The forecast
for today was meant to be for good sunny weather but we woke to the
sound of rain and then to thunder. I thought of the people next to
us whose grand-daughter is getting married today. I bet she was not
a happy person when she woke up. Within an hour or so though the sun
had broken through and the day was mainly sunny and bright. Having
had a rain shower in the morning everything had a "just washed" look
to it.
I have still not managed to shake off my cold and was not feeling
great this morning. We seemed to while away the time not really
doing much but being busy all the time. As it is a nice campsite we
decided to stay for another night and go and have a look at Niagara
on the Lake. This took us back along the road we have driven down in
the dark to get here two days ago so it gave us our first chance to
see what the surrounding countryside was like. It is flat, farming
land and one of the main crops here is grapes. In the Niagara region
there are over sixty vinyards and our route to Niagara on the Lake
took us past many. One of these was Jackson Triggs, whose wines we
have been enjoying since we arrived in Canada. We booked onto their
tour later in the afternoon and carried on to the lake.
While Niagara Falls is all tower blocks and glitzy glamour Niagara on
the Lake is the opposite extreme. It is a picturesque small village,
the kind you would see in episodes of Murder She Wrote, an American
Miss Marple, and it reminded me of Mahone Bay in Nova Scotia. The
only downside of this quaintness is that it is as full of tourists
as Niagara Falls, simply of a different type.
Toronto appears as a
Floating City
The shops are all nick nacky boutiques with just the right little
something to finish off a room. There are cafe's (Shaw's cafe was
very nice but the service was abysmal and the coffee was dire), art
shops and hotels but all very discreet compared to the Falls. As we
walked up to one hotel a rather large lady in a crushed crimson
dress and holding a bunch of flowers came out onto the pavement.
Then came eight more bridesmaids of different shapes and sizes,
followed by the bride and bridegroom. You could see which of the
bridesmaids were related to the bride as they all shared the same
rather generous figure. They had come to have their photo taken in
one of the carriages that is pulled by horse around the town. As
their photographer got himself ready, so did a line of Japanese
tourists. Stef completed the set taking a picture of the tourists
taking a picture of the photographer taking a picture of the bride
and groom.
We headed down towards the lake and found yet another wedding, this
time a Japanese looking couple who had no entourage other than the
photographer and his assistant. They had beautiful shots set against
Lake Ontario with the skyline of Toronto just visible in the
distance. The lake is huge, bigger than the English channel, and the
water almost seemed to be rising up and over a hill before it dipped
down again to Toronto. On the near shore on the other side of the
lake was an impressive looking building. Or at least we thought so
until Stef pointed out that it would be in the "Evil Empire" of the
USA!
Niagara on the Lake, without the tourists and closer in to Toronto
is the type of place I could see myself living in. It was an
extremely beautiful village, full of leafy lanes and handsome
houses. The setting is stunning and I could picture myself strolling
along the lake with my big dog (or two) enjoying the fresh air
before heading out to a little bistro for dinner and fine wines. The
tourists however snapped me out of my reverie and I think it must be
hell for the locals. It was packed today so I dread to think what it
must be like in the height of the summer season.
One of the interesting shops is the Niagara Apothecary. It opened
its doors in the late 1860's and ran for one hundred years. The shop
has been restored with its original interior fixtures and fittings.
Some of the containers date back to the 1830's.
Back at Jackson Triggs we started our tour with our guide Jon and
about twenty other people. He seems knowledgeable about the trade
and we have been trying to come up with adjectives to describe him.
To me he came across as someone who is a wine buff, enjoys his wines
but wishes he had more money to enjoy the really good ones. He had a
very pleasant way of answering stupid questions, putting people
(i.e. me!) down without being rude about it.
Can we try them all jusht
one more time?!
Jackson Triggs are classed as a wine Estate rather than a Vinyard
because they meet the criteria for having more than seven hectares
of land on which they grow their own grapes. They mix these with
grapes from other local farmers. The mix ratio of their own grapes
is high enough for them to be classified under the VQA scheme. This
is similar to the Appelation Controlle that applies to
French wines. The VQA enforces standards for the quality of the
grapes and their sugar content and it also ensures consistency in
the end product.
The estate is relatively new having been founded in the early
1990's. Jackson and Triggs, two rather portly chaps based on their
pictures on their website, decided to start dabbling in wine. One of
them (I cannot remember which) previously was something to do with
sailboats on one of the great lakes. They decided to buy the
Labatt's bottling plant and that is how they first started on their
wine route. No doubt they were not short of a bob or two at that
stage let alone now.
The company has an estate here in Ontario and one in British
Columbia. They produce similar wines where they can. Part of the
company culture seems to be supporting the local community and
economy so where they could all of the materials for the wine
production building and equipment were sourced from local suppliers.
Any waste products from the wines and the wine barrels are also fed
back into the local economy either as fertilisers, fodder for
animals or attractive garden features.
In Niagara, their building met resistance from the local people.
Although it has been built along typical barn lines and with only
natural materials, it is a very modern looking building and is out
of character with nearby Niagara on the Lake. The lure of the money
it would bring to the local economy countered the resistance and it
is now just one of several modern estate buildings in the area.
Design elements of the building, such as the ramp leading up the
back of the building and into the production area, mirror the local
landscape. The ramp is supposedly following the slight trough based
contours of the land. I think the builders just sampled the local
vino too much when they were on the job!
The grapes that come in from the local farmers are checked for
quality before being weighed. Minimum prices are set by grape
variety by the VQA. The grapes are poured into a big hopper and a
machine then shakes them off their stems. The waste goes back out to
the farms and the grapes go into the crusher. In this modern day and
age the grapes are crushed by a big inflatable balloon in the
crushing device. For red wines, the grape juice (which is a pale
colour) is then left to sit on the red grape skins which gives the
juice its red colour. The longer the juice sits on the skins the
darker the wine will be and the more tannins it will have.
Here they also make ice wine. Grapes are left on the vines until
winter and are only picked when the temperature has been at a sub
zero benchmark for three days in a row. They are picked and crushed
in the middle of the night so that they do not start to thaw. The
juice yield is low as a proportion of the water in the grapes has
been sucked back down into the plant, which in turn is why the
grapes shrivel up. It is a high risk process because there is no
certainty that the weather conditions will be right and there is
also the risk that the grapes will not be of a good enough quality.
The result is a syrupy wine that is served cold. As it is very sweet
it is really a kind of desert wine usually served with good strong
cheese.
We were toured through the basement where the wine is stored in
barrels until it is ready. Each barrel is labeled so that they can
track back through the production process if they need to. It also
ensures that as they top up the barrels to counter evaporation, they
top up with exactly the same wine.
Our final stop on the tour was the most important stop, the tasting
room. We were given a lesson in how to taste wines and to tell if
they are off. The glass should only be held by the stem or the base
to prevent fingerprints dirtying the glass and your hands heating
the wine. First you pour a small quantity of wine into a glass and
look at it in the light. It should be clear and crisp, if not it is
probably off. Next, swirl the wine in the glass to release the
odours and have a good smell of the wine. If it smells vinegary or
of rotting or mouldy stuff then it is off.
Next you taste the wine. The first sip should be used to acclimatise
your palette and should be swirled and swished around your mouth.
The guide spat his out, the rest of us would not waste such good
vino and swallowed it! Only with the second sip do you really get to
taste the wine. A good red should leave a furry feeling around your
mouth. We tasted three whites (two not great but one was good) and a
very drinkable red. Inevitably the tour ended in the shop and of
course we felt obliged to buy. We will save the wines until I am
less bunged up and can really enjoy them.
