Inniskillin


Is this the winery that put Canada on the world Map! It just might be. Inniskillin, co-founded by Donald J.P. Ziraldo and Karl J. Kaiser , in 1975. The winery is located in the town of Niagara-On-The-Lake, Canada, on the Niagara Peninsula. Inniskillin was granted the first estate winery license in Canada. The name Inniskillin is Irish and is derived from the famous Irish regiment, the Inniskilling Fusiliers. Colonel Cooper, a member of this regiment, served in North America in the War of 1812. On completion of his military service, he was granted Crown land which he named the Inniskillin Farm.

In 1991 Inniskillin's 1989 icewine won Gold Grand Pix d'Honneur Show bringing Canadian wine to the attention of the WORLD.. Inniskillin Wines captured the top prize at the 17th Annual International Wine Competition at Vinitaly: "The Premio Speciale Gran Vinitaly 2009". The special prize for top producer at the show is considered to be the wine industry's "world cup". Vinitaly, held in Verona, is the largest and one of the most prestigious annual wine competitions, attracting the global wine elite. Inniskillin qualifies based on its performance of scores. For Inniskillin to take the top award of the show highlights Inniskillin's international reputation as a quality producer, and also has the wine world shifting its attention to Canada

Today name any award and most likely Inniskillin has won it, from winery of the Year to Winemaker of the year, Gold after Gold. Inniskillin is a household name.

Inniskillin has progressed from been a major player in Ontario to opening a second winery in Oliver BC. Here too they have accumulate the awards.

Tawse

Tawse is a family-owned estate winery situated on the lower slopes of the Niagara Escarpment.
Tawse was named 'Canadian Winery of the Year' by Canadian Wine Access Magazine in 2010, 2011 and 2012! This is the first time an Ontario winery has won this distinction three years in a row, with a record setting 9 gold medals. Winemaker Paul Pender was named Winemaker of the Year in 2011 at the Ontario Wine Awards.

The winery is owned by Moray Tawse. their first harvest 2001 with the winery opening in 2005. They produce 30,000 cases – 360,00 bottles. Their vineyards are Certified organic and biodynamic.
Growing Chardonnay, Riesling, Pinot Noir, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Gewürztraminer, Pinot
Gris, Cabernet Franc, Sauvignon Blanc and Syrah

In 2012 alone Tawse was award medals for 32 wines. The winery is indeed one of Canada's Elite.

Winesofcanada.com

I just looked at my calendar, it clearly shows July. What ever happened to August? All the plans I had. How could it now be September. We never made to Cultus Lake to the Hazelnut winery Constantin-Vasilca nor did we find Pitt Meadows' Blue Heron Fruit Winery. We never made it to Blackwood Lane Winery. How could that happen. I had a plans to enjoy lunch at Chaberton Estate winery and visit near by Township7 and Vista D'oro Farm

Plans also included hunting down the small and seldom heard from St. Urban Winery in Chilliwack. What happened to summer. Where did the time go. I wish it was 1992 again.

It was the year I got married and the year we started www.winesofcanada.com. A very good year indeed. I listed 28 wineries and it too just over a week to complete the project. I did it in the fall, working on the website over the winter but taking the summer off. In 1992 there were very few people interested in Canada's wines and only one other website (no blogs). The summer was spend visiting existing wineries new ones were not popping up like today.

In 1993 I though I was luck to get ten hits a day. In order to increase visitors I had new pages. Vineyard Plus was our first addition. Today this section. 100 times to size. The hits came and we became the only website featuring all of Canada's wineries. Our hit count went through the roof.
However, as with everything popular it brings in new people.

As Canada's wines became known world wide along came the writers who use to only talk about imported wines, the blogs and numerous other websites ( most have come and gone). www.winesofcanada.com peaked in 2004 a peak that lasted about four years before the bloggers and magazines, TV stations started to take away traffic.

However we stuck with it increasing our listing of Wineries, Cideries and Meaderies to over 800. We added new pages new features and once again the visitors returned. We had popular pages such as our history section, Women of Wine and The Best Wineries to Visit.
The summer of 2015 was very good to us as we slowly but surely gain back the traffic.
The website remains Canada's most popular source for information on Canada's wineries. We continue to operate in the RED.

The fall of 2015 will find us sprucing up the website, fine tuning the pages. We will of course continue the research discouvering new  wineries; letting the world see Canada's wineries through our eyes.

News Flash

Muse Winery
11195 Chalet Rd, North Saanich, BC

 

The muse Winery located in Deep Cove near the Ferry Terminal on Vancouver Island is setting extremely high standards for it Wines and  food dishes coming out of the Bistro Muse. A tip of the hat goes to Chef Judi Garbala and her staff. Owner Peter Ellmann not only makes some sensational wines - Ortega / Merlot  he makes a "to die for" dry rib. (pictured above).

 

 

It was a most delight time sitting on the patio enjoying a wine Flight and lunch. It was so enjoyable and the wines oh! so good we relaxed and ordered another Ortega for myself and Barbara another Merlot.

 

Good Times!



Oh yes those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer
Those days of wine and cheese and good friends
Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer

I plead guilty to ignoring my blog and enjoying the summer. It is what we use to do years ago when we first started the website. We took the summer off visiting wineries and enjoying ourselves. Today so much is happening the summer is now a very busy time.

But no one is paying me, its suppose to be a hobby so I'm returning to those lazy crazy days of summer. Next blog September if I remember

The Okanagan Similkameen trip 2015

 

We have just return from a very enjoyable and most satisfying trip to the Okanagan and Similkameen Valleys.  Everything was perfect; well almost it did reach 98 in Osoyoos which was a bit too warm.

We made our first trip to the valleys back in 1990s. Back then there were very few wineries and numerous wines to forget. In the following years that we have travelled to the area the number of wineries and the quality of the wines keeps increasing

In the 90s one got excited about visiting places like Mission Hills, for their wines and stunning winery or Larch Hills for its beautiful location and amazing Ortega.  You would run by Hainle  Wines as it was the first to produce Icewine. You found more wineries and a few good wines among the also runs.

Fast forward to 2015 and the amazing transition of the Okanagan and the Simlkameen . More wineries than you could visit in a month and all of them producing great wines. Many of the wineries producing wines that make the old world countries jealous.  Such as the extraordinary Cabernet Sauvignon at Painted Rock or the Allegetto at LaStella. which bring  to mind the collection at Culmina  oh so such good wines.

Not only do we see more wineries, but wineries of magnificent Architectural Designs with views that take your breath away. The winemakers and owners are friendlier and more knowledgeable as they realize hospitality is also important when presenting their wines. Even the staff is more aware of the wines and history of the vineyards.

Wineries like Painted Rock, Church and State, Mission Hill and Culmina have modern award winning facilities featuring everything from fancy dinning to helicopter pads. They are balanced out by the always popular and proven wineries like Quails Gate, Hester Creek, Nk Mip   and Tinhorn Creek.

I love the smaller quaint places like Seven Stones, Larch Hills, and  LA Frenz, D’Angelos and many others. Nor can one forget the unexpected when we arrived at Kraze Legz Vineyard and Winery in the tiny village of Kaleden. The location, the view the people the wines!!!

Our entire trip will be highlighted on our website. Please see Robert’s Report

 

Township 7

 

May 25 2015

The advantage of living close to a winery is you can drop by any time you like. We found ourselves heading to White Rock from Langley so we dropped in at Township 7. We were glad we did. The tasting room was redesigned last summer and has that cozy comfortable feeling. Deborah Funnell was our host today and guided us through our tasting experience. Deborah has been with township 7 for a number of years now and knows her wines. It was a good time.

Mary McDermot is the new winemaker at Township 7. Most recently she was the winemaker for Trius at Hillebrand and Thirty Bench Winery, Peller Estates premium Niagara wineries. She comes to Township 7 with a very strong background. Immersing herself in wine country hospitality, Mary served as Sommelier at Cave Spring Cellars fine dining restaurant, Inn on the Twenty, while finishing her Bachelor of Science in Oenology and Viticulture at Brock University. Obtaining her first taste of winemaking, she landed at Niagara-on-the-Lake’s prestigious Stratus Vineyards as cellarhand and then assistant cellarmaster at Cave Spring Cellars. Before joining the Andrew Peller team and establishing herself as a very good winemaker.

We were quite impressed with the wineries newest releases.

Sauvignon Blanc 2014 was very good as was the Chardonnay. The real winner was the 7 Blanc 2014 a tasty blend of our Naramata Bench estate Pinot Gris and Gewürztraminer with a touch of North Bench Oliver Muscat.

The reds were quite good. Cabernet Sauvignon 2012 was impressive as was the The Reserve 7. A double tasting was required to ensure the Merlot 2012. was the best of the reds. For more insight on these wines Robert's Selections

The winery will host a number of great events this summer

Finding New and Exciting Places

 



Living in Langley, BC, close to the city's edge allows us the opportunity to explore a number of country roads. Last Friday Barbara and I took off in the car along 56th Avenue east towards Abbotsford. We had a destination this time, Singletree Winery on Mt Lehman Road, about 40 minutes away. We would also be stopping at Mt Lehman winery which is an annual thing for us to do.

Our drive to Singletree was about 40 minutes it included one wrong turn. The wrong turn was perfect since it took us into an area called Bradner where there was an annual flower show happening. The drive also provided the opportunity to see some of nature's spring wonders, such as the beautiful cherry trees, new born calfs and lambs.

A couple of large road signs greet you on the approach to Singetree Winery as well as a well designed driveway that leads to the new tasting room. Here we had an enjoyable time chatting and tasting wines with the Etsell family before heading down to the road to Mt Lehamn Winery. here we were happy to see Ms Hospitality Heidi behind the bar. Please see Robert''s Report

After a pleasant visit at Mt Lehman it was time for a late lunch, Heidi the hospitable hostess of the winery suggested we try the Bramble's Bistro at Tanglewood Gardens. We took her advise and were extremly glad we did. Our experience there was one to remember.

Tanglebank Gardens is a “boutique” style nursery situated in beautiful rural West Abbotsford. Upon arrival we spent a few minutes admiring the outside of the main building before entering the flower/gift shop and bistro. We were quickly greeted and led to a window seat. We soon had two very pleasant and charming staff buzzzing around us. It was nice to see that the Bistro was almost 100 % full.

The menu surprised and delighted us at the same time. The first thing we did was order coffee and thanked the waiter for having local BC wines on the menu. We would later learn that owner (along with her husband Arnold, Brenda Falk helped design the garden entrance to Singletree Winery. Brenda was also instrumental in creating the Circle Tour guide brochures for the area.

The bistro serves breakfast from 7:00am to 11:00am however brunch is served all day,
Here are a few menu items:

Blueberry Farmer Sausage Benny
Gelderman’s farmer sausage, two poached eggs on a potato pancake with house made
hollandaise sauce

Wild Mushroom Frittata
Herb & garlic sautéed wild mushrooms, goat cheese, fresh spinach and fire roasted tomato jam

I had the following which was so good!!

Apple & Turkey Melt Panini
House roasted turkey, granny smith apples, black pepper and citrus cranberry compote,
aged cheddar, garlic aioli

Barbara ordered the

Ultimate Grilled Cheese
Roasted tomato relish, bacon jam and tons of cheese with mediterranean quinoa and kale salad

We were equally impressed with the service and the quality of the food
From the bistrol to the garden where we also purchased an number of plants with the guidence of Brenda Falk. Brenda and Arnold were busy bouncing between garden customers and helping out in the Bistro.

A quote from their website
At Tanglebank we are committed to provide unique, quality products that inspire and encourage people to cultivate exceptional beautiful garden landscapes. At Tanglebank we maintain the tradition of family and community involvement and will continue to provide outstanding, personalized customer service to all those who tour our country gardens. It is our goal to make this world a more beautiful place.… One garden at a time!



Thank you Tanglewood we will be back very soon with friends in tow.