Five wineries in five minutes

September 26 saw a group of valiant ladies tackling the Niagara Wine Trail as a part of a bachelorette party- me included.The group decided to visit five wineries, which were Warm Lake (already profiled in an earlier post) Arrowhead, Freedom Run, Niagara Landing, and Marjim Manor. Of the five, Arrowhead (recommended by Eric!) was easily my favorite. All the wineries were different, with The Manor being the most beautiful interior (it was a converted church/ monastery), and Arrowhead having the most gorgeous, rolling landscape. Arrowhead looked the most like a scene from "Sideways". Here's a link: http://www.arrowheadspringvineyards.com/catalog/. Wildflowers in their last bloom, steep shale steps to a small tasting room, hills and hills of sleepy vines dusted with rain...lovely.

The Manor: http://www.niagarawinetrail.org/pages/marjim_page.html. The Manor makes fruit wines that were very, very sweet. It was our last stop on a rainy Saturday, and we tasted six wines, each with fanciful names (100 windows, Pear made in heaven, etc). For me, they were just too sweet, but a few of the other girls really loved them, and picked up a few for the ride home. The Manor itself was stunning- wood floors, dozing cats in spectacular windows, undulating hills misted with late afternoon dew as far as the eye could see. It's way, way out there, but worth the trip for the building (which is said to be haunted!) alone.

The "coolest" was Freedom Run- they also had some of my favorite wines too. The spacious California- style interior was very customer friendly, with natural architectural elements cohabiting with circus- colored glass installations. http://www.freedomrunwinery.com/ The tasting itself was confusing- we were told there were three tables: white, red, and sweet, but a girlfriend and I got separated and went to the bar in the common area (as opposed to the barrel room) and got to mix and match. I wasn't upset but my more particular girlfriend was a bit flustered over the confusion.

The "funnest" was Niagara Landing. They had wine- dyed teeshirts, necklaces made from vines, food, live music, and nearby was a small propeller plane garage, so overhead in the foggy early fall sky, vintage prop planes buzzed and circled. The atmosphere was definitely "party". The crowd, which was there for "Harvest Fest" was loud but friendly. We each tasted five wines, and most got a thumbs up, but not a rave. Again, solid, nice, decent wine but nothing to fall down dying over. http://www.niagarawinetrail.org/pages/niagara_landing_page.html

One of the minus-es of going during such a busy time was that some of the girls (myself included) were glimpsing wines that were private or limited label (such as Landing's Chili Pepper wine) but couldn't get the harried servers to serve us. The "system" was that you paid a flat rate at your first winery, then at each subsequent winery, you got a ticket punch and drink tickets for wine flights, which you chose from a menu. So, unlike a slower time, we were limited by the wines that had been sold out or drunk out by others, or just time itself. It takes much less time to familiarize servers with four wines than the 50 or so that are really on tap at Landing. The plus was definitely the atmosphere, the low flat rate, and the weather- I really liked the drizzly, moody rain outdoors and the bumpin' tastings indoors.