Time to tour around the wineries of Niagara again – this time it’s the New Vintages Festival – a festival devoted to what’s new in wine from Beamsville to Niagara-on-the-Lake.  This time out the passport program’s winery experiences expanded from 5 to 6 – a mild seemingly mild improvement, but one that ratchets up the value, now each winery costs you $5 for the experience, if you have a passport (though it still costs you $10 individually), this makes the passport a better value and worth purchasing.  Last time out 4 of the ten wineries visited delivered equal or less value for the cost of their ticket ($6), I ranked wineries on a 1-10 scale (6 being the break-even point).  This time, because the wineries ended up on a relative equal scale for value – meaning I didn’t feel ripped off by anybody (remember $5 was the cut-off value); instead I am giving out some “Best” awards:  Best Wine, Best Food, Best Pairing, Best Cheese, Best Wine Serving Only, Best Value … plus a few others.

Once again my foodie (Erica) accompanied me on the journey of a dozen wineries and together we went through the list of 30 participating wineries and picked out our preferred twelve – we tried for a mix of wineries we have gone to in the past and ones we have not been to in awhile.  They were:  Fielding, Legends, Magnotta, Creekside, Caroline Cellars, Coyote’s Run, Inniskillin, Palatine Hills, Peller, Pillitteri, Reif and Vineland.

And the winners are: ... (Read more - with pictures)

To read about more interesting adventures thru the world of wine check out the On the Road With the Grape Guy blog.