open and make this trip for yourselves. There is NO WAY you can lose! Stop and imbibe at any location but: either have a designated driver, or don’t imbibe at each place, or if you imbibe at each locale, please have small amounts over loooooooooong periods so you stay safe, okay?

Take a little bit of most things home with you so you can re-experience them later in the comfort of your own home. That’s where the home-away-from home ranking gets you. You’ll recall the time you were there with fondness and you’ll be recalling and making new memories at the same time. Life is good in the vines, in the fields, and in the orchards!

Really. You will love me for making this trip recommendation.

And I didn’t even take you to River Road Brewing and Hops or Maelstrom Winery. What I’m saying is you could go crazy and add them in to your trip and you’d be even luckier that I’m out here recommending great places for you to go to.

I just wanna share my excitement for all the great places where beer, wine, spirits and ciders are made in Ontario.

I’m a folk hero, dammit!

😊

Owen

Beer: Torched Brewing: Grand Bend, ON

ontariocrafts.wordpress.com

By: Owen

Date Written: September 25, 2023

Date Posted: November 8, 2023

Home Away From Home Ranking: 16/5

I think I’m sorta simple.

I ‘fall’ for nice people pretty easily.

Okay. Maybe that’s unfair to myself.

I’m gregarious. I like people. I naturally want to build relationships.

I admire entrepreneurs and I especially admire those who use a combination of science and artistry to create cider, beer, wine and spirits.

What I’m saying is that I’m designed to like and admire the Ontario people who create the beverages I write about.

But just because I’m wired that way, just because I’m blogging about the right thing (for me), doesn’t mean I’m always going to like the people I meet at these locations.

But I’m telling you right here, right now and for a fact, I really felt at home at Torched Brewing in Grand Bend, Ontario. You meet these easy-going folks, people who have their investment on the line if the (in this case) brewery doesn’t succeed, and you talk about beer, (and especially their beer) and their process and their business and you just really like them. You WANT them to succeed. You wish you could live nearby so you could help them … work there for free every once in a while … pitch in when needed.

And that’s the vibe I received at Torched Brewing. I met two of the six owners at Torched Brewing on the day I swung by with my camera. I never wanted to leave. I want to go back. Even now, when we’re planning a day up at Bayfield (tomorrow), I’m figuring out how to make Torched a part of the day!

So. Now I’ll set all that aside.

Now. Earlier, on August 24^th, I told you the tale of how I wanted to go to Brewster Mills Brewing in Grand Bend, and every time I went to check in with that brewery they were closed.

So, when I finally arrive at the right geographical location, it was then “TORCHED BREWING” and I was worried that A: I’d missed Brewster’s Mills and that it had been sold only to become Torched or B: that I was in some kind of Captain Kirk time travelling sequence or C: that I was in a Captain Kirk, or Michael Burnham alternate (can you say, E-VIL) universe (You’re going to have to keep up with the Star Trek Universe peeps!).

Well. Read the past article for the history of how Brewster’s Mills became Torched, but thankfully, the folk who started the old one, still owned the new one.

Torched has a lovely outdoor seating area. You can not only sip great brews, you can now chow down on wood-fired pizza (oven was newly installed at my visit).

Inside, there is gear to your right, a couple of tables, as I recall at the entrance, the brewery to your left and out back … the OVEN!

Turning around upon entering, I found the fridge full of six pack and mix and match tall boys. On the day I was there, there were five different brews. A sixth was temporarily out of stock – the microbrewers constant battle with supply and the ability to can the supply! Arrrrrrrrrrrrgh!

I stopped in, gave two proprietors my card and we were off to the races, talking, chatting and enjoying one another.

Seriously. I was just in love with the vibe emanating from them as we spoke. What great people! People you can meet and think you could be friends … you know … if you lived in the same town.

What’s important is that friendly patter is translated into their making great beer. They want you to like their product and so they take the time and care to make it great.

Sadly, as I visit their website today, I have learned two unhappy things. One, their beer list has been reduced to three from the six I discovered when I was there and two – dang it! – I ‘relearned’ that they are closed Mondays and Tuesdays for production.

The fact that I typically get Tuesday’s off, is the reason I never found them open when they were Brewster Mills. And now, I realize, I can take visiting them off my list tomorrow on our little day trip.

Hulk sad! Really sad. (I was looking forward to seeing them again!) And I was looking forward to imbibing great beers again too! And now, that ship has been … well … TORCHED! 😊

Should you be travelling in and around the thriving metropolis of Grand Bend, Ontario, and you’re ever thirsty or hungry for pizza please consider Torched.

You’d be doing us both a huge favour. One, you’d have a great time with great beer and great food. Two, you’d be doing me a solid, keeping them open until I, like General MacArthur, shall return.

And I will return.

Cheers

Owen

Three Year Blogging Celebration

A Thanks From Owen

Wow! Three years and 232 posts later and here we are.

What’s new?

First: Well I have a new colour scheme, which I like sooo much better than the one I used to have!

Second: Also I’m getting far more positive contacts with all of you/month than in previous years. So far, this year I’m averaging well over 100 hits per month: nearly double 2022, and 2021.

I’m attributing the success to one thing that sort of snow-balled. I created business cards and handed them out to customer service representatives and owners alike (when I spoke with them at their businesses). Just like I think ‘gear’ makes a producer of beer, wine and spirits (and ciders) the final step in the ‘seriousness’ of these businesses, a business card seems to have done that for me.

Because I’m able to introduce myself and leave something behind, when I do email the business about the fact that a post about their specific enterprise is up on my blog, they have a better chance of remembering me. And because they remember me, they place links on their social media and this, in turn, bumps up my readership. I’m nothing without help from others and referrals from any of you. So … thanks!

Third: Carrie and I were able to visit our third (and final) major Ontario wine-producing VQA sanctioned appellation in Prince Edward County this year. Going there boosted the range of my blog in the province, AND offered me a great many new places to blog about!

Last, I have written before that only six percent of bloggers make a financial go of things. Three percent (after approximately six years of work), will earn upwards of 100,000 annually. The next three percent will earn approximately $12,000 annually (again after six years of blogging work). These figures don’t only come from blogging but multiple revenue streams like selling books, speaking engagements, selling flyers, performing road trips as a leader and guide etc. Me?

I’m giving up on the revenue stream idea here. If I can maintain or grow my readership, even a little next year, then I’ll keep on writing and video-blogging as a great and fun hobby, sharing with all of you wonderful readers my experiences where I find joy (breweries, wineries, cideries and distilleries) in one of the best places to live in the world: Canada first, Ontario second.

Love ya all!

Muah!

Owen

https://owensfreechristmasnovel.wordpress.com/

Hi: This is the only time anyone will learn this Christmas Novel blog is up and running.

It was a labour of love.

Coming Home is based on the idea that ordinary people have Hollywood back-up spouses should anything happen to their loved one. Of course no one expects to have their spouse pass … or to actually meet their Hollywood back-up.

Coming Home is about meeting that back-up Hollywood star. Little did Jake know what he was in for …

Info about the website and some cautions

Coming Home is a Hallmark-esque Christmas Novel. If you don’t like happy endings and dripping sentimentality well …

The site doesn’t appear to ‘google’ search so you’ll have to cut and paste it into your address bar.

The site is crude and difficult to navigate. Sorry.

It’s been years since I wrote any fiction. If I was a great writer, I’d have been published back when. So, no guarantees as to quality, eh?

I have no idea how to get published (non vanity) any more and wouldn’t know if I was good enough to make the grade should I try. I’m not going to try. I’ve had enough of ‘trying’.

Please feel no obligation to read my novel. I just had to ‘put it out there’ so someone could have a chance to see it!

There will be no opportunity for feedback on the site.

If you like it, it’s up to you to pass it on to friends and family!

Thanks.

Owen

Beer Trip: Beerlab (part 2): London

ontariocrafts.wordpress.com

By: Owen

Date Written: September 20, 2023

Date Posted: Halloween, 2023

Home Away From Home Ranking: 5.5/5

If you think of the most fun thing you have experienced, like a great new rollercoaster, or a walk in the woods where you see lots of wildlife (safely), or perhaps the best cruise you’ve ever been on, for scenic views, and great food and fun experiences … then you can picture Beerlab in London, Ontario at 420 Talbot Street.

Beerlab at 420 Talbot Street, has lots going for it: One? Unique, small batch brews; Two? They have a brilliant idea which ought to be a no-brainer for anyone: Build-your-own tastings with any number of tastings for a small, standard fee.

Want to try a small amount of one beer? You can.

Want to try a small amount of two beers? You can.

Want to try a small amount of three beers? You can.

In addition to this flexibility, the tasting price is competitive and reasonable. So, bully for Beerlab for thinking of this where no one else has gone before (that I’ve been to, and I’ve been to a LOT of places!) (ALSO: note the geek Star Trek reference!)

What is so clever about the any number of tastings idea is that it makes Beerlab beer so approachable and affordable. On this trip I had three and my bro had two tastings. Had Beerlab been like others and compelled us to have a flight of four, neither of us may have given them a try. But because of their great ‘any number you want’ program, they sold us more beer to take home because we could try what we wanted in advance. It was perfect!

In a lot of ways, Beerlab’s physical location is sort of like a permanently located food truck. It has an open side exposed to the street like a trailer, with additional on-street patio seating, combined with a deeper part of the trailer that creates a roof you sit under while tasting.

The building has a narrow face to the public and only a few tables inside where one sits and imbibes. You sit beside vats. Which I find cool and as refreshing as their beers!!!

For me, that only enhances the experience. I like being in the thick of things!

Facing the location, they open the side doors to the tasting area wide to create an open-air effect.

Right in front are just a few intimate tables. Behind them is the serving bar and the taps for the draft beers. To the left, the sales fridge. On the right side, facing the place, we sat at a small table for two, right beside a couple of vats.

The place is small, cozy, efficient and fun!

Our service was perfect. Our beers were tasty. Our time there was delightful. And we could have a couple tasting samples since we’d spent so long at Broken Rail in St. Mary’s with an hour or so travel in between the two breweries.

I came home with a mix pack and my bro also made a couple of purchases.

So, what do I think of Beerlab? One thing I can say is that I’ve already made a spontaneous stop to buy more … so that speaks volumes.

And seeing as it’s currently on a route between my wife’s work and my own workplace, I ‘think’ of stopping there every time I go ‘buy’.

I follow some of their socials and I also see new experimental beers coming out regularly, so they’re always mixing things up (literally) and they’re good about letting people know – so they score extra points for that!

They maintain the favourites listings while exploring new options to create new faves down the road! 

I like the way the place is run. I like the vibe and the beer and the staff. I like that they make regular social updates with purpose and that those updates tempt me to drop by and experiment with the new brew. I don’t always make time to do it, but I like feeling like I’m ‘in the know’ about the place. Like I’m a friend of the family.

So, they’re doing a lot of things right at Beerlab. The only prediction I might make is that they’ll either have to buy up more space around them, or they’ll have to move so they can accommodate the hordes that want to stop by, have a drink and to take a few cans of brew home with them.

The problem with my fantasy for Beerlab? They have a great address, even if the place might be too small for future business needs. Any move would have to be well thought out.

But for now, go and visit them on Talbot Street. You’ll love the fun vibe, the friendly staff and the beers that are served too.

Beerlab exceeds my 5/5 home-away-from-home ranking.

Cheers

Owen

NOTE: OLDER POSTS HAVE LOST MORE PICTURES AS I’VE REACHED MY MAXIMUM STORAGE SPACE.

Beer Trip: Black Donnellys; Broken Rail (part 1); Beerlab (part 2): Russeldale, St. Marys, London

ontariocrafts.wordpress.com

By: Owen

Date Written: September 15, 2023

Date Posted: October 26, 2023

Home Away From Home Ranking: 4/5, 5/5, 5.5/5

Gone are the heady days of our Mid-May, Prince Edward County 40^th Anniversary trip.

On to my Bro, Wayne and our beer day trip.

On this sunny day in early June, we headed North. First, I wanted to revisit a classic locale south of the thriving metropolis of Russeldale, just at 2740, Road 164/(Highway 23): Black Donnellys Brewing Company.

If you’re gonna take your Bro out for a day, you might as well start off with a winning brewery, and Black Donnellys does a great job of every brew they make. I love this place.

As a bit of a treat for my brother, I managed to visit two places that would make him doubly happy, as I found locations to visit which not only made great brews, but also linked with two other hobbies: woodworking and trains.

On this day Black Donnellys was visited after a large, leisurely lunch. We were late in our planning day due to complications, so we didn’t stop to imbibe here. However, as I said, this was a repeat visit for moi, so I knew what I wanted.

I like the vibe here as Black Donnellys makes very approachable beers, and their serving tables are all on live-edge handmade wood tables. So, while I was ordering my brews, my bro could ogle the tables. For anyone who loves wood craft, the tables here are works of art!

Sadly, the ONLY brew I would have ordered in multiples of six, 1880 Milk Stout, was nearly out of stock. I think I came away with the last two, as they were just about to make a canning run of it in a couple of days or so. Hulk sad ☹.

Still, one could never be truly disappointed with buying beer at Black Donnellys as all their entries into each beer category are great. (I just think their stout is an exemplary entry into that class!)

Including the Milk Stout, I bought eight different varieties and loved them all!

In an odd mood, my bro didn’t make any purchases. I think had we stopped for a sample, he’d have been more inclined.

Service here was fine, minus the missing Milk Stouts that didn’t come home with me! ☹ (Again, Owen, with the sad face! Yes. I was THAT sad!)

Heading back down 23, we made our way via back roads and black tops to North St. Marys.

There we found Broken Rail Brewing at 480 Glass Street.

Well. If woodworking is a hobby for my Bro, trains are his first and forever love. He has a model railroad layout in his home, and volunteers at the Thorndale model railroading group where there’s a huge building just for him and his cohorts to hang out and ‘work’ and ‘engineer — see what I did there?’ — and build on a huge miniature railroad. (Is huge miniature an oxymoron?)

So, entering the St. Mary’s old sub-station siding, where there used to be pedestrian rail … well … I hit the perfect home run for my bro!

Broken Rail is in the old station outside of St. Mary’s. Here we each had a flight, but my bro was more interested in talking it up with someone who knew more about the station and its history than he was about doing the tasting.

I’d lost him.

I sat at a table beside the old ticket window. Through it, I could see their smaller room (the ticket office) for gear. There was lots of it from clothing to glassware.

I sat facing the front of the building. Behind and to my right was the bar/serving area where the taps were. To my immediate left was the ticket window with the small room for gear just on the other side. Non-illuminated lights on the walls were from the historic period when the station was active. To my right was a small tasting room with a few tables.

Lest I write something inappropriate …

In the far-right corner of the small, cozy room, was a gaggle of gals, all with a glass of brew in front of them. When I was a kid, beer was ‘mostly’, but not exclusively, a guy’s domain. I was delighted to see them all there, enjoying their brews and one another.

Often, Carrie and I find ourselves alone in tasting rooms like these. And while there’s a distinct advantage of having the employee all to yourself so you can ask questions, we lose some ambience because the place is just so empty you sometimes feel like you can hear your own voice echo off the walls. So, this group of people really warmed the place, as I imbibed brews on my own.

Broken Rail entries into beer categories are more unique than you’ll find at other breweries. What I’m saying is they push at the edges of what you might expect to taste. Each brew was an interesting surprise.

As I was finishing my tasting my bro finally saddled up to the table to begin his.

Seeing as he was a bit behind, I walked over to my right, where there was a door into the production facility. There I caught the owner leaning over his brand new small canning operation. It had just arrived and he was examining it with pride and joy.

As you may well know, ‘canning’ is a very big deal. Having your own operation that suits your production facilities takes up room and is an additional cost newer breweries sometimes don’t want to or cannot afford.

There’s a BIG catch 22 with not having your own canning operation, whatever the cost. When you must contract with someone else to do it, you’re often on ‘their’ schedule and not on your own. That can mean you have beer ready to be canned, but you can’t get them into those lovely silver bullets in order to get them on the shelf so you can sell them.

Not having your own canning operation means potentially being out of stock (with beer in cans) whilst you really do have the beer, ready to be canned, sitting in a huge vat … just … over … there!

So, as I discovered, Broken Rail was just about to eliminate the canning dilemma from its business model with its new canner. Well done!

I left with two kinds of brews times two.

Wayne left with some too.

A truly winning visit.

Next time I’ll conclude my trip by writing about Beerlab at 420 Talbot Street, London.

It’ll be worth the wait!

Cheers

Owen

Wine: Sugarbush Vineyards: Hillier, ON, Prince Edward County

ontariocrafts.wordpress.com

By: Owen

Date Written: September 12, 2023

Date Posted: October 19, 2023

Home Away From Home Ranking: 4/5

So, this is our last full day in Prince Edward County (PEC) and we’re still in the following modes: not knowing what to do, being impatient with ourselves (antsy), wanting to visit wineries, cautious of our spending, and still wanting to enjoy our day.

Phew!

So, after we compelled ourselves to slow down at Huff Estates where we had a glass, we found ourselves at Sugarbush Vineyard and Winery at 1286 Wilson Road, Hillier, Ontario, in the lovely Prince Edward County.

We turned onto the property and parked on a hard-packed gravel lot.

What a lovely vista right in front of us. Before us was a huge, promotional Muskoka chair with the Sugarbush name on it. There were picnic tables as well as a round table with chairs around it on the lawn between us and the actual vines. To our left was what looked to be two outdoor, open pavilions for tasting (the one closest to me was obvious, the one further away (smaller) looked to be a more intimate setting). To our right was the actual retail outlet.

Hopping up a couple of stone steps we entered the premises.

Inside was a casual mix of places to stand and taste, wine barrels supporting live edge finished wood boards with bottles on both barrels and the boards.

Wine prices ranged from $20 to $29 – a very approachable ensemble of 13 different kinds. Beyond the Prince Edward County typical Chardonnay, Chardonnay Reserve and Pinot Noir, there is a Cabernet Franc, a surprising Viognier (we hadn’t seen much of this in the region), and some blends.

If PEC grows typical burgundy varietals (Chard and Pinot Noir) then Gamay isn’t too far off, and, Sugarbush has that varietal too. In addition, just another step off the mainstream growing conditions from Gamay, are Riesling and Gewurztraminer – which you’ll also find at Sugarbush.

So, as I said, the Cab Franc and the Viognier are far from the traditional beaten path … as it were.

Seeing as we’d just imbibed at the locale before, we really couldn’t sample here, so unfortunately, we didn’t get the full “Sugarbush” experience. However, that being said, the staff we met were kind, friendly and knowledgeable (KFK).

You might think the KFK trilogy of good service is common, but it’s not as common as you think. Having a happy staff member answer any of your questions and help you with your selections is half of the battle, when giving you my home-away-from-home rankings. People, make ‘places’ feel like home!

Sitting down, dining, imbibing a glass or doing a tasting and having five or ten minutes to get to know your server … those minutes can kick the rating into overdrive.

So, because we didn’t get the full-on experience – again, partly our own fault for not hanging around, I give Sugarbush a 4*/5 home-away-from-home ranking, but I include an asterisk in my rating.

I can see, on a nice summer day – like the one we had – where you can sit outside near the vines, with a glass or a tasting … that that ranking could well escalate to 5/5.

Due to our previous sticker shocks and having shopped at over a dozen wineries, breweries, distilleries and cideries we bought a rosé and an unoaked Chardonnay.

As you can see, if you consider buying Rosés, the colour of this one is gorgeous – too tempting for us to say no to.

We will definitely go back to Sugarbush, and if we plan things differently, and Sugarbush is on the earlier part of our trip rather than the last stop in a whirlwind four days, I can see us stocking up with many more wines next time around.

Sugarbush Vineyard and Winery. Well worth the stop. Make time to kick back and relax and have a glass.

Cheers

Owen

NOTE: 12 more images from older blog posts upwards of 3 years ago have been deleted. Some older images may have broken links.

Christmas is A-Coming: Get Your Spirit Gifts While You Can

ontariocrafts.wordpress.com

By: Owen

Date Written: October 11, 2023

Date Posted: October 11, 2023

Home Away From Home Ranking: N/A

Hey everyone. In the interest of you meeting your Christmas present-buying list. I want to take time to remind you that it is after Thanksgiving.

That thought is NOT news.

What is, is that your local beer, wine, cider and spirits retailer is about to receive and display it’s Christmas wears soon. Whenever the next delivery comes to your local distributor of wondrous libations that truck could contain Christmas specialty items.

HERE’S the CAUTIONERY TALE!

What Christmas products arrive on these upcoming deliveries is ALL that store receives for the ENTIRE SEASON. So, if it receives one case of Advocaat, six cases of various alcohol-based egg nogs (Old Tom, Evan Williams) that is ALL it receives.

Keep your eyes and ears peeled because when it comes, it is stocked and … when it is gone … it is gone.

Many a time I have found folks rue-ing the day when they ask for a Christmas item near Christmas and it is all gone and no store nearby has any of that specific magic elixir either.

It is not a pressure technique to get you to buy early. These facts just ‘are’.

So, keep an eye out and please, buy it when you see it, or you may be disappointed!

Cheers

Owen

Wine: Huff Estates: Bloomfield, ON, Prince Edward County

ontariocrafts.wordpress.com

By: Owen

Date Written: September 5, 2023

Date Posted: October 10, 2023

Home Away From Home Ranking: 4.5/5

Carrie and I are weird. We enter Ontario’s various wine country’s appellations with a ton of P and V … like Buggs Bunny’s Tasmanian Devil (there’s a link to images of Tas!)

And by now we, like the whirling dervish Tasmanian Devil of Buggs Bunny fame, are slowly starting to spin down.

A part of our trips means diving in headfirst with enthusiasm. Then we start buying with joy and delight, dreaming of wines to come in our future. And we dine out everywhere. And we fill our trunk with goodies. And after about three or four days we are shopped out, worried about just how much we’ve spent and somewhat worried about the future prognostication of our livers, and then we’re just about done. We want to go home.

All that being said, we had a wonderful time at our second to last stop in Prince Edward County (PEC): Huff Estates Winery at 2274 Prince Edward County #1, near Bloomfield.

Huff Estates makes a big statement what with its vast concrete wall, it’s large retail space and its lovely outdoor tasting area.

By the time we got here, we were ready for a sit-down. So. We each ordered a glass. We were only feet from the vines. I was sitting with my back to the entrance. The pizza oven was over to my left, the vines in front of me, and slightly behind me and to my right was the performer strumming his guitar, singing his jazz and entertaining a rotating in-and-out crowd of between 30-40 people.

So, the place was busy.

The glasses of wine surely hit the spot, as we sat, chatted (quietly and between songs), imbibed and listened.

This was our last full day in the last Ontario Appellation we’d been to visit. There are only a couple of ‘emerging regions’ we have yet to explore.

Huff Estates was a lovely place to have a sit down and an ‘ahhh’ moment to rest our weary Tasmanian Devil whirly-gig bones.

Huff deserves a fresher couple who’s not shopped out to visit them.

“Home away from home” rankings vary significantly between whether a locale is visited at the beginning of the trip, or near the end.

At Huff, there was what I’ll call, limited table service. We’ve been to places like this before. The Brickhouse Brewpub, which is the restaurant arm of Upper Thames Brewing Company also requires folks to line up to place an order.

I have no aversions to this strategy.

The person taking our order helped us make our wine selections, and the person who delivered the glasses to our table was friendly and knowledgeable.

I can tell you the pizza tempted me. Pizza nearly always tempts me. However, we’d brunched near noon at the Drake Devonshire Hotel dining room, and we were returning for an early dinner, so a wonderful Huff pizza would have been too filling and would have spoiled our 40^th Anniversary dinner later.

(I was still tempted. It IS pizza after all.)

We sat for an hour. We not only are weird, but I think we were both feeling weird too. We were impatient to be going because we were in wind-down mode, but we had time before dinner and we didn’t know quite what else to do with ourselves if we did return to our room as we’d have a couple of hours to kill. It’s almost as though we forced ourselves to sit and enjoy our surroundings and our wine. Are you getting what I’m saying here? Do you feel like this when you vacay?

What I can say is that our forced rest, actually debugged us. We felt more like ourselves by the time we left and didn’t have this jangly feeling like we were torn between wanting to go home and not wanting to leave because leaving would mean going back home to work.

Huff broke the spell of antsy that we’d cast upon ourselves!

What I can say is that Huff didn’t get the best of us!

Huff, however, did give us the best of themselves. We really did enjoy our time there. Certainly, we enjoyed ourselves well enough to want to return … perhaps at the front-end of our next trip to PEC … I’m certain things would have been different!!!

Only two Huff bottles came home with us. We selected the Gamay because we like a nice light red and don’t often see it at many Ontario vineyards.

I selected the Merlot because for me, it is the most common red varietal that I somehow seem to choose to overlook. Cab Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Baco Noir, Marquette, and even the once-ignored Pinot Noir all come home in an instant: these varietals all make it into tastings and boxes that come home with us. And then the sad and lonely Merlots go untried and unloved. We liked our selections at Huff, and so chose other wines we didn’t taste (sight untasted) based on the strength of the quality of the wines we did imbibe. And so, I brought home the Merlot, an unsung varietal in my home so I could give it and Huff one really, really good try!

Huff Estates is a winner. A kind corner of the province that should not be overlooked, but should be sought out with the joy of a treasure long lost. Find it and you will chillax!

Go.

Enjoy.

Us?

We will return.

Cheers

Owen

NOTE: More October 2020 images were deleted so that these pictures could be included. I have met my limit for storage for photographs. so older stories will slowly lose images.

Tasting Six Wines with 15 Friends

You too can have a great time having wine tastings with your friends.

Cheers

Owen

Distillery: Kinsip House of Fine Spirits: Bloomfield, ON, Prince Edward County

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By: Owen

Date Written: August 15, 2023

Date Posted: October 5, 2023

Home Away From Home Ranking: 4.9/5

I’m a funny guy. I go to Stillus and think that it’s a modern monolith whose building is out of sync with their own words about Prince Edward County describing it as ‘old-fashioned – a place you can trust and rely upon’.

I go to Kinsip House of Fine Spirits and think it’s just a wee bit too old fashioned … even for Prince Edward County that’s old fashioned and a place where you can trust and rely upon its people!

Here’s the street sign, with the address on it!

We were greeted by a flowering crab tree at the road … blooms reminiscent of our wedding day 40 years earlier when our photographer took pictures of us in Springbank Park, in London, Ontario.

At the side of the dirt lot was a barbecue truck with some people sitting in picnic tables around it. If we hadn’t just had brunch at the Drake Devonshire, and if we weren’t going back for our celebratory dinner … well … even then I was tempted. It was barbecue, after all!

Once we got out of the car and were heading up the hardened sand path we were greeted by a ‘Foghorn Leghorn’ rooster who’d been taken by the dog that always fought him in Looney Tunes and had plucked the feathers off him within an inch of his life.

The bird ran in front of us cock-a-doodle-doing like he was running from a fire. The only thing the bird needed to complete the cartoon image was a rocks glass partly full of whisky in one hand, a cigarette in a holder in the other, and smoking ascot tie and evening jacket. The line for him would have been a British accented, “My word!”

Once we were up to the product display area I found lots of things that interested me.

To our far right was a series of outbuildings and a large barn (the barbecue truck was in front of the barn.)

To my near right was an opening into another building that looked to be the tasting area.

To my left was what must have been (is/was?) the family home. When I look on the website, I see a sign on the main door that indicates it must be the ‘winterized’ sipping room.

But. I admit to making two mistakes … maybe three.

In front of the path was an undercover, but open-to-the-air- display/retail space. To my immediate right, some folk disappeared inside a room I never explored.

The sales area is just beyond the two white umbrellas. Photo Credit: Owen Thornton

Mistake number one was in not checking that out. Again, we were in this weird mood where we seemed antsy like we didn’t have time to look around or to stay and sample their wares. Really, we had all the time in the world. This weird mood would change shortly, but Kinsip was shortchanged by us. The least I could have done was look around.

Maybe mistake number two was in simply not exploring the grounds … even just a little bit more.

But, on this day all I did was walk up to the retail space and make a purchase of maple whisky and gin.

Before I describe my purchases let me say that in our picture you can see bottles of flavoured bitters, gin, whisky, a flavoured whiskey. On their website you’ll find over a dozen alcohol-inspired products.

Here is an important detail. Tastings are recommended to be booked on-line and currently are priced at $15. However, that being ‘written’, Kinsip says they hold tables for those dedicated to spontaneity … the problem with taking this risk is if too many people are spontaneous at the same time, you will wait …

I bought gin and maple whiskey. While the gin was a hit, the maple whiskey was my third mistake.

Look. They make their own whisky and they make it right (I’m guessing!).

Look. They make their own maple syrup and they make it right (I’m guessing!).

How do I know these things when I sampled neither their plain whisky nor their maple syrup?

Because their maple syrup whisky is to die for. No. This wasn’t a mistake in that I didn’t buy two bottles, but that I didn’t buy all of their supply and the rights to ship it around the world in multi-million dollar deals to agencies willing to retail one of the best beverages of its kind in the world!!!

They hell of it was it was only sold in 375ml bottles!!! Arrrrrrrrrgh!

Okay. Why so good?

I’m going to make a digression here. When we’re talking flavoured beer, I want to taste the flavour. I want whatever is flavouring the beer to be bold! I don’t want a brewmaker to make their normal beer then toss a black cherry over the entire vat whilst some of the essence of said cherry falls into a 5-million-gallon vat of plain beer. In the case of the ‘cherry toss over the barrel’, you can barely note any cherry flavour. Me? I want cherries with some beer.

My feelings are very different when it comes to flavoured whiskies.

First. Flavours in whiskies need to strike a balance of having both well-rounded flavours of the particular flavour and the whiskey. Overpower the whiskey with flavour and you don’t know you’re drinking whisky – you have a liqueur. Too little flavour added to the whisky and all you do is make a funny-tasting whisky.

Second. I can imagine someone making whisky and then adding the ingredient. And, I can imagine when it comes to maple syrup, too much could be added and the drink would become sickly sweet.

But, should you take mature whisky and then add it to an empty, used, maple syrup barrel where the whisky is allowed to extract the syrup from the barrel … then you’ve done it just about right. You have the great taste of maple syrup without thinking you’re drinking it straight. You’re drinking whiskey with just the right balance to let you know it’s whiskey AND that it has maple syrup flavour without it being like a sweet liqueur like, say a Disaronno (which I like as a liqueur).

Kinsip: they did it perfectly and made me wish I’d bought the farm!

Wait a minute … that may not have come out right!

Well, anywho.

We didn’t do the place justice and their maple whisky, and their gin DID do them proud.

I’m going back. I’m buying more maple whisky. And I’m going to look around more. If the barbecue truck is there, I’ll consider that too!

It really is my kind of place.

Featherless chickens running around the place or not. (And, oddly, the rest of the birds we saw DID have feathers!)

Kinsip. They have three-legged chickens. Which gives them a leg up on the competition! The problem is, these three-legged birds run so fast they can’t catch them either.

HAH!

(I’m betting they won’t use that quotation in their advertising!)

Cheers

Owen

Cider: Crimson Cider Co.: Picton, ON, Prince Edward County

Ontariocrafts.wordpress.com

By: Owen

Date Written: August 14, 2023

Date Posted: September 25, 2023

Home Away From Home Ranking: 4/5

A five minute walk from Barley Days Brewing Company is the Crimson Cider Company at 13762 Loyalist Parkway (county road 33).

Like Barley Days Crimson has a Picton address, but it really lies between the thriving metropolises of Warings Corner to the east and Bloomfield to the west.

In a large open concept store, Crimson sells eight different flavoured ciders. Seven of the varieties came in the 750ml (wine bottle) format and were priced in the $18 to $21 range. The eighth was in a 473ml can for $6/can.

This is Carrie’s jam, as these ciders were all fairly dry (not my cup of cider). I can drink wines dry, but ciders? … Not so much!

Because I can’t really help her with a large bottle of dry cider, Carrie bought three different flavours in that format, and she purchased three cans of the only one sold like that. She may have bought more had the size formatting been … smaller?

(I’m betting the cost of, and the logistics of canning is the reason why the format is in 750ml bottles.)

Crimson Crisp, came in the can whilst we purchased: One in a Melon; Cranberry Sage and Ginspired Ciders. The latter came home with us because … well … we both love gin. We figured that if we like gin, we’ll love this cider.

The shop is ‘farm casual’ with great pieces of wood framing displays of ciders and a stone block wall supporting a display of gear and other gifts.

During the time there our customer service representative was kind, patient, knowledgeable and helpful.

The ONLY thing that could have promoted my home away from home ranking up to the 4.5 or higher sphere would be had we stayed outside for a tasting, whilst sitting in a circle in some Muskoka Chairs surrounding a fire pit.

Hey. I’d love to give everyone a 10/5. In this case, I think I just would have had to ‘sit a spell’ to soak up some more atmosphere before giving my ranking a couple notches higher. So, it’s not that Crimson couldn’t earn a higher ranking, it’s that we didn’t quite fully experience the place to warrant a higher ranking. Sometimes it’s just not possible to stay and experience every place in a series of stops.

Did I say this was a weird day? It was. We had nothing but brunch and dinner planned, yet somehow we were antsy … unable to settle.

It was like were in a hurry to go to the place where we didn’t know where we were going to next, which sounds crazy even as I write about it, but that’s the way the start of the day felt to me. And when I talked to Carrie about it, she said she felt the same.

Maybe it was that we had so much of the county to explore we were a bit overwhelmed … trying to do it all and knowing we couldn’t.

The day wouldn’t always be like that for us, but for now … we didn’t stay at Crimson Cidery long, but we still recommend it for great ciders!

Since we’ve been home, we’ve consumed the ciders and I can tell you Carrie would go back for more. She still might wish for smaller canning formats, but she loved the flavours of everything she consumed. Crimson Cidery, is a true winner!

Cheers

Owen

Beer: Barley Days Brewing: Picton, ON, Prince Edward County

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By: Owen

Date Written: August 10, 2023

Date Posted: September 20, 2023

Home Away From Home Ranking: 4.2/5

Sometimes you just get a whole lot of strange.

It was Sunday, our last full day in Prince Edward County. Today was our actual 40^th anniversary day, and it was also Mother’s Day.

We had brunch scheduled for the morning at the lovely Drake Devonshire (remember we were a couple hundred feet up the road in the Drake Devonshire Motor Inn).

We dined in the preferred corner of the restaurant: the one with the large windows on two sides. One offered a view of lovely Lake Ontario, the other a view of the small, sometimes underground creek that runs (under the Drake Devonshire Motor Inn) and here, beside the Drake Devonshire Hotel.

We would later return here for dinner too, but between brunch and din-din? We didn’t have a thing scheduled.

Our trips are a mix of planned events (like brunch reservations), must dos (like going to Sandbanks or Rosehall Run wineries whenever we’re close by) and playing it by ear.

We suddenly found ourselves with ‘a lot of playing it by ear’ and no idea what to do.

Naturally we found ourselves on an impromptu, beer, cider and winery tour one-a-more-a-time-a! And so, on this day we visited Barley Days Brewing at 13730 Loyalist Parkway (county road 33).

First let me say that the “PICTON” address of Barley Days seems to be a wee bit of an exaggeration. Barley Days is NOT in Picton, but is on highway 33 between the thriving metropolises (read VERY small towns) of Bloomfield and Warings Corner.

Second, let me say that when I googled Barley Days – a location that claims to be the county’s first microbrewery – I couldn’t find a website (the link is to their facebook page with a notice as recent as April of this year) and Mr. Google thought it was permanently closed.

Third, let me write that I called them, whereupon I did get a phone message system telling me the hours they were open, so I gave them notice that Mr. Google thinks they are closed. (I called them again today September 20th and once again got notification of the days and times of the week they are open … so … )

However, I can neither confidently confirm they are open or permanently closed.

I shall proceed with the notion that the county’s oldest brewery is open because a place that’s closed doesn’t usually have an active phone number!

Phew. So. Enough strange for you? An unexpected visit with the shadow that the place has closed before I could get them in the queue to write about them!!!

Anywho.

We actually arrived before they were open and we had to wait for a few minutes. I believe the hostess actually opened up a couple of minutes early, just to accommodate us. So: points there. She surely did not have to and we told her so. But she insisted. Very nice!

Inside we found a rustic tasting area made from metal stools and old barrels for tables. To my right was a display rack of gear – something I always take as a good sign that the microbrewery is active, well, and ‘in it for the long haul’. (Ha! That joke may be on me!)

Monsieur Google suggests that Barley Days Brewing opened in 2007. Check their hours before you go. Like a number of small microbrewers, they are ‘closed’ on Tuesdays and Wednesdays for production. Hours tend to be fairly restrictive: 12-5 on days they ARE open.

Small brewers have limited staff and because of that, they often close down for ‘production days’ so that they can make beer without the constant interruption from customers. Clever businesspeople will select the day or two days of the week that track the weakest sales.

Perhaps … if you’re making them a bit of destination you WILL want to confirm if they are still in business.

Now. Our hostess was very accommodating. I was very willing to take home their Pilsner, Lager, Ale and the Amber Lager. Their Scrimshaw Oyster Stout however … made me balk. I’m not an oyster lover and so … well ??? I …

“It doesn’t taste like oysters” the hostest tells me. “Really what you’re getting is a note of salt.”

She offered me a small sip … enough for me to think I could take a can and consume it when I got home.

So, their beers were all a very solid entry into each class. For me, the Amber wasn’t in my top five, but it was still very drinkable. (Ambers are my jam and so new ones like this are always up against very tough and large crowd.) I remember pulling the can of Oyster Stout out of the fridge and still having a grimace when I did so.

I will say that the stout was quaffable and ‘interesting’. It wouldn’t make it on my buy-it-again list (there are already so many), but if I were served it, I could certainly drink and enjoy it.

I would say, for a last-minute inspiration stop, Barley Days exceeded expectations. The customer service was top drawer, the beers very fine and the atmosphere was welcoming.

You will find these qualities too, should you decide to visit.

Sixteen plus years of business suggests they are doing more than just a few things right.

(Or, er … they WERE doing something right. If someone local drops by, can you please confirm with a comment that they ARE open or closed. Thanks!)

Cheers

Owen

Beer: 555 Brewing Company: Picton, ON, Prince Edward County

Ontariocrafts.wordpress.com

By: Owen

Date Written: August 9, 2023

Date Posted: September 15, 2023

Home Away From Home Ranking: 3.9/5

555 Brewing Company, at 124 Main Street, in the heart of lovely Picton, Ontario (in Prince Edward County), was a ‘discovery’.

Let me see if I can qualify that. Remember how I’ve told you that our vacations are a mix of known destinations and chance finds?

Well on this day, there was one known destination. That had already been completed at Mackinnon Brothers Brewery near Bath, which had already been visited. A part of the Mackinnon brother trip was also to do some sight-seeing of the region.

That sight-seeing led us to a couple of new stops.

First, while we’d been on The Loyalist Parkway (county road 33) from Wellington, PEC, past the ferry and back onto mainland, Ontario on the way to Bath, we’d found Lake on the Mountain brewery – it was on the road where we waited for the ferry.

And, previous to noticing Lake on the Mountain, we’d noticed that Picton was a place to stop on the way back.

So. On the way back we’d gone to Lake on the Mountain (a winner). And now we’d found ourselves in Picton, just goofing around, taking in the shops. We had noticed the large and lovely bookstore, Books and Company and so stopped there for a walk about.

A part of this 40^th anniversary celebration was to chillax and to not go-go-go all the time. “I” had not brought enough to read as we sat in any one of four areas at our ‘motel’ The Drake Devonshire Motor Inn: we had a private balcony on the road side, a shared indoor seating area just outside the main room entrance, a covered patio outside that and, I suppose, just down from there was a common/shared firepit where we also could have sat and read and imbibed some of our finds from the county. Phew!

So, we stopped on the ‘bookstore’ end of town, shopped, then started walking about with no real destination in mind.

At the other end of town … well, that’s where we found 555 Brewing Company.

And man did we hit them on a busy weekend afternoon on the Saturday before Mother’s Day. The patio was rocking!

So, with no plans of stopping here, and really, just ‘discovering them’ and having just discovered them shortly after doing a tasting at Lake of the Mountain, staying and tasting wasn’t on the ‘menu’ so-to-speak.

That was unfortunate because I think we could have really enjoyed ourselves here had we had the time and ‘the ability’ to taste whilst remaining legal to drive.

So. As to the home-away-from-home ranking of 3.9/5. I think that’s a pretty good ranking, really, when you consider: 1. I walked in to a busy place; 2. spoke with a couple busy staffers – who were incredibly courteous and helpful – 3. Talked about their beers, and 4. Hastily grabbed one of every unique brews that were canned that I could find from their fridge before turning around and leaving with my ‘catch’.

It is my feeling that I simply wasn’t there long enough to pick up any more positive vibes from the people and their food and products to make the ranking any higher.

But, here are my thoughts on this ‘ranking’ and how it could go up.

It was busy, but professional. I could have been ignored or treated off-handedly as I wasn’t staying to dine or drink, but they WERE kind and gracious. Had I more time to spend with them, I can see my ranking moving higher quickly.

Also, when I got home and started to imbibe the seven beers I purchased, I liked them all very, very much. So. They also make great beer.

I can imagine, then, sitting there for an hour or more, yucking it up with staff, while enjoying a great brew. I CAN see a future ranking of 555 being in the 4.5/5 rating or even higher.

What I’m saying is this. I had a quick stop at a very great place that I would be willing to recommend you go to because you WILL enjoy yourself immensely.

I’ve written in the past that these ‘rankings’ are hard. Places you’re excited to see sometimes don’t live up to the hype in your own mind. When that happens, it’s difficult to not give lower rankings than deserved because the experience didn’t meet up with expectations (‘as if’ those expectations were ‘real’ and ‘fair’).

Sometimes a place you didn’t even know you were going to visit just reaches out and surprises you and in that moment, you want to rank it higher than perhaps it might have deserved in other circumstances.

555 Brewing Company has the ability to delight and surprise you. Their beers are great. Their staff is kind and helpful. And, 555 sits in the heart of pretty, Picton, Ontario, and that just gives 555 a leg up in any brewery’s evaluation.

You will love this town, and you will love this beer, and you will love the people who serve it to you. There is nothing to lose and everything to gain by going to 555 in perfect Picton, Ontario.

Cheers

Owen

Lake On the Mountain: Brewery: Prince Edward County

ontariocrafts.wordpress.com

By: Owen

Date Written: August 1, 2023

Date Posted: September 11, 2023

Home Away From Home Ranking: 5/5

So, something cool happened on the way to the forum …

It’s an old line but oddly apropos.

On the lovely trip to Mackinnon Brothers, we stopped on Highway 33 (Loyalist Parkway) to wait for the ferry. There, to our right as we passed by in the ‘waiting-for-the-ferry-line’ was Lake On The Mountain Brewing Company at 11369 Loyalist Parkway at Glenora, the eastern side of Prince Edward County.

I promised myself that on the way back, we were stopping in.

Okay. The following feelings are difficult to describe. I went to Mackinnon Brothers – a brewery where I knew I’d love their brews and was looking forward to – with high expectations. And while I will always love Mackinnon Brothers beer, the reception there didn’t live up to my expectations (even though the beers did!).

I wrote about this earlier where places you look forward to and want to love, can sometimes not meet up with the hype in your own mind, whereas places where you hold no expectations and spontaneously drop in can surprise you more than, perhaps they ought to. It’s almost like you require two scales to evaluate these different kinds of places and expectations.

So, when I went to Lake On The Mountain not knowing anything about it and I found this quaint, lovely microbrewery, where the tasting was great, the company fab, and the scenery majestic, it shined above the clouds we’d found earlier in the day.

We entered facing the sales counter where an affable chap was able to talk about the brews with knowledge. To my right was the gear (always ‘to me’ an indicator that the proprietors are in the brewery game with savvy and for the long haul (I bought a shirt)) and the ‘serviceable’ tasting area ran across the front of the shop to my left. We sat along an exterior window. Across from us on the other side was an indoor ‘window’ looking into the brewery. There we could see gleaming vats.

From where we sat to taste (well, I tasted, Carrie is just a trooper when it comes to my beer fetish), we could chat up the proprietor when he wasn’t busy serving up other customers.

I don’t recall my flight, but I recall loving it very much. So, when it came to picking up a six pack of a variety of brews … well, the tasting made that a simple pleasure: one of each.

Lake On the Mountain is a place where you could sip a brew and picnic. You see, before leaving I exited out the back door (and I’m glad I did) and I could see the couple sitting in Muskoka chairs by the lovely body of fresh water (hence, the Lake on the Mountain!). I took their photo with permission as I thought it could place any one of you, dear readers, in those chairs so you could imagine yourselves sitting right there!

Lake On the Mountain beer cans are all lightly coloured with gentle images on them making you think of simpler times. What’s particularly interesting is the details of the qualities of the brews are all labelled on the front of the cans.

Taking Maggie’s Wheat, for example, you can see the name of the hops used, “Amarillo Hops”, that the beer comes in at an International Bitterness Rating of 12IBU, (not bitter at all) and that it has a 4.9ABV.

Lake On the Mountain, is friendly, has an outdoor ambiance rating that’s off the charts and makes GREAT brews! You’ve seen here before that I make baseball references, like hitting a home run.

With each of the Lake On the Mountain brews I took home, each one was easily, and delightfully quaffable. They made me wish I’d brought home a six-pack of each of them. (Of course, there’s only so much mullah and so much liver I have so I didn’t. I WISH I had … but I didn’t.)

So, to use another and new baseball metaphor here, I would say that Lake On the Mountain beers, all hit it out of the park. So, this microbrewery is a home-run derby winner. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. of the Toronto Blue Jays (an all-star home-run derby winner) WANTS to be as good a hitter as Lake On the Mountain is a beer producer!!!

Phew! That was a long way to go to give Lake On the Mountain a compliment … but when it’s deserved … it’s deserved.

Once you visit and take home your brews, you’ll be thinking about ordering them on-line so you can rinse, wash, and repeat the experience.

There are no detractors and everything is good about going to Lake On The Mountain in Prince Edward County.

They have all their bases covered.

Ta-ta-for now (TTFN)

Owen

Mackinnon Brothers: Brewery: Bath, Ontario

ontariocrafts.wordpress.com

By: Owen

Date Written: July 24, 2023

Date Posted: September 5, 2023

Home Away From Home Ranking: 3.9/5

Cutting across Prince Edward County on County Road 33 (Loyalist Parkway) we drove through Picton and on to the ferry terminal at Glenora.

There we crossed over to the strangely shaped Lennox and Addington County and at Bath turned North so we could go to Mackinnon Brothers Brewing Company.

I’d been dying to go ever since my beer guy “Mike” (who just LOVES seeing his name in this blog) brought in four Mackinnon Brother brews to my local beer, wine and spirits retailer here in London, ON. (You see I love their Red Fox and their Pilsner: Philomena!)

Selections previously purchased from Mike! Photo Credit: Owen Thornton.

Let me set up this day trip.

Leaving Wellington and our home-away-from-home Motor Inn, the Drake Devonshire, we headed east to Picton. At the ‘divide’ in the road in Picton, we peeled off to our right and headed towards Glenora.

We had a short wait for our 21-or-there-abouts-sized car ferry across an arm of Lake Ontario. In minutes we were on the other side and on our way.

The road to Bath was a gorgeous trip along the shores of the lake. If you like hills and trees and water, this jaunt had hills and trees and water in spades! In fact, it was so lovely I was probably a bit of a distracted driver and sometimes the water was very close to the road. Really cool!

On the edge of the town of Bath we turned North and then after a short trip found signage leading us to Mackinnon Brothers Brewing at 1915 County Road 22.

Pictures above

clockwise from upper left: the grounds in front of the parked car, outdoor picnic area; inside tasting room; red barn for gala events; walking from the car up to the tasting Room.

To this point the trip had been stellar.

I don’t know what happened for me at Mackinnon Brothers. Even though the staff member gave me a small taste of an exclusive fruit beer: which was such an inspired brew I bought six (cause I’m never getting them again as they’re only sold on the premises) – the visit was slightly … um … underwhelming?

Maybe I’d built it up in my mind a little too much. When I initially wrote about them, I’d called (a rare thing for me to do) so I could get some details for my article (in part because I never thought I would go there – and I tend to write about the actual experience of going to the places I write about). I spoke to the brother-in-law of the Mackinnon brothers (hence the husband of the Mackinnons’s sister!) and he was delightful.

You know, sometimes you’re just lucky and the owner walks by and you get great insight into the place. I mean when I visited Paradigm Distillery in London, I got a quicky back-room tour from an owner. When I dined at Powerhouse Brewery in London, the server was their number one tour guide, and that luck-of-the-draw experience got me a quick, impromptu tour of the back-room facilities! And, as you already know, when I visited Rosehall Run Winery, the patriarch of the ‘fam’ gave me 20 minutes of his time right in the tasting room.

Alas, none of these breaks were found at Mackinnon Brothers. So, I’ll say this. Their great beer and previously wonderful phone manner gave me an expectation that the visit would be spectacular! So, my expectations were high for a great place I wanted to go to. But, when I arrived, the visit was just average … decent … perfunctory. Had I experienced this visit from a place where I’d had no expectations I may well have felt as though I had a better reception. So, the visit didn’t match the grandiose expectations and things felt flat for me.

I left feeling disappointed. It had been a long, singe-destination journey of a place I was excited to go to only to experience a sort of ‘blah’ feeling at the end of the trip. And that’s considering the grounds looked spectacular. You’ll see the great terrain in the photos.

Sadly, this tree-mendous grain to glass operation remains virtually as much of a mystery to me now as it did before my visit, except for the fact that I’ve actually seen the retail space!

So, for the let-down of simply not having the luck to talk to anyone … or to go behind the scenes and from having been so excited to go and being so far away from home (the furthest I’ve ever travelled for this blog), I just can’t give Mackinnon brothers an 80% grade (or higher (like I wanted to!)). So, 78% it is!

Now. I will say they have dynamic grounds with outdoor volleyball courts, outdoor tasting areas, what I understand to be a great dining area inside the lovely red barn pictured below, and a warm tasting room where I bought my brews from a knowledgeable employee, you WILL have a good experience at Mackinnon Brothers.

Here they ‘care’ about making great beer as they grow the ingredients themselves (sans the beets that colour Red Fox Ale).

You get the feeling that the Mackinnon Bros are ‘all in’ when it comes to running a microbrewery. They have invested skillions on the grounds, know what their doing in production (as they make great beer), grow the barley and the hops and they have gear – a sign to me that they are planning to be ‘in the game’ for the long, long haul!

Mackinnon Brothers will thrive because they make great beer and have a warm tasting room for guests.

I’ll continue to buy their beer here in London whenever I find it in retail outlets that carry their products.

I love their Red Fox, and their Philomena Pilsner, a beer style that I ‘like’ but that’s not a fave which is sooo good I repeated buy it. That’s saying something because most pilsners don’t find their way home with me, let alone repeatedly.

You WILL like Mackinnon Brothers. Great beer, obviously great ingredients. Homey tasting room.

Cheers

Owen

From the V-Blog: what to expect here on the Web-blog!

Vid 47 Upcoming on the blog https://lnkd.in/gSMxVFCd via @YouTube
Learn more about Prince Edward County, three day trips, one wine tasting for friends (tips and pitfalls for your own tasting) and about 12 wineries from the Niagara Appellation. #wine
#wineontario
#winelover
#winelovers

Goderich Market and Square Brew

ontariocrafts.wordpress.com

By: Owen

Date Written: September 1, 2026

Date Posted: September 1, 2026

Home Away From Home (Tasting stop) Ranking: NA/5

Home Away From Home (No-Taste stop) Ranking: Perfect 4/4

Help me to share more great places with more great folks. If you like the post, wherever you read it, please hit that like button: it helps with the blog’s algorithm to make it more popular and draws more readers to great places!

Trip Planning Categories (linked): City: Goderich/County: Huron/Appellation: NA

The Story to Explain the Next Heading (That Begins This Review! (Yes, You CAN Skip to the Next Heading:

The way my mind works! I put together all these memories and sometimes people look at me and say, “What?”

In 1971 Jim Hensen and his Muppets launched, Tales from Muppetland. The Frog Prince was one, one-hour episode. In it, Kermit narrated the story. The prince who’d been cursed was a frog played by Robin in his first acting role. The princess also had a curse placed upon her. She mixed up the first letters with side-by-side words. So if she were to say she ‘fell in love’ she would really say the lell in fove. As a kid, the muppets were innovative (at that time) and I loved that show. To this day, when I really like something, I might say, I ‘lell in fove’.

And so, we’re there. Here’s the first heading.

I Lell in Fove!

Ever have circumstances create something in you that’s more meaningful than the situation has a right to actually be that meaningful? Little — sometimes to you — inconsequential moments come together to form a perfect moment you’ll long remember. Whenever you can, you will go out of your way to recreate that experience.

Saturday morning, before joining our friends at their cottage North of Goderich, Ontario (MAP LINK) we had time to kill. The server at Benmiller Inn suggested we go to the Goderich Market on the Square.

And there, just killing time before a visit with our friends, we lell in fove with The Goderich Market. It goes until October 10, 2026.

Twice now we’ve eaten at the market having a sausage and egg Frank & Furter’s hot dog (?) and a couple of pieces of chicken: Mine was BBQ, …

You can see the metal picnic table under the food!

Carrie’s was curry! The sides included rice, naan, and a cold mac and cheese.

Both adventures in culinary dining were a success! We dined on the metal picnic tables!

We bought a nice item for myself and had another styled for my God Son for Christmas at Nicole McMahon’s “Enchanted Embellishments” booth. I can’t show you a photo of those items for obvious reasons!

There are many vegie stands, along with Bayfield Berry Farm (and all their WONderful ciders and other alcohol-based products, (gin, whisky, vodka, fruit wine, and schnapps), and then there’s this booth. I see it as a precursor to what my niece might one day do. She crochets all sorts of critters.

And Once You’re Done Walking the Inside of the Square Where the Market is …

… you can walk around the outside of the square where you can find unique shops, bakeries, ice cream, restaurants, a used bookstore and a new bookstore (with Goderich gear and toys and games too!)

Serendipity And Square Brew:

Let me set this part up. We had plans to visit a lot of places on this trip. Some we missed because to visit vendor A, that meant going too far out of the way to make time to go to vender B.

Sometimes, like in this instance, we just ran out of time (or energy). So, I had come all the way to Goderich and I’d missed out on an old friend: Square Brew (430 Parsons Crt, Goderich ON).

And so, maybe partly, because I felt badly for not visiting them at their brewery, I lell in fove with the Goderich Market in part because … (drum roll, please …)

I don’t ordinarily take photos of people in case they’re in a witness relocation program (or if they just don’t want to see their pictures on someone else’s web blog (legit concern!). But this fine employee seemed game to be in the picture, at least by her smile!

Square Brew set up at the market! YAY! I was so happy to find them there! At my first visit to their actual facility, I’d had a pint while there. At that time, many moons ago, I took home one of each of their king cans: there were three different styles. Today, Square brew has six brands including two I didn’t buy (which I could have liked) a “Light” and a hard lemonade. Sometimes, I am just NOT good instantaneously, you know?

So far, as I work my way through the six pack that I bought, I have been reminded of just how great of a brewery Square Brew really is.

Next time I go back I’ll buy six more … for sure … and I just might branch out and get that hard lemonade!

Rinse, Wash, Repeat:

Gorgeous blue skies in a beach town. Friendly people. Great and different products. Square Brew. Berry Farm Ciders and Wines. Picking up my God Son’s Christmas present. These are all reasons why we’ve been to the Goderich Market twice since that first day when we were killing time before visiting our friends. And we hope to return once or twice more before the market closes for the fall.

The setting is gorgeous. The products are fab. The people welcoming. What’s not to lall in fove with? That’s what I say!

By The Way:

The Frog Prince concluded with some backwards speak (and of course, by the end, the princess was cured from speaking this way). It went something like this.

So, to storal of the morey is: When you lall in fove with a pransome hince, don’t forget to slop your dripper.

I always loved that!

Joke Of the Blog:

A grasshopper walks into a bar.

The bartender looks up and sees the grasshopper. “You know we have a drink named after you?”

The grasshopper asks, “You have a drink named Dave?”

Cornerfield’s: a Slice of Heaven

ontariocrafts.wordpress.com

By: Owen

Date Written: August 29, 2026

Date Posted: August 29, 2026

Home Away From Home (Tasting stop) Ranking: 12 Billion/5

Home Away From Home (No-Taste stop) Ranking: Wowza!/4

Help me to share more great places with more great folks. If you like the post, wherever you read it, please hit that like button: it helps with the blog’s algorithm to make it more popular and draws more readers to great places!

Trip Planning Categories (linked): City: Bayfield/County: Huron/Appellation: NA

A Second Home or A Great Third Space:

Cornerfield Wine Company (74444 Bluewater Hwy, Bayfield ON) is an oasis to a Canadian or anyone visiting Canada who needs a respite from life. Searching for an “Ahhh!” moment in a life of crazy? Desiring of a glass of wine in a rural setting, where you can forget about the noise of a busy life? You have found the right place.

Just around the corner of the main building, you enter your oasis — a sanctuary that takes you away from your life and to a much, much happier place. How inviting does this look? In the distance you can imagine yourself talking with Carrie Durand (owner) as she brings you your glass of wine.

Cornerfield’s is an old friend. Located between Grand Bend and Bayfield, Ontario (on the Bluewater highway #21) this winery evolved at the end of the road where we used to have our family cottage. Now, when we reminisce about the region that had been a second home to our family for 50 years, we go here to remember how we loved the laid back cottage lifestyle. Cornerfield’s represents rural Canada. It’s a tribute to Carrie and Adam Durand that they have created this sanctuary where human souls can be themselves … where they can truly rest and relax.

Just beyond where we sat to enjoy a glass of wine, we could look past the gorgeous gardens and into the grape fields. Beyond? Deciduous trees line the backdrop before a bank of white fluffy clouds do their impression of a mythical mountain range.

Wherever you sit, the winery’s host with the most finds you and greets you. A friendly pat goes a long way to making this golden as happy and as relaxed as you will become.

If you like gardens or gardening, you’ll also find delights to make you feel comfortable. Maybe you’ll even strike up a conversation about plants with Carrie while she pops by to ensure you’re enjoying yourself.

If you’re anything like me, you might wonder how The Durand Clan has time to run a winery and still have time to make their gardens look this lovely.

Fortunately, all you have to do is enjoy the wine and sit back and admire the beauty of your surroundings and enjoy the wonder of a day in a world full of fantastical whimsy.

Evolution … and … the Wine:

It wasn’t always like this, of course. I first noticed Cornerfield’s when the trellises for the grapes were installed … when the plantings were mere babies only aspiring to reach the bottom rung.

Years went by before there was a harvest and an open sign on the side of the highway. Then, there was a building, a wine display and a warm smile to greet you before you bought your Farmer and the Frenchman White (a blended wine you will love) and The Farmer and the Frenchman Red.

Today there are roses and other blends, along with wine coolers.

And yes, you can even find a brewsky from Torched Brewing (36 Ontario St N, Grand Bend ON), if one of you, say, likes wine and the other … does not! Today, in case of rain, there’s an indoor seating area.

Wait until Carrie discovers a local artist and starts hanging those images on the wall so that guests can enjoy those too. Maybe she’ll invite an artist in who’ll paint pictures of the grounds so you can buy them and take them home with you. A permanent reminder of that special day you spent along Lake Huron’s gorgeous shores.

This Place is Real:

Cornerfield’s is not manufactured. It isn’t painted-by-numbers. It wasn’t designed by an individual or a marketing team who calculated where to place each planting, where to put each table and chair setting on the patio so that patrons are so beffudled by the trickery of design that they buy more wine and coolers to take home.

You feel comfortable in your surroundings because the owners helped you to feel that way because they’ve done the work themselves. This is a hands-on, thank-you-for-coming-and-enjoying-our-wine, kind of spot.

Ourselves? The cupboards were bare when we arrived (less wines we’d already purchased on this little five-day getaway), so we took home what we wanted. For us, Cornerfield’s will always be a buy as much as you desire kind of place. There are no limits here. Ordinarily on trips where we buy wine, we set a limit of six bottles. Cornerfield’s is a no-limits kind of place.

Cornerfield’s has woven its way into our hearts. Naturally we have 50 years of history right here because of the family cottage. But if the place was just a corporate concrete jungle, the romance wouldn’t be there.

Cornerfields, IS HOME for us. We’ve had a glass with Carrie and Adam. And, as you’ll see in a few more posts, we even went right back and bought some more.

Cornerfield’s represents the best of us. You want to buy wine here not only because you know you’ll enjoy it, but because you know you are helping to support a place that’s genuine.

Whether you can return to Cornerfield’s or not, you want to buy wine not only because it’s a great choice for you, but so you can support a local family … so you can ensure Cornerfield’s will still be there when you return.

Just knowing Cornerfield’s is there adds depth and meaning to your life. It’s an anchor in a storm, a steadying hand on your shoulder when you feel your heart start to race with stress. It’s calming. Comforting. I repeat. It is home.

Buying wine there gives you hope that you will be able to return. You’ll want to rinse, wash and repeat the Cornerfield experience every … chance … you … get.

Owen

Joke of the Blog (A — blank — walks into a bar series):

A weasel walks into a bar. The bartender looks up and sees the weasel. He says, “You know, in all my time I’ve served at a bar I’ve never served a weasel. What’ll ya have?”

“Pop,” goes the weasel.

Bayfield Berry Farm: Wine, Cider, Spirits

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By: Owen

Date Written: August 20, 2026

Date Posted: August 20, 2026

Home Away From Home (Tasting stop) Ranking: NA/5

Home Away From Home (No-Taste stop) Ranking: Wowza!/4

Help me to share more great places with more great folks. If you like the post, wherever you read it, please hit that like button: it helps with the blog’s algorithm to make it more popular and draws more readers to great places!

Trip Planning Categories (linked): City: Bayfield/County: Huron/Appellation: NA

Amazingly New! (From an Old Friend):

Bayfield Berry Farm — Wine, Cider, Spirits — at 77697 Orchard Line, Bayfield ON has what appears to me to be billions of new products and nearly all of them have some percentage of alcohol in them.

In the Ollllld Days:

Just one road over from highway 21 or the Bluewater Highway, Orchard line runs straight as a die from just north of Bayfield to highway 8, which if you drive west on 8, will take you back into Goderich. Orchard Line is a great road for those who don’t want to be on Highway 21 with speed demons passing you at 120kph when you’re on a road that’s supposed to be 80kph. It’s a relaxing way to travel between the two locations and The Berry Farm is always a great stop along the way. (There are many stops for east-west black tops on Orchard Line. They don’t take long to cross.)

If I use my old gaffer voice, “Back in the old days we’d go to Bayfield Berry Farm for fruit, ice cream and maybe a bite of lunch. Dem’s da old days, young feller!”

NOW!

WINE:

Well, all those great things I mentioned above are still there. but NOW? Now there are racks and racks and displays and displays of Wine, Cider and Spirits.

Interestingly, they’re making a lot of fruit wines. We have a couple of bottles in the cellar chilling out as I write this.

We liked the looks of these two fruit wines, thinking they could be really terrific! Note I didn’t include an appellation in the ‘category links’ above. That’s because these aren’t Vintners’ Quality Alliance wines and so, they aren’t members of this association. Which means, The Berry Farm isn’t under this governing body — the body that sets/establishes wine-growing appellation regions.

CIDER:

Further they are making dry-ish ciders from all sorts of fruit flavours as well.

What do I mean by dry-ish? Well. Carrie likes really dry ciders. For her, she can drink zero sugar ciders to about 27 grams per litre in a Strongbow. I can sorta get into the Strongbow region but anything lower than that and my mouth starts to smack as I deal with the lack of sugar in the brew.

The Berry Farm ciders run roughly between 29-43 grams, just above Carrie’s er — not-so sweet spot and — just into mine. I have to tell you I tried every cider she purchased and I loved them all! What was really great? Carrie liked them all too. Just a great find!

The Apple Ciders tended to be drier than the fruit combos, but all of them had terrific taste without getting into sugar quantities that make your teeth hurt. Just lovely products.

SPIRITS:

The spirits have a full range of products from vodka, gin, whisky and bunches and heaps of different fruit-flavoured Schnapps.

This photo shows gin to the left, Moonshine in the centre at the top and all sorts of fruit-flavoured schnapps.

Here you see a number of things. First you see whisky, rum, and spiced rum on the table. Beyond you see the seating area where you can have lunch, sit with your ice cream or have a baked good. There is nothing this place doesn’t do (and they do them all very, very well!!!)

Here’s a display of non-alcoholic ciders!

And las, you can walk around this table to find a host of fruit ciders and wines. In behind, jams, jellys and other great things to take home. Heck. Forget about going anywhere else. Go here, have lunch, ice cream, spirits, ciders, and wines. It’s all here for you to enjoy.

I have to say, we didn’t buy any spirits on this trip. First, we’re reduced now to buying that which we need, and … we just didn’t need anything. What’s the point of buying something when you have to drink a bottle of something else just to get to your latest purchase. And with the rate that we’re consuming spirits lately, we’d be a loooong while before we finished the first one and then opened our Berry Farm Spirit.

Spoiler alert: There WILL be a small part two to this post and I’ll talk about what we purchased at The Berry Farm’s Kiosk at the Goderich market a couple of weeks later.

In Closing!

I was shocked to see the diversification in products at The Berry Farm since we sold the family cottage just before Covid in 2020. We have been to the region since, as we love the area so much. However, either I was asleep when we visited the Berry Farm (and I missed this escalation of spirit-related products) or the place has just gone full force into the spirits business. Either way, I bring to you, this post which both shocks me (because I’m surprised at the number and diversity of products) and delights me to tell you that what we’ve tried thus far has all been stellar!

Bayfield Berry Farm is off the beaten path, but its a path worth finding. And, if you like to ‘shun the pike’ (avoid the main roads), you can take Orchard Line all the way to Highway 8 and avoid tons of traffic on the Bluewater highway.

Go.

Buy.

Taste.

Eat.

Drink.

Take it home.

Enjoy it you will!

Cheers

Owen

Joke of the Blog: Three golf clubs walk into a bar. The putter asks for a beer. The wedge wants a whisky. After waiting some time for the third club’s order, the bartended is compelled to ask, “What will you have?”

“Just water, please. I’m the driver.”

Neustadt Springs Brewery

ontariocrafts.wordpress.com

By: Owen

Date Written: August 16, 2026

Date Posted: August 16, 2026

Home Away From Home (Tasting stop) Ranking: 12/5

Home Away From Home (No-Taste stop) Ranking: NA/4

Help me to share more great places with more great folks. If you like the post, wherever you read it, please hit that like button: it helps with the blog’s algorithm to make it more popular and draws more readers to great places!

Trip Planning Categories (linked): City: Neustadt/County: Grey/Appellation: NA

Old Friends Revisited:

So much has happened in the years since we first visited Neustadt Springs Brewery (456 Jacob Street, Neustadt, Ontario). That visit has to be well over six years ago as it was before blogging was even a glimmer in my mind’s eye! Here’s something ironic. Had I been a blogger back then, I wouldn’t have been able to really blog much about Neustadt.

At that time, it was known for its 10W30 premium dark ale, which is in the Ontario beer, wine and spirit retailer stores. So, we were driving in this region, stopped at Neustadt only to discover they didn’t have a single can of beer on premises because they’d just shipped their entire supply to Ontario’s beer, wine and spirit retailer. No beer, no visit, nothing to share.

Today, things are very, very different.

The Journey:

We were staying at Benmiller Inn and Spa in the thriving metropolis of Benmiller. We were minutes outside of Goderich, Ontario. Even from Benmiller (about 1.5 hours further north of where we live) we had quite the journey to get to Neustadt. We wanted to go Northeast of where we were in order to get to Neustadt. The problem? In attempting to go east, roads tend to run on a south-east bias, so every mile (kilometer) you go east, you go further south and away from Neustadt. Stoopid roads don’t run north-south/east-west!

We went to Neustadt because we wanted to re-experience Neustadt Springs Brewery and we wanted a bit of an adventure. You just gotta be dedicated to go this far out of the way to actually get to where you want to go!

Under (Serious) Renovations:

D’oh! Our first impressions after an hour and a half drive weren’t good. Especially with our previous track record of going to a brewery where there were no brews.

The brewery operation runs along the road. We approached it from the production end of the building. Its huge main delivery doors were wide open, and we could see the construction going on inside. We immediately wondered if we were going to be able to visit Neustadt on this occasion (or if they’d be closed due to renovations).

We walked along the length of the building to the main customer entrance. A sign promised we ‘could’ go inside for a tasting.

You’ll notice the sign, bottom left, that promises the tasting room is open even during the renovations.

The sign’s promise was true. The tasting room (at that time) wasn’t under renovations.

Behind me (in this photo) is the bar. We’re about to sit in the far-right corner. I had a flight, Carrie had a lemonade mocktail.

It was a bit of an active room. At the bar end three staff were holding an impromptu conference. We couldn’t hear about what, but it might have been about upgrades to the bar. Certainly, there were small tastes of a beer from, I think, a keg that was on the floor. The brew met with their approval in the end as, from a distance, everyone seemed happy. (Of course they were happy! They were having beer samples while working! (I am so jealous!))

And while our attentive and knowledgeable server, took my order for a flight and Carrie’s order for a lemonade mocktail, someone else was negotiating a bride and groom mini gathering that was going to be held in the tap room in the future.

These discussions really didn’t hinder our experience at all, but they did give us something to observe while we conversed and tasted at our table. Having these other conversations in the room provided more action than we normally see during any visit to any beer, cider, wine or spirit retailer we visit. We’re often alone or experiencing these locations with only one other couple in the premises at a time. It was nice to see the place this busy before noon!

Scene Setting: New Products:

The Neustadt Springs tap room offers a lovely locale to sit and imbibe a flight of brews. There are many to select from and the brews are well made.

While there we chatted up the server a bit, to learn about the renovations. We also learned that Neustadt has graduated to becoming a Spirits producer as well.

On the list: Vodka, Gin, Moonshine, (many flavoured Moonshines), Cinnamon Schnapps, Sambuca, and even its own version of an Irish Cream liqueur.

We’ve purchased these kinds of products before, but we’ve learned two things over the years. We don’t drink a great deal of spirits (they sit around the house for loooong periods) so if we’re not looking for a Gin or a Vodka going in, we’ve learned to not buy these products. But, I do want to report, they have them and you could have a bevvy in the tasting room with these ingredients to give them a try while you’re there!

Swag:

There is a full sleight of Swag: T’s, hoodies, hats and glassware. Buying swag proved to be an easily solvable challenge. It was all crated in blue bins to protect it from dust from the construction.

This strategy was a very intelligent approach to protecting the merch! Neustadt peeps tend to think about everything, right? I forget how I could identify what merch was available, whether they had samples out or images to select from. Either way, I asked for a burgundy/jean-style T-shirt in my size.

What was interesting was they had a computer inventory and the boxes were marked with the right gear and someone just dug into the right box, found my T and handed it to me. So, I couldn’t see what I wanted in advance because it was undercover, but it was readily findable. You gotta like a smooth operator like this. The T came home with me too.

Food Too!

If you’re moved to have a bite of food (menu is linked here), there are snacks and pizzas to be had. Spontaneous decisions to dine in places like Neustadt can yield wonderful experiences. We were there for a tasting only and didn’t give the food a try. Buy, hey! It’s pizza!

My Selections:

I bought a selection things I tried and things I hadn’t. There’s lots to appease any beer drinker (or for that matter, a spirits lover too) at Neustadt. Here you’ll see the traditional 10w30. The Raspberry had a light, but pleasant hint of the fruit and went down easily. A couple I have not had yet, but the Cafe Crisp has a lovely coffee aroma and flavour. These are well-made brews!

Neustadt brews great beer. Hands down. Go there to have a pint, and I promise you, you’ll take some brews home with you.

Ranking:

A Condition:

Look. Neustadt was going to have an uphill battle if their construction situation hindered our experience in any way. If anything, the staff overcame the construction challenges and made our time there fun, comfortable and informational. They talked about their products with pride and what they hoped for in the future in regards to where their renovations would lead them.

Overcoming the Renos:

Me? I’m pretty forgiving when it comes to ranking. I’m aware that you’re reading this dear reader. and I’m aware that sometimes you hit upon the five minutes in a week or a month where a place is temporarily understaffed or when someone just starts having a really bad day and to review a place under those circumstances can be unfair at best and harsh at worst. So, you pretty much have to do something really, really wrong to take points away from being perfect.

Seeing as I could find no fault with a polite staff, good service and great brews, I’m giving Neustadt Springs Brewery a 12/5 full tasting stop!

You’re going to love it … once you find your way there. WONderful!

Sláinte

Owen

Joke of the Blog:

It’s time to do the, “A (blank) walked into a bar series.”

A three-legged dog walked into a bar.

The Bartender looked up at the dog and asked him, “What’ll ya have?”

“Oh, I’m not here to drink,” said the dog, “I’m here looking for the man who shot my paw!”

Benmiller Inn and Spa

ontariocrafts.wordpress.com

By: Owen

Date Written: August 6, 2026

Date Posted: August 6, 2026

Home Away From Home (Tasting stop) Ranking: 27.5/5

Home Away From Home (No-Taste stop) Ranking: NA/4

If you like the post, wherever you read it, please hit that like button: it helps with the blog’s algorithm to make it more popular and draws more readers to great places!

Trip Planning Categories (linked): City: Benmiller/County: Huron/Appellation: NA

Special Guest Star:

Approximately 1.5 hours north of the thriving metropolis of London, Ontario, Canada, lies Benmiller, a spot on the map that if you blink, you’ll miss it.

Almost under a bridge at country crossroads 31 and 1, lies our place of stay for three nights Benmiller Inn and Spa (81175 Benmiller Line, Goderich ON).

By the time we arrived, we had zigged and zagged our way past three breweries, two wineries and one bakery. The towns? Exeter, Zurich, Clinton, Varna, and we’d fill in some time at Goderich at a cidery to conclude the day.

How Did We End Up at Benmiller Inn?

Sure, we’d heard about it for years, but had never gone. Still, it wasn’t on our radar at first blush.

Friends were staying at a place just north of Goderich. Naturally the hotels in that lovely city were our first target. When we discovered that an average hotel rooms in Goderich in late June were $350 (Canadian) a night we started looking elsewhere.

Hey. We don’t mind spending mullah on places that are cool, fun and experiential, but the main hotel in Goderich was an average run-of-the-mill hotel at prices where we’d consider should be for cooler, funner more experiential places than this one. The price for the product just didn’t add up in our minds.

We were pleasantly surprised when we found Benmiller Inn to be far less expensive and it was only a few minutes (like five or so) away from where we wanted to be to meet up with our friends. When we booked Benmiller, staff told us that breakfast would be $20, if we wanted it. (We believe that the breakfast price was a special deal at that time.)

We said yes to breakfast for two of the tree mornings we’d be there. The third morning was a pricier Father’s Day brunch which was much more breakfast than we even needed. I’ll come back to the $20 value-add-on breakfast in a moment.

The lane to the right, past the red doors leads to the entrance to the property. There is temporary parking around this area for checking in.

Checking in was smooth. The staff at Benmiller is professional and very friendly. I’ll tell you more about that later too!

This was the mirror in our room. I have a suspicion as to what it once was, but do any of you KNOW what it is? Let me know in the comments.

Carrie said that Benmiller met her two main criteria for any hotel room. It was scrupulously clean and there was plenty of hot water in the shower. We were in the main building at the back.

A little side hall near our room led to the circular metal fire escape. Taking a photo out the window to show the fire escape to you reveals the highly manicured lawns and gardens and shows you more of the lane leading out to the highway.

Once you’ve checked in, you’ll want to park your car in the larger lot a bit further away. You’ll drive under a very low bridge (the road I mentioned up top) and beside the old dam where the mill race would have powered the once thriving woolen mill built in 1864.

On the other side of the bridge is a large lot beside the holding pond. There’s access to a trail for guests to take, so you can walk in the woods should you want to.

It’s a pretty spot!

As you can see there was a lot of water in this little system. The end of June was cool-ish and wet, so the pond was full and the stream roaring.

The lane to the property is on the other side of Benmiller Inn. This stream moves around the other side of the building, and is right next to windows in the dining room. Lovely.

That stream moves around the Benmiller dining room and we sat beside it when we had breakfast on our first morning there. A lovely view.

Breakfast:

We dined off the breakfast menu and saw that breakfasts were $17.50 each. Lots of good opportunities to breaky and we ordered something different each day. A scone and small fruit bowl accompanied each meal. As we were on the special breakfast plan, we just signed for our breakfasts and had the $20 tab linked to our room charges.

Later, we discovered our breakfast ‘deal’ of $20, was not EACH, but in total for the two of us. So, we had breakfasts ordinarily priced for $35 for two, for the $20 pre-arranged fee. We left tips for our servers.

Staff were perfectly friendly. You know what I mean. They didn’t ignore you and likewise they chatted you up without bothering you. It was from one of our servers that we learned about the Goderich Square farmer’s market on Saturday Mornings. Look. I’m just going to plug the Goderich Market right here. It was very, very nice and was above what one might expect. We’ve already made the 1.5 hour trek back there to buy my God Son’s Christmas present.

Dinner:

We had dinner there on the second night. It was a spontaneous decision and wasn’t one made with reservations in mind. Here’s a tip. We asked the front desk if there was any room for us after we came back from our day’s adventures. They thought the restaurant was booked up. Tired after a day’s travel in the region we didn’t feel like going back out if we didn’t have to. So, we went to the restaurant to check in, and they had all sorts of free time intervals. We selected one and had a tremendous meal. My plate of ribs? We’ll let’s say this. All that was left was a full tummy and an empty plate of bones! Carrie thoroughly enjoyed her meal too.

Pro tip: ask at the restaurant if there’s space.

How You Know You’re in a Great Place:

On our last night we arrived back at Benmiller with enough time to have a glass of wine and sit and chat after spending a day with our friends from the East Coast.

But when we came back there was a big yellow school bus, and a lot of people dressed up very, very fancily.

It turned out, we learned, that an employee who had worked at Benmiller since she was 15, had gotten married. The celebration was at the family farm and then they all bussed it to Benmiller for dinner.

You know you’re working at a great place when staff spend years working there and then they take their family and their spouse’s family to the Inn for a wedding feast!

Seeing all the commotion, we weren’t sure the staff would be up for letting us sit outside and have a glass on the grounds (after having just served a big wedding). They were busy cleaning up the restaurant after the special function.

Pish-posh! Might have been the response. Sure! You go outside and make yourselves feel comfortable and we’ll be out with a wine menu in moments.

We did, they did and we sat and had a lovely glass in the evening shade and sun until we thought we wanted a second glass (but thought better of it.) Here’s a picture of the grounds just off from where we sat.

You can just see some tables and one blue umbrella on the upper left side of the image. The stream you saw above was on the far side of the seating area. The plantings leading down towards that steam were tailored, but a bit wilder than the manicured grounds seen in this image.

Evaluation:

The inn itself had a dated feel, but really, I think that’s what the owners were going for. If you want all splashy and modern this might not be for you. Here’s how I’ll describe the room we experienced. When you watch a western (should you ever watch one) it doesn’t matter whether it was made yesterday or 40 years ago. The settings in the movie look right for the time period. Benmiller looked right for how the designers wanted it to look. If it looked out of time, that was okay with us.

It had great prices, sensational, personal staff (who like working there so much they have their wedding feast there), with clean rooms, great food and lots of hot water.

I haven’t ‘done’ a special guest star on this blog for a loooong time. By Special Guest Star, I mean a business that is not connected with producing beer, cider, wine or spirits. Benmiller wove its way into our hearts quite quickly. It demanded space on this blog, even if it’s not quite on the topic of what I typically write about. What’s kind of interesting is that Benmiller gave us the opportunity to write about more and different places that are related to the blog because its location makes traveling to these different spots easier. I’m giving Benmiller a 27.5/5.

Better Experiences:

Bemiller afforded us a view of our province that while only 1.5 hours away, changed the game on where we could go in a day because we were already that much further away from home. So, next, you’ll read about Neustadt Spring Brewery in Neustadt, a place that because of the way roads go in the region is challenging to get to from London (in any kind of quick way). But once you’re already in Benmiller, Neustadt isn’t that far away.

We’re already planning to stay at Benmiller Inn again. In fact, we’re planning on staying in one of the newer buildings off site from the main entrance. We want to experience those rooms too. And we’re planning day trips that let us springboard to places near Benmiller rather than spending an hour and a half just to get to the region and then having to make our way further into the heart of Southwestern Ontario.

Benmiller Inn. Just bloody perfect. Wait until you have a glass on the outdoor patio.

Owen

Joke of the Blog: It’s corn on the cob season. How much does a Pirate pay for corn? A Buccaneer!

(Think about it. A ‘buck an ear’?)

East Street Cider Co.

ontariocrafts.wordpress.com

By: Owen

Date Written: August 2, 2026

Date Posted: August 2, 2026

Home Away From Home (Tasting stop) Ranking: 12/5

Home Away From Home (No-Taste stop) Ranking: NA/4

Trip Planning Categories (linked): City: Goderich/County: Huron/Appellation: NA

How We Got Here:

We had two days to explore a region that used to be second nature to us. We’d had a cottage south of Bayfield, Ontario for decades and we’d used that location as a launchpad for trips in that area. It’s interesting how somewhere an hour or so away from home gives you entirely new adventures (because you’re starting somewhere else than home (and what was an hour away, is now next door!)).

Interestingly enough, because we were spending three nights at Benmiller Inn and Spa (81175 Benmiller Line, Goderich, ON) just a little north and east of Goderich, this locale gave us an even different jumping off point: it’s about 40 minutes by car. away from where the cottage used to be.

We were winding our way to Benmiller, trying to visit some new places and some old friends.

To Recap our Stops (you can read about these places on the blog):

Thus far we’ve been to Imposter Brewing and White Squirrel Bakery in Exeter (both new and a double win!), and Schatz Winery at Hessenland Inn (new to us and wowza). Then we managed to visit an old friend in Bad Apple Brewing (perfection as always), before having Tapis and wine at Maelstrom (near Clinton — wine and tapis! Double-double wowza!).

After visiting these two old friends we made a new brewery stop (to us) at Stone House. There the locals joshed with us as we bought beer and snapped pics of a very busy microbrewery.

At last, we checked in at Benmiller before heading back out to find a couple of new experiences before bedding down for the night.

Traveling Tip on The Day We’ve Just Had:

If it seems we’ve made a lot of stops to you, well, I guess we have. We left relatively early that morning, our bags already packed the night before. We stopped and had coffee and a bikky at White Squirrel. We chatted up the owner of Imposter, but we just bought and went on our merry way.

We spent time chatting at Hessenland, but didn’t have a tasting or a glass, even though the people were nice and the environment was amenable. We’re not ‘ripping ourselves off’ by not having a tasting everywhere we go. We’re ensuring we’re safe to drive. ANY of the places I’m writing about warrant you spending time there for yourselves … finding a great third place to visit, that makes you feel comfortable, warm, snuggly, safe and relaxed.

We are replenishing the Thornton cellar, if you will, too, so we ARE on a bit of a visit/buying trip. Also, the more places we visit the more places I have to blog about later. Carrie’s on board with these motives for traveling too, so this works for us.

If you want a visit/buying trip you can duplicate ours. We don’t feel rushed or driven to go to the next place. We’re just ‘out there’ exploring the beautiful, diverse province of Ontario.

But if you want to just go and visit one place and have a glass or two over the span of an hour or three (so you can drive home later while remaining safe to drive), then you can go to any one of the places on the above list. Sit and stay a spell. You will NOT regret it!

Arriving at East Street:

Phew! So far, I’ve recapped and explained our tripping motives. Just a little bit more and we’re arriving at East Street.

We checked in at Benmiller. I’m going to give it a special guest star post next time. But for now, it’s too early to stay in our room and we’ll need something to nosh before settling in for the night. Bikkys at White Squirrel, Tapis at Maelstrom, and so dinner is going to have to be some place else!

Driving into Goderich (our new favourite place to be) we were still a little too early for dinner. So, we checked out East Street Cider Co. (130 East St, Goderich).

Amazingly, it’s located on … East Street. Let me give you directions.

Goderich has an eight-sided central core. Eight roads come off the core like spokes in a wheel. Highway 21 or The Bluewater Highway (as it’s called) goes through the town west of the core of the city. East street is the ONLY spoke of the wheel that comes off the core of the city that directly joins Highway 21. Are you with me? Here’s a link to what I’m writing about.

Turn east off 21 onto East Street and you’ll go straight to the eight-sided core of one of Canada’s most beautiful downtowns. Turn ‘west’ on East Street, and you’ll make your way to the cidery.

You step back in time to a building built in 1856. Here, we stopped and we ‘had a glass’. Carrie ordered a cider; I ordered a beer.

There were lots of microbreweries from the region represented (some on tap, many in the fridge). I picked one and sat back and we talked about our day over beer, cider and pretzels.

I love it when people talk architecture. They could tell me anything about a building and I’d go, “Wow! You know a lot about architecture.” I love learning about the styles and the techniques and the epoch in which the styles and techniques were discovered and used. But I don’t know anything about it myself.

You can see the big leather couch arm at the forefront. We were sitting on it. This was the view to our right.

What I can say about East Street? It was really cool inside. Here’s what I mean.

Look at the wood planks above the windows and at their mid-point in the walls. Really cool. Also, you gotta like a place where they keep a Crokinole Board.

I just found East Street to be a fascinatingly constructed place to sit and gawk at the building techniques. And it was comfortably laid out too!

The prices were dear. The glasses in front of us were over $15.00 and they weren’t large. But hey, I’m on vacay, in a great place, with my best gal (there isn’t a second best, by the way … Carrie!) so, really, what do I care.

You could sit here and have a glass or two and feel the worries of the world drain out of you. What a great time.

The Ranking:

When conditions are perfect, and the stuff in the glass is perfect, and the people who serve you are nice and they give you pretzels … what’s not to love? I rank East Street Cidery a 12/5 for a full tasting place to stop.

What We Took Home:

Let me explain before I tell you. I’m not a dry cider kind of guy, so I’m not the person East Street markets to. East Street Cidery is one of those places that doesn’t sell its product in onesies and twosies. You can only buy a minimum of four of each style at a time. Some styles come in 473 ml cans for $13.34, the rest are stubbies (355ml) for $13.08. I’m assuming with such unusual prices that taxes and can returns of $0.10/can are added to these prices? (We don’t have pennies in Canada anymore, so why price something to the penny unless the price rounds up (with taxes) to a nickel?)

First, we’d already bought 18 ciders at Bad Apple. Second, more individual cans of cider were probably to come elsewhere on this trip. So, buying 4-packs of cider wasn’t in the cards for Carrie. We didn’t take anything home.

This decision is not discriminatory against East Street. It’s more about how we like to buy things when were not sure we want more than a single can of something.

This isn’t unusual for us. I didn’t buy anything at Oast Brewery in Niagara because I had no idea what the beers were like and they were all sold in multiple packages.

That we didn’t take anything home, doesn’t mean we didn’t love East Street. We did, and yes, we will return when we want to have a glass in a nice place!

Last: Gear!

East Street has a full slate of gear — one of the tell-tale signs I believe suggests a producer is into the business for the long haul. Their web pages reveal a far greater selection of swag than seen in the following photo.

There are beach towels and ball caps too!

So. there you have our visit to East Street. A two thumbs up experience. You’ll love it too!

Owen

Joke of the Blog:

My friend Frank passed away. He was cremated and his ashes were placed in a large beer glass. He’d loved beer all his life, so placing him in the glass was a lovely tribute to him and his memory. To this day we bring Frank and his glass out and place him on the mantel over the fireplace, so we can still share a glass with him. There he is, Frank in stein.

Stone House Brewing Company: At Last!

ontariocrafts.wordpress.com

By: Owen

Date Written: July 23, 2026

Date Posted: July 23, 2026

Home Away From Home (Tasting stop) Ranking: NA/5

Home Away From Home (No-Taste stop) Ranking: 4/4

Trip Planning Categories (linked): City: Varna/County: Huron/Appellation: NA

We FINALLY Made It!

Stone House Brewing Company (76050 Parr Line, Varna ON) is nestled amidst a great deal of green. It has a beautiful stone building with a decently-long lane. And, it’s been a place I’ve known about for years and simply could not get to for one reason or another.

Often, I would be in the region on the day Stone House was closed for operations (Tuesdays). And when we were on the hunt for places to visit, we were zooming by too early or it was just out of reach for a practical stop.

Turning 180 degrees from the photo above, you can see the laneway heading back out towards the black top! There’s a LOT of green surrounding Stone House!

Interestingly, I actually had a Stone House Czech Pilsner before visiting as Stone House recently changed its business model and started sending product to Ontario’s retailer of beer, wine and spirits. So, the beer showed up in my local store before I had a chance to go and visit.

Cheers Bar?

I walked into a busy establishment. It was past lunch now and so the locals had found their table and were imbibing. I didn’t take any internal photos because there was no place to shoot without taking a picture of someone I didn’t know who may not have wanted their image on the internet.

A local saw my camera around my neck and asked if I wanted to take a great picture of him. So, I guess I was family right away. The customer was being cheeky and so I fired back, “No thanks. I want to take pictures that make Stone House look great!” (Hah! (He laughed!!!))

I can tell you there was a bar (where you also bought cans to take home) and several full and rambunctious tables.

The owner sold me a mixed six pack. Here’s what’s interesting about that.

They Sold me a Mixed Six Pack!

For years, Stone House was a one-and-done beer producer with it’s Czech Pilsner being the only kind of brew made on the premises.

So, by the time “I” got there, there was a fleet of different kinds of beer. Lucky me!

So far, I’ve had the Irish Red, the Honey Cream Lager, Dark Lager and, of course, the Pilsner. The Pilsner, Honey Cream and Red lie well within expected parameters. Very quaffable. The dark lager has an unexpected bitterness not often found in this style. I’m guessing a citrussy hops is making this beer a bit of a flavour profile outlier.

Service (Non-tasting Ranking):

I sorta go into every place thinking that the score is going to be perfect. When I experience bad atmosphere or service or horrible product (when you taste there) I knock points off from perfect. Sometimes chance provides a producer/retailer to go above and beyond the norm, and I’ll be cheeky myself and give the producer a rank above 100%.

On this occasion my transaction was met with kindness, knowledge and joviality. As this was a buying sight-untasted stop as we’d just had lunch at Maelstrom Winery a few moments ago, I rank it as 4/4. (I rank places out of five when I stay there to give broader range to the rank for the service and atmosphere during the time spent there.)

Even Greater Potential:

Outside there is a patio and a small bandshell. On this day, the outdoors were a little damp as a rainstorm had just come through.

Seems like every microbrewer must have live entertainment to compete. I’ll speak further about this in a moment. For now, I’ll say that the folks at Stone House are fully in the game and are willing to do what it takes to be in the microbrewery market. Well done!

Here the patio is adjacent to the building, and the bandshell is out and over a plot of lawn. I’m betting you can take your lawn chairs with you and get closer to the stage for a more intimate setting. (Just speculating.)

Thinking about running a business, I want to consider a couple more thoughts about live music at microbrewers. First, there have GOT to be a lot of fine local musicians to be playing at all these places. I think there are! It’s a fact that a lot of people play and sing very well to the point that I would feel delightfully entertained at such a venue. While it’s a fact that there are so many performers, it still rather astounds me that there ARE so many good musicians in the region.

Second, I wonder at the entrepreneurs who create craft beer having the added expense of a stage, sound equipment and lights, let alone the time to find and book and pay for talent, all so the beer-drinking public can be entertained while quaffing a few brews. Considering the added expense there, I’m again surprised that having a stage is becoming a ‘thing’ for the industry. I see it happening everywhere. I like it but I am still shocked at the added time and expense to make this happen.

Happen it does (Yoda-speak!). To all our benefit.

Conclusion:

The full tables inside on a Thursday afternoon at the end of June tells us (you and I, dear reader) what we already need to know about Stone House. Stone House is a warm and friendly gathering place for locals and strangers like me.

You can go for the company and the beer, and stay for the entertainment.

Stone House was a long-awaited stop and I’m very glad I finally visited. I’ll be back. Maybe I’ll see you there!

Owen

Joke of the Blog:

6:30 is my favourite time of day. Hands down!

Maelstrom Winery: A Port In The Storm

ontariocrafts.wordpress.com

By: Owen

Date Written: July 18, 2026

Date Posted: July 18, 2026

Home Away From Home (Tasting stop) Ranking: 47/5

Home Away From Home (No-Taste stop) Ranking: NA/4

Trip Planning Categories (linked): City: Clinton/County: Huron/Appellation: Huron

It’s Been a Minute:

Slightly off the beaten path, Maelstrom Winery (78001 Sanctuary Line, Huron East ON) is a rural Huron Shores treasure: An emerald gem (fields) set near a giant blue sapphire (huge Lake Huron). Maelstrom proves that taking the road less traveled is very worthwhile.

If people have their routes, typical roads they travel to specific destinations, Maelstrom is the kind of locale requiring a deliberate exploratory turn to the unknown. Hence, we simply do not travel this way as often as we should.

Below is a series of photos to set the scene. The image to the left is the lane leading out to the gravel road; turn 90 degrees to your left and you see the open fields with the edge of the outdoor pavilion and the vines in the distance; and turn 90 degrees to your left again and you find the main building.

You can see the grey skies.

The pavilion is a lovely place to sit and imbibe. We were there on a day that threatened rain.

We visited on a cool, rain-threatening day. So, we didn’t sit in the open-air pavilion. But it’s a lovely place to sit and imbibe a glass.

So Much to Tell You …

I don’t quite know where to start. Here’s what I’ll do. First, I’ll talk about the inside, then the wine, then the food and last the new product.

The Inside:

Things are always changing at a progressive, independent winery. I’m sure Maelstrom will settle down eventually — there’s only so much one can do before you fill your space, or find the perfect mix of items that let your business thrive (the way you want it to).

At the opposite end of the bar/serving counter you find nicks and nacks, jams and crackers, soaps, cheese (refrigerated not seen), olives, charcuterie boards, mugs and stemware. Beyond that is a wall of wine.

There are three distinct areas inside: The retail room (shown above); the bar area with a cozy seating arrangement …

We sat on the comfy blue couch (sofa?) to have our glass and our snacks!

… and to the right of the retail room, a solarium where you can also sit, snack and imbibe.

And, of course, there’s always the pavilion outside where you can experience fresh air, and sit among the vines.

The Wine and a “Ha-Ha” Moment:

This was our ‘imbibe’ spot for the day. We each ordered a glass. I ordered a Marquette, Carrie a Frontenac Blanc. To remind you Marquette is a hybridized red varietal that is fruit forward (cherries and black currants) with lovely balanced acidity. Frontenac Blanc is a hardy cold climate white with lovely citrus and tropical fruit notes.

We found our selections to be within range of normal expectations for these varietals and some of each came home with us.

Here’s our ‘ha-ha’ moment. Carrie is an excellent on-line researcher. Knowing our dates and hopeful destinations for wineries and breweries, she researched all sorts of places to dine. Yet here we found ourselves at Maelstrom on a Thursday — which is $5/glass and $5/Tapis plate special day! And so, all that research for where to eat was out the window on a spontaneous action on our part to experience Maelstrom tapis. And experience it we did!

The Purchase:

The website shows ten wines for sale with a couple of them having ‘sold out’ signs below the images. We didn’t see that many to select from in the store. From our collection in the image below, we might have only missed one or two of the selections on display.

One of the specialty products that is on the web site and which I didn’t see in the retail store is their Ice Ciders. Yes! Ciders! There’s an apple and a ‘perry’ (pear) iced cider. This last one really catches my fancy and should I ever see it, I’d snap it right up. I love pear flavours in things, and I would love to try a pear iced cider. It sounds very yummy to me.

New … Food? Yes. Tapis!

Look. Sometimes I am ‘such a guy’. What I mean is, and yes … I’m generalizing here … is that guys can have one-track minds to the point of not noticing something which is quite noticeable. So, I can’t tell you if Maelstrom has served food for a short, or long time. If it’s a long time, then I’m excusing my lack of observational powers with the fact that we’d never been there over a mealtime where I might have noticed they served food.

But serve food they do and from May until August, this Thursday Tapis deal is on, baby, and man you just gotta go there. Here is a picture of three of the four orders we shared.

I have a friend who is never very enthusiastic about restaurant food. The question you have to ask him is, “Would you come back?” If he says yes, he LOVES the food! Based on that question, I’m telling you, I would go to Maelstrom every Thursday for the rest of the summer. I’d make a day of it. Go, have a glass, have some tapis and leave completely sated and blissfully happy! Yum-freakin’-O!!!

Our fourth order took more time to prepare (meatballs, I think?) (to ensure it was properly heated all the way through!). So, just to set the scene, in your mind, sit in the blue couch (seen above) and look down at this in front of you. You can even add a couple of friends to sit in the chairs across from you! I mean, what’s not to love?

New … BEER! Yes. New (to me) For Sure!

Yup! Man-focus. I missed the sign that showed Maelstrom now sells its own beer. Carrie, the non-beer-lover, caught the sign!

In the image, you see the back of the buildings. Left to right, you see the back of the open-air pavilion, the main building with a walkway/patio overlooking the land as it falls away and to the far right, the little solarium where you can sit and drink wine and eat tapis! Lovely!

Produced not on location for Maelstrom are a Blonde and a Lager. Both are sensationally approachable summer quaffs. I did the (for Owen) unthinkable for a first-time purchase and bought three of each!

Oh! And lest you thinketh that beer is a second thought at this winery, I’m telling you right now, it’s taken seriously. How do I know? Because there is gear to match!

Ranking:

Hmmm! I’m betting you can never guess what kind of rank I’d give Maelstrom. I mean, I haven’t seemed too into the place or anything right?

Look. You’re on a gravel road outside of a small city in rural Ontario. What can you expect? Well, you should expect the best. Solid wine entries, great food, great vibe, wonderful service, views, an artisanal shopping experience, beer and gear to match. There’s just nothing to go wrong. I’m picking my brother’s lucky number and giving Maelstrom a 47/5!

Who knows. When you go, you might even give it a higher rank.

Cheers

Owen

Jokes of the Blog:

I’m going to get my Star Wars nerd jokes out of the way all at once. If you don’t get these, it’s not your fault! 🙂

How many Sith Lords does it take to screw in a light bulb?

Zero. They prefer the dark!

What is the core temperature of a tauntaun?

Luke warm!

Bad Apple Brewing: Great Stuff!

ontariocrafts.wordpress.com

By: Owen

Date Written: July 9, 2026

Date Posted: July 9, 2026

Home Away From Home (Tasting stop) Ranking: NA/5

Home Away From Home (No-Taste stop) Ranking: 1 Billion/4

Trip Planning Categories (linked): City: Zurich/County Huron/Appellation: NA

Old Friends:

Bad Apple Brewing Company (73463 Bluewater Hwy, Zurich ON) (also known as: Highway 21) lies between Grand Bend, and Bayfield, Ontario. It’s on the Lake Huron side of this north-south road.

The grounds have changed as the brewery has grown. You can see the open-sided shelter in the distance (music is performed there), the cold storage chiller is the red/orange structure just beyond the main retail and service area, and the canner is not in sight. One day I’ll have to ask Jason for a tour!

It’s been love at first imbibe since Bad Apple and I met when we had a cottage in the area, pre 2020, and the relationship just continues.

In those earlier days — when visiting owner Jason Ingram’s business was a hop-skip-and-a-jump away from the cottage — I’d buy a six pack, maybe 12 beers (often because he has so many varieties that if you wanted two of each, you would buy 12.

Buying 12 beers at any location is a lot for me.

What does it say when you buy 48?

On this occasion I knew I wanted 12 Strawberry Ciders for my gal and 12 Strawberry brews for me. Then I got six Black Monday, six Irish Red, and Six Apple Blossom Honey Brown.

The fourth six pack that would have made filling this case easy, would be Jason’s White (it’s spiced with cardamom and is quite lovely). But, alas, it wasn’t in stock. So, I have six beers to fill a second case and I’m looking at the hole and I can’t decide. That’s when my gal chimed in and said, “If you can’t choose, get six more Strawberry Ciders.”

Seeing as this is one of the few ciders I’ll actually drink (typically ciders lie outside of my taste range), I might actually get six to myself. So? I agreed.

And thus, we made short work of a quick stop. I didn’t even snap any pictures inside because I’ve been there so many times before.

Further Explanation:

One major reason why I grabbed so much at one time? Without a cottage in the territory, I just don’t get up to Zurich all that often anymore. So, if I want Bad Apple brews, I gotta buy enough to last at least a little while. On a good year, I might make it up twice.

Ranking:

There are five reasons why I rank Bad Apple so highly. First, the product is great. It may not suit everyone’s palate as no producer could, but it suits mine very well.

Second, Jason is a really nice guy and you just want to cheer him on.

Third, he laughs at my jokes. At least I think he’s not taking pity on the old guy with the dad jokes. 😊

Fourth, his staff is always friendly and well trained. There are never any problems with getting help at Bad Apple.

Fifth, I just like the feel of the place. The business is a converted barn, with an immediate tasting area near the bar/retail section and another one, just into the next room. I grew up in the country, and I feel like I’m going home when I enter a barn and buy some brews from a guy who reminds me of the great farmers I once knew.

Now, as you can see from the outdoor picture, there are picnic tables, outdoor seating areas and space under the rooved patio/concert area.

Other Stuff:

Bad Apple moves with the times. Every year there’s something new: Patio/performance shelter; cooler building; canning operation; seltzers; wine and ever since I met him, top-notch gear.

His drive to improve and his uncompromising promise to provide customers with top-notch beer and a stellar experience means that he cares about what he makes and who he serves. That’s a feeling that’s pervasive wherever you are on the grounds of the property. When you get that feeling from a place, it’s going to become a great third space for anyone.

Remember a third space is a place other than work or home where you can go and feel comfortable. Were you can be yourself and relax.

For me? There’s a romance about Bad Apple. It’s an old apple orchard. I worked in one when I was a kid. It’s a converted barn. I played AND worked in one when I was a teen. It has a farmer transitioned into a creative entrepreneur. I like most farmers and I admire entrepreneurs. Further, he’s a businessman who cares and as far as I’ve seen, he’s never made a serious miss-step.

So. For me? This is just a ‘you gotta go to, kind of place’.

You just gotta go. Go. Plan to sit a spell and have a brew, a cider, a seltzer, a wine. Buy gear. Listen to music (check the website link above for performance times). Chat up those who work there. Meet Jason. Find a second home … find a great third place.

Bad Apple gear worn in Scotland! It’s everywhere!

Owen

Joke of the Blog:

What does a fish say when it hits a brick wall?

“Dam!”

Hessenland Inn & Schatz Winery

ontariocrafts.wordpress.com

By: Owen

Date Written: July 3, 2026

Date Posted: July 3, 2026

Home Away From Home (Tasting-stop) Ranking: NA/5

Home Away From Home (Quick-stop) Ranking: 6/4

Trip Planning Categories (linked): City: Exeter/County Huron/Appellation: NA

Near Miss:

Here’s my latest tip for you, but there ain’t nuttin’ you can do once you receive it. Search engines and websites may NOT be up to date. So, even when you KNOW a place is open, it may not be … because the information you’re researching isn’t up to date.

Such was the case when we visited Schatz Winery at Hessenland Inn (72981 Bluewater Hwy, Zurich ON). We knew (according to the internet) it was supposed to be open at noon, but it actually didn’t open until 1pm.

At about 12:50 we pulled into a winery that was supposed to be open according to the internet. I’m taking outdoor pictures while Carrie is walking towards the entrance. She comes back from the entrance and informs me the location is closed.

First, the entrance is at the other end of this building! We were there on a cooler day (with a threat of rain) in late June. On a nicer day, I’d find this outdoor patio a lovely place to sit and have a glass. Always better than city patios six inches away from cars on the street!

“What?” says I!!! “According to research …” This was about the third or fourth time we’d tried to visit Schatz. Once we were there on a day it was closed for operations. That’s on me. Another time it was closed for a special event, not posted anywhere on-line. That’s on them. And now, here we were for a third visit and it’s not open according to the internet (that’s on ‘the internet?’!!!).

“I’m done. Three chances for a visit are more than enough for any place.”

And then, this really nice guy walks around the corner and says, “Do you want to come inside? I was just about to open.”

And voila, thunder clouds moved to bright sunshiny days just like that!

So. The tip? Don’t get upset at internet times leading you astray. Impatience leads to the Dark Side of the Force. Wait joyously until they open (if you’re early) or return when they’re open on another day.

We were about to have a really nice visit to a brand-new location (for us).

Visit Tip:

We didn’t know quite where we were going. The Hessenland Inn building sits out close to Bluewater Highway (21), and the winery is in behind the inn complex. We followed our way through the lanes of the grounds to the winery (well signed). However, there is a lane, just north of Hessenland that leads directly to the winery.

At the end of the gravel lane, you can see the black top racing by. Also. Be careful turning into and out of the property. People are racing to cottage country like they are in the hunger games and they are going at excessive speeds (at times).

The young man who helped us was the assistant grower. Wow. He is a farmer charmer! Nice guy. Knowledgeable and helpful.

Inside: What it looks like:

Schatz offers a nice country feel. Here are some images.

Here are the white wine selections. You can see the pricing structure here. (We were pleased with those prices!)

Barrels of fun. Note the opening in the wall, just inside the beam on the left. I’ll take a picture of what’s in there in a moment.

So, behind me is the entrance. To the left are the racks of wine. To my right, no photo, is the sales counter. Further up on the left? That’s where the barrels are. Next, I’ll show you the seating area on the right. A group having done an even earlier tasting (than us) had just left the table. Their glassware is still out.

There are some lounge chairs beyond these tables. Still, a nice place for an indoor tasting.

And now you can see what’s inside that opening I pointed out in the photo of the barrels above!

Tasting Recommendation:

You are going to find cold-climate varietals and hybrids at Schatz Winery. If you’re not like us — willing to give things a try without sampling — then I’d plan to go to Schatz for a tasting. This way, you can taste and ensure you’re going to love what you take home with you.

Varietal Types:

Here are some of the varietals you may know (if you’re a regular visitor to this blog: Whites: Riesling, Vidal, Frontenac Blanc, Gewurztraminer, Chardonnay; Reds: Cabernet Franc, Marquette.

Even on this list you may not know what Frontenac Blanc is like. Marquette can also be a reach for some. Further out there are the white La Crescent (I’ve never met it until our visit) and the red, Petite Pearl (which I ‘think’ I’ve tried in the past).

Wine-Searcher is our Friend:

So. I’m going to list a few cold climate grape varietals, then cite a quote from Wine-Searcher about it (with a proper reference) and then at the bottom I’ll provide a biography which will have links to the pages referenced. You can look things up further at your own leisure.

Frontenac Blanc:

Frontenac Blanc is a genetic variant of the red Frontenac grape. It was released in 2012, and has proven popular among cold climate winegrowers in the northern USA and Canada. (Frontenac Blanc Wine, 2022)

La Crescent:

La Crescent is a light-skinned hybrid variety developed by the University of Minnesota and released in 2002. It has a very complex ancestry, including Vitis vinifera, riparia, rupestris, labrusca and aestivalis. Saint-Pepin and a Muscat Hamburg crossing feature among its progenitors. (La Crescent Wine, 2025)

Petite Pearl:

Petite Pearl is a red grape variety, bred by Tom Polcher in Hugo, Minnesota in 1996. It is highly-regarded for its ability to withstand temperatures down to -32°F (-35°C). (Petite Pearl Wine, 2022) — What would we do without hybrids coming out of the the State of Minnesota!!!

Wine Selections:

Curiosity. That’s what we have … in spades. If you follow me you know that we have a six bottle/stop limit, unless it’s a REAL FAVOURITE and we will allow ourselves to buy a case at a single vineyard.

What does that statement have to do with Schatz Winery? Well, there were so many different things we wanted to try we broke our six-bottle limit. We bought nine. Here are the images of the whites and the reds.

You’ll notice a traditional Riesling and a Cab Franc Rose in this lineup. But the others are outside of our experience!

I’m firing the guy who staged these bottles for not getting the Rusty Petite Pearl bottle facing the camera (it was me! Sigh!).

Feel for the Place:

Our farmer-charmer led us through our wine-buying decision-making process. It was interesting buying wine from a grower as he could offer the perspective of what it was like growing those grapes before they became wines.

What I can say is that the owners of Hessenland should adopt this guy because he represented the family business so well. He was well informed about the products. That’s always helpful, but he was so enthusiastic about the wines he’d helped to create. He wanted us to buy them because he wanted us to take them home and enjoy them BECAUSE he knew we WOULD enjoy them. He was so good at his job that we broke our 6-bottle limit policy without batting an eye. Kudos to Schatz! If this fellow is any indication, it’s the kind of place where you want to work (because you couldn’t be that positive of an employee without it being a great place to work)!

After our selections were made, we turned to the main counter where another customer service representative boxed our wine and facilitated our transaction. She was great and friendly too. She even put up with a couple of my jokes (and she laughed, or pretended to, (and that’s all my ego needs!)).

Evaluation:

What’s not to love about Schatz Winery? A drive in the sweet, southwestern Ontario countryside. A lovely interior for a tasting and a pretty exterior patio should you want to sit outside. There is great customer service, and lots if unique and different wines to experience.

We know we are looking forward to every single bottle. For a stop where we didn’t have a tasting (out of four) I’m giving Schatz a 6/4. I just figure there’s nothing but a win when you go and visit.

Cheers

Owen

Joke of the Blog: A driver gets pulled over by the Ontario Provincial Police for speeding. The officer looks in the car and sees a man and three penguins. The officer says, “You should take these penguins to the zoo.” The man nods and says, “That’s a good idea.” Then the officer writes him a ticket.

The very next day the same driver gets pulled over by the Ontario Provincial Police for speeding at the same spot. The same officer approaches the car. The officer looks in the car and sees the same man still with the three penguins. “I thought I told you to take these penguins to the zoo.”

“I did,” the man says, “We had a great time. Today we’re going to the beach!”

Bibliography

Frontenac Blanc Wine. (2022, December 15). Retrieved from Wine-Searcher: https://www.wine-searcher.com/grape-2271-frontenac-blanc

La Crescent Wine. (2025, August 24). Retrieved from Wine-Searcher: https://www.wine-searcher.com/grape-1888-la-crescent

Petite Pearl Wine. (2022, December 17). Retrieved from Wine-Searcher: https://www.wine-searcher.com/grape-2272-petite-pearl