| The Niagara Wine Trail is a group of ten very young wineries mostly clustered in the center of Niagara County, NY….. They claim there is a micro climate in the region between the Niagara Escarpment and Lake Ontario that makes the area very suitable for winemaking, and, frankly, I agree. There’s an incredible selection of wines here and some interesting finds that you almost certainly can’t find anywhere else. Plus there’s the bonus that this is the wine trail that finally turned my girlfriend on to the whole idea of alcohol tourism, particularly visiting wineries….
Here, you should note that before this trip, she had never actually found a wine she enjoyed. Also note that my preferences tend toward drier wines whereas she tends to prefer sweeter wines. I think much of the problem here lies in the perception that wine=grapes and that wine must be rigidly broken up in to white and red. Quite simply, that’s a mistaken way of looking at wine.
Wine can be made from any sort of fruit. It’s just in common parlance (and I believe legally speaking) wine means fermented grape juice. Then, even among grapes, there’s more to wine than just white or red. And in Niagara County, you’ll find grapes like Catawba and Niagara, which aren’t exactly common varietals. A trip along the Niagara Wine Trail is sure to broaden any parochial view of what wine can be.
Also, I apologize now for not having taken tasting notes. All of this is from memory, and after tasting something three dozen wines several days ago, I really don’t remember much!
As we got a late start, we only managed to hit up four of the ten wineries, but I think theses should give you a good idea of what to expect on the Niagara Wine Trail. Keep in mind that we chose them somewhat randomly with absolutely no knowledge about the wineries themselves except for what was mentioned in the brochure…..
 The Winery at Marjim Manor
The Winery at Marjim Manor unexpectedly became our first stop after we couldn’t find Vizcarra Vineyards and we pulled up to the building wondering what our first Niagara County winery experience would be like. Thank God it was this one. I don’t think we could’ve made a better choice when it came to visiting wineries.
The Winery not only has a very wide selection of wines, but also has a fantastic woman manning the tasting room. Debra (sic) held our hands and really made the process easy. She was knowledgeable about the wines, about the history of Marjim Manor, and about Niagara County. Seriously, having someone who truly seemed to care made the experience a hundred times better than it might have been otherwise. She even regaled us with ghost stories related to Marjim Manor, which is considered by many to be a haunted house.
Anyway, The Winery at Marjim Manor is one of two W.O.W. (women owned wineries) in the state of New York and the Bittner family not only runs the winery but also neighboring Singer Farms from where most of the fruit comes. They took over the manor several years ago, which was formerly owned by the Sisters of St. Joseph, and have been producing wine since 2004.
The Winery has an impressive selection of fruit, white and red wines ranging from Merlot and Riesling to Blueberry and Cherry, and we tried pretty much all of them between the two of us. Here are our picks, i.e. what we ended up buying:
- Starlight White Wine
- Applely Ever After Apple Wine
- Peach for the Stars Peach Wine
- Cranberry Crescendo Cranberry Wine
- Blue Beryl Blueberry Wine
Generally, The Winery at Marjim Manor seems to be much, much better at producing fruit wines and regular ol’ grape wines. For example, I found the Merlot somewhat unpleasant and I’m not a big fan of tasting Concord and Niagara grapes (there’s a reason why people associate these grapes with juice rather than wine!), but the fruit wines absolutely shined.
The white and apple wines were my choices and surprisingly enough, I was also the one who reached for the blueberry wine. Although somewhat sugary sweet, I could easily envision myself drinking bottle after bottle with cheesecake. A note on the cranberry wine: the cranberries come from Long Island rather than neighboring Singer farms. Of course, that makes sense when you realize cranberries don’t actually grow in Niagara County.
This also where I bring up the idea of wine with Thanksgiving. In November, people are bound to ask, “What wine should I drink with turkey?” The answer is not white or red; the answer is cranberry wine. Skip that nasty gelatinous canned cranberry sauce and get cranberry wine instead. You family will think you’re a genius.
Photo: "I'll
take one of each!"
Photo credit: Michael Guo |