The Great

(good just doesn’t cut it)

• The weather – Saturday was great, wish I could have made it that day too – Sunday the rain held off, and the sky was clear – good view of Toronto from Thirty Bench.
• The Wine – Lovely whites, roses, and even reds that impressed me.
  • Peninsula Ridge – I enjoyed and bought the 2006 McNally Vineyards Syrah Rose, and 2007 Wismer Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc(very smooth, nice citrus flavors), tried the Chardonnay but wasn’t quite buttery enough for my tastes.
  • Thirty Bench – Walked out of there with 2007 Thirty Bench Red, and 2008 Riesling(really could see myself drinking this one weekly), and many reasons to go back.
  • Angel’s Gate – I probably would have bought their Riesling if I hadn’t discovered the one at Thirty, and there were too many wines, and too little time, that I didn’t want to rush through them, will have to return to this one later this summer.
• The Food – Great selection, very tasty, would have loved to have a little from each winery – perhaps a day tasters pass next year.
• The Music – Nice variety
• The Crowds – every winery I went to, people were asking about the graze the bench event, seems like it was a success
• The Audis – R8 and A5…

The Bad

• The hours – it was so much fun, wish it would have started earlier, and ended later.. only had time to enjoy 3 wineries – was hoping to do at least five and ideally all 8. And with some of the wineries shutting down the food/music at 4, left me with no choice other then to go to Copcabana, near the falls.
• The lack of kid friendly food, saw quite a few children running around, and wasted a good half hour making a wendy’s run for some chicken nuggets, would have been nice to have some hotdogs, or corn on the cob, or chicken and fruit…
• Probably would have been a good idea to receive a tasting sheet when you received your glass at the start of the day, to see what each winery was offering and base your day off the type of wines you mind find interesting.

The Ugly

• Wineries charging 8$/glass – 5$ would have been more reasonable.
  You could go inside and taste for free or pretty close to it…
  Or you could buy a glass for 10$ which included a Riedel glass.
  Didn’t seem to make any sense to pay 8$ for just the wine.
  The way we go through wine glasses – it made more sense to just get a new Riedel glass each time, and start a collection.

All in all, looking forward to next year.

Thanks Beamsville!

• 2007 Cabernet Franc (bronze medal winner at Ontario Wine Awards) 30$
• 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon $30
• 2007 Meritage $30
• 2006 Zweigelt $14
• 2007 Counterpoint  $25
• 2008 Chardonnay, Unoaked $16
• 2006 Chardonnay, Niagara River  $25
• 2008 Vidal  $14
• 2007 Vidal Icewine $28

After tasting some more in the tasting room, I ended up buying the 2007 riesling icewine(another ontario wine award winner),  2 bottles of the 2007 Syrah that I had tried at Winecamp Toronto, 1 bottle of 2006 Pinot Noir, 1 bottle of 2007 Pinot noir, and 1 bottle of 2007 Pinot Noir – canadian oak.  Probably should have picked up a couple bottles of the Vidal for 14$ for visitors this summer or for the bbq I’m planning in a couple weeks.

Anyhow..ttyl

P.S. The directions on the web site aren’t as clear as they should be… once you take exit 38b, turn left at the hilton, then right at the first intersection (airport rd), follow that to HWY 55, then their instructions are great from there on.