For those of you who have followed my adventures in wine tasting, you’ll be happy to know that after nearly three months, I’ve finally finished my journey, stopping at winery number 16 yesterday.
I took a day off from the tasting room and traveled with Jamison to Spring Lake Winery, where the vineyards had just been kissed by our first snowflakes of winter!! Honestly we couldn’t have picked a more perfect day!
Like our own wine list, we found that Spring Lake is (as dad always jokes) “a dry house,” and I was immediately glad that I had saved them for last. When I first started tasting the other wines on the trail, nearly anything below a 4% residual sugar wasn’t sweet enough for me- but as I’ve learned more and tasted more I’m beginning to prefer dry wines, and I don’t think I could have fully appreciated Spring Lake had I visited them back in August. Yesterday however, I’m happy to report I enjoyed everything I tasted.
We started with their unoaked Chardonnay, (slowly becoming one of my favorite wines, I’m finding) and their 2010 Estate Riesling- which was distinctly unique from all the other Rieslings I’ve tried. The last wine we tried, their semi-sweet Zia Minx was the winner of the day. While the residual sugar is low, it offered a natural sweetness, with hints of fruity cherry and raspberry. Jamison not only bought a bottle for himself, but treated me to one as well!! (and in case you’re interested in trying it too, they’re running a special on the purchase of 3 bottles this month!)
Before leaving, we started chatting about things back at Long Cliff and they asked me what our “Estate” wine was… I had never put much thought into it before, but I suddenly realized how unique we are, & felt a sense of pride in being able to say “Currently, ALL of Long Cliff’s wines are Estate Grown.” It hit me for the first time that this is something Grandpa, Dad and Uncle Rob deserve some major kudos for!! Their devotion in the vineyard is what makes my job so easy in the tasting room. The wines nearly sell themselves.
So now that I’ve sampled a little something from all 16 of the wineries on the Niagara Wine Trail, I’ll be staying put in our OWN tasting room this month, preparing for Christmas and all the excitement the holidays bring.
We have lots of upcoming specials to look forward to, including a discount on all 2010 vintages this coming weekend ONLY, November 8-11th, in celebration of Long Cliff’s First Anniversary!!. A special discount to our first 250 Facebook Fans on our 2011 Pinot Noir releasing THIS DECEMBER. And a **very special** Thanksgiving promotion- details coming to Facebook SOON!
Until Next Time!!
-d. ❤ xo.
Long Cliff Vineyard & Winery, Inc. 