Hello everyone!
Welcome to the Community Center! I'm @Bhu...
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Hello everyone!
Welcome to the Community Center! I'm @Bhumika , one of the Community Managers for our English Community Ce...
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An estimated 14 million visitors travel to Niagara, Ontario region every year, and most of them come to see the Falls. People visit us from all over the world: I think that all you need to do to belong here is show up. But there’s a hidden Niagara, one that still lies at least somewhat off the beaten track, and I’m going to share it with you.
I live in a tiny town called Vineland that lies to the west of Niagara Falls. We’re famous for being Canada’s tender fruit capital – a prestigious title! Local farmers grow peaches, cherries, nectarines, and plums, as well as many of the cut flowers sold in Canada here. On the way to work in the morning, I often get stuck behind a slow-moving tractor or harvester.
Many farm stands by the side of the road sell the produce from the area. There’s always something good to eat around here: if fruit isn’t your thing, there’s local cheeses and meats and some amazing local bakeries. If you stop at a roadside stand, you'll be buying directly from the person who grew the food, or maybe one of their kids.
Grapes have also been grown in the region since the 1700s, but up until recently, they were Concord grapes, a variety usually used for jellies and fruit juices. Although locals did make them into wine, the wine was pretty terrible. It was considered “foxy”, which is not a compliment when it comes to wine. Vinifera vines – the kind that is used to produce wine in Europe – were imported, but just didn’t do well in our climate. Although Southern Ontario is on the same latitude as northern California and the Mosel wine region in Germany, our winters are much harsher and we have a variety of local pests that just love to get their teeth into some tender grapevine roots.
In the mid-1970s, a local farmer had a brainwave: if they could graft two fruit trees together to create a heartier stock that would survive the Canadian climate, why couldn’t they do the same with grapes? They took the roots from our local vines and grafted a vinifera vine on top to produce better quality grapes for wine. It worked! In the 45 years that have passed since then, the industry in Niagara has grown from one winery to about 150. There are about 30 wineries within a 10-minute drive of my house and Airbnb property, the Flat on King.
Kacaba is the closest: it’s right across the street from me and is pretty typical of the wine industry in my neighbourhood. By global standards, it’s minuscule: they grow on about 20 acres of land and produce fewer than 100,000 cases of wine a year. It’s family-owned and run, and their whole production facility is housed in a building that’s less than 20,000 square feet. They have won awards throughout Canada and around the world for their red wines, specifically their Cabernet Franc and Syrah. They do amazing things, and they’re not alone: wineries from the Beamsville Bench, including Tawse, Malivoire, Kew, Back 10, and Leaning Post often take home hardware at the big wine events, but due to the small volumes of wine they produce, it’s difficult to compete on the world stage. Many of their vintages are produced in such small quantities that the only way to try them is to come to the winery and buy them directly.
Some local wineries are so small that they don’t even have the facilities to bottle their own wine: there’s a local mobile bottling plant that’s housed inside a transport truck and bottles the wine onsite. If you visit some of our local tasting bars, you will almost certainly meet the people who grow the grapes and make the wines and they can tell you all about the work that goes into producing them. Some of the most popular local varietals are Reisling, Cabernet Franc, and Chardonnay, but there’s a huge diversity in offerings. The region also produces ice wine, which is only possible to produce in cold climates: the grapes are picked when temperatures have been below zero for three nights in a row, and everyone in town goes out to pick in the middle of the night. The wine produced is more like a liqueur, and it’s super thick and sweet. Tourists can’t get enough of it: you’ll have to judge for yourself if it’s something you enjoy.
What else tends to do well in wine country? Restaurants. Some are operated by the wineries, and others are independent, but the majority offer locally grown food paired with Niagara wines. The simply named Just Cooking is the closest to the Flat on King. Tim, the owner, makes Italian food from scratch every day of the week except Mondays: bread, pasta, gelato, and sauces come flying out of the kitchen and are gobbled up by a full house all year round, even in the winter, when things in Niagara are typically pretty quiet. Another local example is Pearl Morissette, a farm to table restaurant and winery. No restaurant in Canada has yet received a Michelin star, but if the rumours are true, it will be the first. Since they opened about two years ago, I’ve hosted many guests who have travelled to Vineland just to eat at their restaurant, which is located at the heart of their winery near Jordan Harbour.
Why does this region produce such extraordinary wines? It’s a combination of factors. The Niagara Peninsula lies between two great lakes: Lake Ontario to the north, and Lake Erie to the south. These two huge bodies of water keep the temperature moderate – by Canadian standards, at least. The Beamsville Bench specifically is even more unique: it’s located on the Niagara Escarpment, which is has been designated as a World Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO. The escarpment is made from limestone, which gives wines from the Beamsville Bench a distinctive minerality and provides well-drained soil for growing.
The escarpment also provides some pretty spectacular landscape. The Niagara River gorge is part of it, and besides the obvious attraction of Niagara Falls, if you travel north along the Niagara parkway away from all the tourists, there’s a lot more to see. There's a bicycle and walking trail that runs along the top of the gorge, and many smaller walking trails that will take you down to the bottom to see the fast-moving water up close. You don’t need to pay $50 a head to get on the famous Maid of the Mist or struggle your way through the crowds in front of the falls to get up close and personal with the river.
There are also beautiful spots to stop and have a picnic or just enjoy the scenery all along the parkway: just pull the car or bike over and enjoy the view. My favourite spot is the Botanical Gardens and School of Horticulture. Tended by a virtual army of gardeners and students, you can enjoy a visit for $3 for a carload of people. Many of the parks and picnic areas have no charge for admission. Bring some comfy chairs or a blanket and grab some fresh food from a farm market and a bottle of wine from one of the wineries and make a day of it.
If you’re more interested in hiking than a walk in the park, Vineland is located on the Bruce Trail, a path that leads from the Bruce Peninsula on Lake Huron all the way to Niagara Falls. It follows the Niagara Escarpment too and showcases some of the most stunning scenery in Ontario. In my region, you’ll see many smaller waterfalls along the way, and it also connects many of the wineries. It’s not an easy walk, but if you’re up for a bit of an adventure in nature, it’s a beautiful way to spend a day.
So come to Niagara, and after you’ve spent 30 minutes looking at the iconic falls, venture off the road well travelled and come to see us in the Twenty Valley and the Beamsville Bench. See some of the spectacular scenery that doesn’t end at the Horseshoe Falls, and meet the locals who produce food and wine that’s celebrated the world over.
