Christmas Weekend in Niagara-on-the-Lake

One of the best weekends of the year is almost here — the weekend where you meet with your loved ones and celebrate Christmas with laughter, good food, and presents.

Of course, even a weekend as delightful as this one can still be complemented by going to local activities. In Niagara-on-the-Lake, there is no shortage of such activities.

Be one of the first to taste Pondview Winery’s 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon. (Image via http://www.pondviewwinery.com.)

For example, on Saturday, December 24, Pondview Estate Winery will host a festive Tasting and Shopping event. Beginning at 10 am, you will get a chance to enjoy limited and award-winning releases, including Pondview’s newest 2010 Cab Merlot. You will also be able to get a “ready-to-give” Christmas gift bag.

Where: Pondview Estate Winery, 925 Line 2
When: December 24, 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
Contact: 905-468-0777 and info (at) pondviewwinery.com

Also on Saturday, Inniskillin Wines will hold its Gingerbread Man Competition (which it has been celebrating every weekend in December). This event allows you to relive your childhood by decorating a housemade gingerbread man — plus the winner takes home an Icewine package.

Where: Inniskillin Wines, 1499 Line 3 at the Niagara Parkway
When: December 24, 11 am – 5 pm
Contact: 905-468-2187 (ext. 5400)

Whatever you choose to do, we’re confident you’ll have a great time in Niagara-on-the-Lake. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

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A Choice For The Weekend

He’s not the only option.

This weekend, if you’re in Niagara-on-the-Lake you’ll likely be doing one of two things: avoiding the Santa Claus parade or embracing the Santa Claus parade.

If you’d like to do the former, here’s what you need to know:

• There will be more than 100 entries, including school groups and businesses like Simpson’s Apothecary.
• Music will play an important role, thanks to crowd favourites like the Top Hat Marching Band and new musical acts like the Blue Saints Drum & Bugle Corps.
• Leading the way in horse-drawn carriages, the Niagara-on-the-Lake War of 1812 Bicentennial Committee will act as honourary grand marshal.
• The parade will start at 11 am at Parliament Oak Elementary School, on the corner of King and Centre streets.

Should you wish to pursue the latter option (that is, to pass on Santa’s parade), head over to Pilliteri Estates Winery, a 3-min drive from our Presentation Centre. Beginning at noon, you’ll be able to shop and welcome the festive season with hot chocolate, mulled wine, fresh baked cookies, and music.

Later, at around 6:30 pm, drop by Jackson Triggs, just a stone’s throw from us, and attend the winery’s December Savour the Sights Holiday Edition, comprising of five courses of fine wine and food and featuring a festive fireside finish. (Please click here for more details and for information on how to reserve.)

We turn it over to you: which will it be—the jolly man in a read suit or a case of wine? Maybe both? Let us know!

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Visit Historic Attractions in Niagara-on-the-Lake Next Weekend

Next Friday, December 2, those of you who have a passion for history will find Niagara-on-the-Lake a fantastic place to be.

That’s when the local Rotary Club will hold its popular tour of historic local properties, all adorned in festive decorations. Called the Holiday House Tour, this event is now in its 13th year.

The renowned Lakewinds Bed & Breakfast, formerly a Victorian manor, will be part of the tour. (Image via Lakewinds.ca.)

Kicking off with a Candlelight Stroll at 6:30 pm on Friday night, the Holiday House Tour will include visits to:

• McFarland House, 15927 Niagara Parkway: One of the few buildings in Niagara-on-the-Lake that pre-dates the War of 1812, it was used as a hospital during said war by both British and American forces.

• Lakewinds, 328 Queen Street: An elegant Victorian manor from 1885, built as a summer home for Gustav Fleischmann of the Fleischmann’s yeast company in Buffalo, N.Y. It is now a bed and breakfast with a veranda that overlooks a golf course. No wonder it’s been featured in TV shows, and according to its site, in one major Hollywood movie.

• The Brown-Bassil House, 48 Queenston Street (Queenston): How many places have, since the 1820’s, been a store, a residence, a tavern, and a rooming house, before they were converted to a single-family residence in 1975?

For a list of all the places you can visit, please check here, and you can get tickets here.

Our Presentation Centre will be open on Saturday from 10 am to 5 pm and on Sunday from 1 pm to 5 pm. Visit us for a free cup of coffee, a chat with or friendly representatives, and to learn more about our community.

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Niagara-on-the-Lake is the Best Place to Celebrate Halloween

Ask anyone what Niagara-on-the-Lake is known for, and they’ll likely list wine, the Shaw festival, food, and history.

Yet there is another, albeit less known feather in Niagara-on-the-Lake’s cap—that of spooky ghosts.

Of course, many other towns become spooky during Halloween. Yet few do it as well as Niagara-on-the-Lake, whose renowned Fort George Halloween Ghost Tour is being held on Saturday at 8 p.m. (for adults only).

A perfect place for Halloween.

Tomorrow, however, isn’t the only time of the year when Niagara-on-the-Lake becomes spooky.

Popular Ghost Walks are held throughout the year, departing from the Museum of the Paranormal and led by guides who sport black capes and lanterns, and who relish educating attendants about Captain Swayze, killed at the Olde Angel Inn, and about the headless officer at the Old Fort and the violent ghost of the Angel Inn, one of only a few exorcisms ever held in Canada.

For an additional taste, visitors can visit Queen’s Royal Park, a pleasant parkland with numerous benches, picnic tables, flowers, trees, and a resident ghost known as the “Woman in White” who, as rumour has it, likes to walk through the gazebo during the evenings.

For all these reasons, few places are so perfectly suited to Halloween celebrations as Niagara-on-the-Lake. (Click here for a list of events you can attend before and after the ghostly tour.)

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Another Delicious Event Next Door to You

This weekend, the Jackson Triggs winery, which is located next door to you in The Village, will hold yet another event you won’t want to miss.

Called The Pinot Affair, it encompasses eight wineries in Niagara-on-the-Lake. But since Jacksons Triggs is so conveniently located, you’re probably more interested in it.

With three tours beginning at 11 am, 1 pm, and 3 pm each, Jackson Triggs will take you backstage into the vineyards and winemaking facility to give you the opportunity to taste four different Pinot Noirs along with canapés and Canadian artisan cheeses.

Check this site for details, and let us know it goes!

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An Activity-Filled Weekend Awaits You in Niagara-on-the-Lake

You might think this coming weekend will be an ordinary weekend.

If by ordinary you mean having fun, mingling, attending live culinary demonstrations, listening to live roots music, and browsing through garage sales set up by friendly people who might soon be your neighbours, then you’d be right—this weekend will be very ordinary indeed.

It all begins with the Annual Village Garage Sale at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday, when the back laneways of The Village homes will be taken over by residents selling some of their possessions.

Only one hour later, the Rootstock event kicks off at the Farmers’ Market at The Village, just next door, featuring live music by Mike and Wendall and Rhyme and Reason as well as culinary seminars by Bartel Organics and Chef Tony DeLuca of DeLuca’s Wine Country Restaurant.

The best part? Once both the garage sale and Rootstock event are over, you’ll be able to take a tour of our designer-decorated model homes. See you there!

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Have A Beach Day in Niagara-on-the-Lake

Beach season is not over just yet!

 

If you think you haven’t spent enough time at the beach this summer, you still have a couple more weeks to hit the beach before summer is over.

 

There are many beaches within the Niagara region that you can visit. In fact, one of the cleanest beaches in Canada is located right here, in Niagara-on-the-Lake. The beach at Firelane 14, just west of the Village, was listed as one of the top five cleanest beaches in Canada by the WWF. The results came in after last year’s National Cleanup Week, an effort to promote shorelines free from litter. (If you’re interested in participating this year, please visit their website for this year’s cleanup on September 17-25^th.)

 

If you’re planning a trip to one of the beaches in the area, make sure to check the beach status prior to visiting, especially if you’re planning on swimming. And while you’re in town, come pay us a visit!

 

Have a fun beach day!

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A Weekend Full of Wonderful Events!

If anyone ever expressed doubts about the quality and variety of Niagara-on-the-Lake wines and food, this weekend provides plenty of opportunities to show them otherwise.

Saturday begins with a wide array of choices. Do you want icewine? Are you in the mood for casual wine and food sampling, or do you prefer a 3-course menu prepared by a local chef?

Here’s some great options:

• The On the Patio event begins at 11 a.m. on Saturday. Part of a summer series at Pilliteri Estates Winery, you can sample local treats like chocolate and a pig roast, or you can meet with local artisans here.

There’s no shortage of happy patrons at the Pilliteri Estates Winery. (Photo via Pilliteri.com.)

• Or you could attend the Terroir Treasure Hunt at Jackson Triggs Winery from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Dubbed an exploration of wine and cuisine, this fun event lets you discover wine and food pairings at different stops in the winery.

The inviting cellar at Jackson Triggs. (Photo via Facebook.com. )

• Enjoy a 3-course lunch at Afternoon with Jason-Peller States, or if you prefer icewine, the Inniskillin Winery Icewine Experience is sure to please your palate.

• The night is young, so check Peller Estates’ Chef’s Table Dinner Series at 6 p.m.—a  great opportunity to pair more delicious local wine and food!

• There’s also the Joel Plaskett concert at Jackson Triggs Winery at 8 p.m.—a relaxing way to end the day, whether you choose wine by the glass, a picnic box or a barrel cellar dinner.

Sunday morning, more choices await you:

• Go to the On The Patio event if you missed it the day before (or even if you didn’t).

• Check the Icewine Experience event at noon.

• Try fine local cheese from Monforte Dairy at Stratus Wines.

Whatever you choose, you’re sure to have fun, make the most of the beautiful summer weather, and experience the fabulous offerings of Niagara-on-the-Lake!

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Dining Out in a Novel Way

Diners have fun during Berlin’s first-ever Diner en Blanc despite not having NOTL peaches or wine.

Last night at around 8 p.m., about 400 people wearing white received a text message containing an address in Niagara-on-the-Lake. Reading it, they immediately snatched a basket of food and rushed off to Queen Street.

Once there, surrounded by sparklers and baskets of fresh peaches, they proceeded to eat, mingle, and drink delicious wine provided by 20 local wineries.

This wasn’t a scene in some crazy movie. Neither was it a promotional stunt. Believe it or not, this was just about food and wine in a playful, novel setting—one that you can usually experience only in a metropolis like Berlin or Paris, where the event, not surprisingly, was born.

Then again, as we’ve been saying all along, Niagara-on-the-Lake takes its food and its wine seriously. So seriously, in fact, that last night’s event was Ontario’s first-ever Diner en Blanc (and since Montreal is holding its first Diner en Blanc on August 18, Niagara-on-the-Lake also beat Quebec to it, as it did New York).

Click here for the event’s history and pictures, and let us know if you have any images of your own from last night’s event that you’d like us to publish.

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Man’s Best Friend Comes to The Farmers’ Market at The Village

The actor who used to play MacGyver once said that dogs were his favourite people.

This Saturday morning, drop by the Farmers’ Market at The Village to experience Dog Day, an event that would probably make Richard Dean Anderson ecstatic.

While MacGyver may not be there, you’ll still get to see a smallest and biggest dog competition, a best dressed dog competition, and the Southern Ontario Disc Houndz as they participate in an obstacle course, Frisbee, and a weave pole challenge. 

Pause every now and then to sample one of the Farmers’ Market many delicacies, and when you’re done, pay us a visit at our Presentation Centre to borrow one of our vintage bikes, have some coffee, and learn about our homes.

Dog Day at the Farmers’ Market will take place this Saturday August 6, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., right at the doorstep of our Presentation Centre on 1111 C Garrison Village Drive.

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