Ontario Wine Country is OPEN!

The summer is here, and many experiences in Wine Country Ontario – whether in the Lake Erie North Shore, Prince Edward County or the Niagara Peninsula – are just a short drive away from the Greater Toronto Area.  With tourism greatly restricted in light of the COVID-19 pandemic (and rightfully so), a more “local” vacation in Ontario has never seemed better, even if we’re intimately familiar with the beauty of the great province and the bounty of Wine Country! On that topic, we couldn’t be happier that Wine Country Ontario is slowly and safely opening up again. Yes, Wine Country is …

Holiday Wine 101: 10 Tips for Selecting Wine for the Holidays

Despite all the good cheer and festivity, the holidays can be pretty stressful – especially if you’re hosting and in charge of selecting the wine! So we’ve put together some helpful tips and tricks – call it Holiday Wine 101 if you will – to help take the stress and guess work out of selecting your wine for the holidays. Whether you’re hosting, or in need of the perfect host or hostess gift, these Top 10 tips will make your holiday wine shopping and experience as easy as can be!

#i4C19 – The Coolest Weekend of the Year! 😎

We recently had the pleasure of attending the 2019 International Cool Climate Chardonnay Celebration (i4C), which ran from July 19-21, 2019 in beautiful Wine Country Ontario. With three days of signature events all focused on what some may consider the noblest of white wine grape varieties (sorry Riesling!), i4C brings Chardonnay to the forefront, giving it the spotlight it deserves. The ABC (“Anything But Chardonnay”) days, which manifested themselves in response to the oak chip butter bomb boxes of yesteryear, are long behind us. And it would not be summer in Wine Country Ontario without the opportunity to dive deep into …

The New 2019/20 Wine Country Ontario Travel Guide is Here!

The Niagara Peninsula appellation contains some of the most productive wine-growing areas in Ontario, shaped by the natural wonders of the Niagara Escarpment and the majestic Niagara Falls. According to Wine Country Ontario, the Niagara Peninsula provides ideal cool-climate conditions for wine growing and its diversity has resulted in the identification of 10 sub-appellations. Pretty cool, right? Some say that Niagara-on-the-Lake and the surrounding sub-appellation is the “Napa” of Ontario. While we tend to veer away from calling any place the “X of Y” because they tend to be less than meaningful, we do think there’s a little bit of …

A Sparkling Recap of VQA Into the Bubbles

If there’s one thing we love, it’s sparkling wine. We could talk your ear off about the diversity of the category, and not to mention blog about it all day long. If you’ve seen some of our ventures with the Sparkling Winos project – like, our Sparkling Wine Map of Ontario – you’d have noticed that not only are we passionate about bubbly, but we’re totally enamoured with what’s happening in our own backyard. So, it was with immense pleasure, excitement and gratitude that we took on hosting duties for Wine Country Ontario’s VQA Into the Bubbles event on September 26, 2018!

When Cool Climate Sparkling Wine Meets Cool Climate Cuisine…

Did you know that sparkling wine is one of the most food friendly and versatile wine styles? That’s right! Forget “red or white?” with dinner. You should be thinking “red, white or sparkling?”! Don’t believe us? 🤔 Well, give us the benefit of the doubt and let us convince you… twelve times over! We’ll take you through an exceptional twelve course tasting menu, and give you twelve examples of how the dishes from Niagara-on-the-Lake’s Backhouse Restaurant paired perfectly with twelve

A Weekend in Wine Country: Prince Edward County

We’ve been making our way out to Prince Edward County for almost a decade now, and it has been amazing to watch this corner of our beautiful province grow, with each passing year, into the incredible wine region that it is today. Every time we visit there are new experiences that “crop” up – from new wineries, to new restaurants and funky places to kick your feet up, to quirky shops and galleries – we can safely say that since our first trip back in 2009, Prince Edward County has really come into its own and developed some deep roots in the wine world!

Come Hang With Us at RBC Picnic in the Vineyard!

After a winter that felt like it would never end, wine lovers looking for a fun new way to celebrate summer’s arrival will be sipping pretty at Niagara Grape & Wine Festival’s all-new RBC Picnic In The Vineyard event on Friday, June 22nd. The event, which will be held at 13th Street Winery, will celebrate Niagara’s Rosé and Sparkling wines, with summery reds and whites being poured as well by the 40 participating Niagara wineries. Live music, crackling bonfires, marshmallow roasting supplies and photo stations sure to inspire serious Instagram love will set a scene that feels like summer camp …

A Closer Look at the Spectacular Sparkling Wines of Ontario, Canada!

That’s right! There’s a lot more to Canada than maple syrup, polar bears and a strapping young Prime Minister! The country is home to a broad range of climates and micro-climates, with many viticultural areas on the same ideal grape growing latitudes as much of France. In our last post (A Look at the Sparkling Wines of Canada… Eh!) we took you across the country, from coast-to-coast, and gave you an overview of the amazing cool-climate sparkling wine crafted in the Great White North. Now we’re going to focus in on each of the 3 main viticultural areas in greater detail, starting with our home province: Ontario! (With British Columbia and Nova Scotia to follow in subsequent posts 😉).