Bike Tour of Wine Country

Yesterday we drove to Vineland, Ontario, parked our car at a winery and spent the afternoon touring wine country on our bikes. It could not have been a better day for it, with the sun shining and a cool breeze the entire day. This is a great way to spend the day, as most of the wineries won't charge for the tastings, and the scenery along the Niagara escarpment is so beautiful.
The first stop on our wine tour was Tawse Winery, where everything looks new. They have a technique of wine-making using gravity instead of pumps, so the building is quite tall, with different levels of tanks. We tried some of the excellent chardonnay, and hopped back on our bikes for a bit of an uphill climb. The weather was so perfect, even the hills couldn't ruin the pleasurable experience.
Our next stop was over the hill and a left turn into Vineland Estates. There was a wedding happening there and no wonder! There are several buildings, all which look like churches of different sizes. The land is gorgeous, and we tried some delicious reisling there. I also tried a Rose, but the Reisling was king. They have a restaurant there too, so that would be a nice spot to visit for a meal.
After a nice ride through beautiful country, we came upon Ball's Falls, a waterfall near the Bruce Trail. This waterfall is not doing too well as there hasn't been much rain in the region lately, but the spot was lovely. There was another wedding at the church nearby, a park, and the Bruce Trail all in that area. These are some of the many reasons to visit that area without even drinking wine (Although I wouldn't miss that part ever!)
The nearest winery was called Calamus, and while it was the smallest tasting room we'd been to, the wines were among our favorites. We met the winemaker and one of the owners, and learned they have been open less than a year. I was quite impressed by the quality of the wine, and can only imagine it will get better.
A short ride from Calamus is Flat Rock Winery. This beautiful building sits on stilts and had a fleet of young people working in the tasting room/shop. It all looked brand new, and the wine (chardonnay and reisling is what we tried) was very good.
After all the cycling and wine tasting, hunger called. We rode into the town of Jordan, which is so picturesque it would fit into wine country in California, only 1/4 the price! We made a great choice for lunch, Zooma Zooma, had a beer each, a cheese plate and a sandwich for $30, and it was all delicious and served on a nice patio.
Refueled, we were ready to go. We have been to Jordan before so didn't go into Cave Springs Winery, but I recommend the chardonnay and reisling and it is a pretty spot with an inn and well-reviewed restaurant so will go there another time.
Our next stop was Creekside, which looked beautiful and had a nice deck restaurant, but the wines we tasted were bland and boring. This is what I used to think of Ontario wines, but the other places we visited certainly changed my mind! We then visited a local cheese shop and tasted their cheese, which was yummy but a little pricey for us.
After a shortcut that had us walking our bikes alongside some train tracks, we were back in Vineland. We stopped at another pretty winery called Willow Heights. The tastings were good there, and I was dreading the final hill before the car, and didn't want to leave!
We had parked our car at Lakeview Cellars Winery so made that our last tasting stop, and it was a good one. We enjoyed a blanc de blanc sparkling wine, a reisling, and the "out of the box" chardonnay and sauvignon blanc. These were all tasty and among the lowest priced wines we had tried all day. As we were off our bikes and had the car, we were able to make some bargain purchases. This place also had a cute patio where we can go back and have some tapas with the wine.
We were tired from all the biking, but it was a great day and we would definitely do it again. We were really surprised by how many of the wines we liked. We visited 7 wineries on our bikes, all in Vineland and Jordan, and from the maps and guides we had, we know we could have visited more than double that amount! A plan for another weekend, perhaps.