MALIVOIRE
www.malivoire.com
Beautiful landscaping, striking entrance and serene tasting room. A modern space with traditional values. Estate wines are organic. Stylish Chardonnays $22-$36, Pinot Gris $18, Pinot Noir $28 and Rosé $16. My fav is the exuberant Gamay $16. A true local. (Coming to Vintages mid-Sept 2007).

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You gotta go. Once you're off the highway and start visiting wineries, tasting, buying food at road stands, seeing stuff, and having meals you realize what a wonderful experience we have here. Sure it's not as hilly as Tuscany but I think you can eat and drink as well as anywhere in the world. We've come a long in a short time.

You need at least two days, three would be better - especially if you want to take time to smell the roses. I like to do the Niagara- on-the-Lake region first heading down York Road to Queenston, and then up the beautiful Parkway. A little refreshment on the back patio of the Riverbend Inn and I'm in the zone.

You really have to visit Niagara to taste what local wine is all about. Little or no quality local wine appears on LCBO shelves. That is not to say that everything at the wineries good, far from it.

I'm happy to report that winemakers are at last getting a grip on how to make truly local wine. The days of Californian look-alikes are over (with the exception of wines made for competitions). I've made a list of wines that I think are uniquely Niagara - wines that have no equivalent from another country. See end.

Summary of wines: Riesling and Chardonnay are the top wines. Viognier and Pinot Gris are also good but limited availability. Gamay and Cabernet Franc are tops in red. Pinot is certainly there, and may eventually be the local hero. While everyone is producing big reds most of these feel contrived, flavoured or in some way unnatural. If you go to Niagara looking for editions of your favourite Shiraz you will be wasting your, and their time.

How to taste? Instead of thinking 'do I like this?' Imagine a context for every wine you taste. Ask the winery for “let me try a refresher! Let me try a rich white! Let me try something rustic to have with BBQ'd sausages! etc." If you taste with no context in mind, you will end up buying wines that felt good at the time. And weeks later wonder why you bought them.

WINERIES RECENTLY VISITED (summer 2007) with my recommended Best Buys
(Listed geographically from Beamsville to Niagara on the Lake)

A few thoughts on the wineries and the wines:

MALIVOIRE
www.malivoire.com
Beautiful landscaping, striking entrance and serene tasting room. A modern space with traditional values. Estate wines are organic. Stylish Chardonnays $22-$36, Pinot Gris $18, Pinot Noir $28 and Rosé $16. My fav is the exuberant Gamay $16. A true local. (Coming to Vintages mid-Sept).

For the rest of the article, please visit Billy's Best Bottles Travel Notes online.