Things to do in Niagara wine country

The VQA Niagara Peninsula appellation covers roughly 90 wineries split between two zones: the Niagara-on-the-Lake benches (Four Mile Creek, St.

Davids Bench, Niagara Lakeshore, Creek Shores) close to the lake, and the Niagara Escarpment/Twenty Valley sub-appellations (Beamsville Bench, Twenty Mile Bench, Short Hills Bench, Lincoln Lakeshore, Vinemount Ridge) up on higher ground, roughly 25 to 40 minutes from the falls by car.

Riesling, chardonnay, pinot noir, cabernet franc and gamay do well here, and Ontario makes more icewine than anywhere else on earth, using vidal and other grapes picked frozen at -8 C or colder. Inniskillin put the category on the map by winning the Grand Prix d'Honneur at Vinexpo in 1991. Tasting flights run a few dollars a glass and add up fast, in CAD, and nobody should be driving afterward.