Niagara on the Lake

The Niagara peninsula has reinvented itself from a fruit growing area to a wine district.  We sailed across the Lake from Toronto with my friend Kevin and yesterday we toured some local vineyards - by bicycle.  It's all very compact and flat so its easy to tour  several wineries in a few hours.

The top sketch was at Inniiskillin, one of the larger operations. Later at Lailey we were taken down to the cellar and educated on the different types of oak barrels, degree of toasting and importance of the yeasts used.  The vintner used a "thief", which is sort of a long turkey baster to draw samples from the barrels and give us a sense of the differences within a batch that was all put away on the same day.  The enthusiasm and friendliness of the wine makers makes for really pleasant conversations, but after a few minutes I generally get overwhelmed and am happy to step outside and do a drawing.