Date: Saturday, July 23rd
7:30 AM: I’m sound asleep, my husband is awake. This is not normal- it’s usually the other way around. He appears to try to wake me; I cover my head to try to go back to sleep.
8:30 AM: He tells me I really need to get up and get showered because we need to be somewhere. And he says, ‘pack a bag’. That’s when I knew I was in for a surprise, but how do you pack for the unknown?
9:30 AM: Packed, ready, and out the door. I secure us some Iced Cappuccinos and breakfast while he fills the gas tank, then we’re on the road. I still have not been fully informed of our destination, but it becomes obvious that we’ll be crossing the Canadian border. Niagara-on-the-Lake? IKEA? Toronto? All great options, but all wrong.
10:30 AM: We make it through the border patrol checkpoint with no issues and only a slightly anxious husband. He speeds toward our destination needing to arrive by 11:00am. I am still in the dark about exactly where we are heading, so I try to make guesses to no avail.
10:55 AM: We pull up to a quaint bed and breakfast cottage with a wine tour van out front. We’re going wine tasting! Yum! At this point I’m informed he has planned a romantic getaway with a wine tasting to celebrate my upcoming 30th birthday! I’ve been asking to ‘runaway’ for weeks.
11:00 AM: We meet our tour guide, Bob, and receive an itinerary listing the events for the day. It includes visiting five wineries, learning about the different techniques used, taking in lunch, and may have some other fun along the way. I climb into the van and grab a front seat to the fun.
11:30 AM: Arrive at Feathersone Winery & Vineyard. This winery is a family owned and operated location that using unusual techniques to grow their grapes, such as lambs and a falcon. The lambs assist them by eating the leave from the vines that would otherwise shield the grapes, and then they assist in fertilizing. After a season of grape growing the lambs are sent to market and purchased by local restaurant that then pairs them with the winery’s wine. The falcon is training by the wife and is sent out every morning to ‘hunt’, which helps deter birds during the rest of the day.
12:30 PM: After in-depth tour and tasting with the owner, Dave, we dine at the winery on the porch that is set up for lunch service. It is a blistering hot day with zero breeze, so I think I consumed more water than wine- but I’m not concern because we have four more stops. For lunch I select the Mediterranean Plate and Matt gets the Chicken Salad Sandwich, which both were amazing.
However I think our favorite part was the bread served in clay pots with olive oil and Dukka. The Dukkah was so tasty we had to buy some so that we can try to recreate it at home.
We also picked up our first bottle of wine at this stop- Feathersone Rose (2010).
1:30 PM: We load back into the tour van and head to Henry of Pelham Family Estate Winery. At this winery not only do we find tasty wines, we also get some relief from the heat as we head into the wine cellar for the tour and tastings.
My favorite at this location was the sparkling wine; it was a nice change of pace. However we decided not to make any purchases because it was a bit crowd and we didn’t taste anything that we couldn’t live without.
2:30 PM: Third winery up is Creekside Estate Winery, which included a cheese pairing with the tasting. The cheese comes from a local dairy store that has a special breed of cows that makes the most amazing cheeses! Back to the wine though- we ended up deciding to pick up two bottles at this location because it was too hard to decide. Plus, we have such a hard time find red wines that we enjoy we figured we should buy the ones we like!
We chose 2008 Chardonnay called Life is Good and a 2007 Laura Red.
After leaving this winery we ask Bob if he could stop at the cheese shop, but due to the extreme heat of the day he suggests we stop tomorrow on the way out of town to avoid a melty, cheesy mess. Good idea!
3:15 PM: Next stop was Flat Rock Cellars. At this stop we got a brief tour of the facility and then began to taste away! We ended up walking away with a bottle of 2009 Twisted, which is a perfectly blended white. This winery using a Gravity Flow technique to create their wines and specializes in only a few grapes. Our driver, Bob, is always ready to carry our purchases to the van and places them in a box labeled with our name (to avoid confusion at the end of the day).
We loved the location and design of this winery, plus they didn’t get upset when a glass got broken. Opps!
4:00 PM: Fifth and final stop for the day, Calamus Estate Winery, ahead of schedule. No tour was provided this time so we got just got down to business and starting tasting. We ended up selecting a bottle of 2009 Cosmic White, and picked up a bottle of Calamus Red for Bob. We didn’t bring any cash with us so what better way to tip than to give out wine!
4:30 PM: Just when we thought we were done, Bob says we have time for another stop if we’re all up for it. We all agreed and headed to one of Bob’s favorites, Ridgepoint Wines. They were getting ready to close up for the day, but accepted us anyways. The owner (I think) was telling us about their wines and pouring us tastings, she was pretty fun to listen to (or maybe it was just all the wine). We decided to pick up one more bottle, this time we went for Monticello- another great red.
5:00 PM: Headed back toward the B&B. Oh wait, one more winery catches our eye- Megalomaniac. It’s built right into the hill and was so beautiful, we drove up to get a closer view.
Well, since we’re here we should go in. Right? It’s nice inside, and we love their bottles! I really can appreciate a good wine label- these were textured with the greatest names. Bigmouth Merlot. Narcissistic Reisling. However, we decided we had plenty of wine and headed back outside to enjoy a little more of the view.
5:30 PM: Now we arrive back at the B&B, just ready to lay down but surprisingly sober. We head into the house to select a room for the night. We ended up selecting a room on the second floor with access to its own bathroom and views of the vineyard outback- very relaxing. I lay down for a nap before we head out to reservations at an undisclosed restaurant.
7:30 PM: Arrive at Inn on the Twenty for dinner and are seated right away, it’s a beautiful restaurant with views of the hills. The Inn on the Twenty also has a winery, but we refrain from another tasting, and instead decide to order with our dinner.
I select a corn and fennel soup for starters that I just had to share with Matt because it was so tasty!
For dinner it is a Truffle linguine with asparagus and mushrooms- it was AMAZING! (Matt has really given me a love for truffle oil- we can’t get enough.)
Matt went with one of the seafood specials with a tempura fried zucchini flower.
After filling our bellies we contemplated dessert, which usually is yes when related to a birthday but nothing jump off the menu at me. When I politely declined the waiter seemed slightly offended, turn out he knew it was my birthday because a little birdie told him. So instead of bringing a check out came this:
Luckily this is too nice of a restaurant to have the waiters sing to you; instead I got a perfect little candle to blow out. That chocolate was awesome!
10:30 PM: Collapse into bed so thankful for my husband secretly planning this getaway. I was able to relax, enjoy myself, and make memories with him as we celebrated my 30th birthday! (Less than two days away.)
Are you still with me? Well, thank you for sticking it out!
Upon waking the next morning we chatted with our B&B mates over breakfast and coffee that magically appeared when we went looking, we really enjoyed meeting new people. The owner of the B&B stopped in while we were talking to bring us a bottle of the wine made by their label, Rootstock. It was another Rose, which we were definitely happy with.
We packed up and headed to Niagara-on-the-Lake to walk through the shops and stretch our legs. We grab a quick pizza and beer at the local eatery before headed to the border, which always has a long wait coming into the US. After waiting about 1.5 hours we were finally back on US soil and headed for home to relax the rest of the weekend away.
Do you ever want to “runaway”? Where would you go?
Favorite wine?
Filed under: Food, Fun & Activities, Little-Crumbs, Travel
