icewine festival...

a few weeks ago we spent a chilly saturday at the niagara icewine festival sippin' drinks and munching on samples of yummy food. i love icewine and could have had many more glasses than just the two that i did! it was a pretty small festival and didn't take us very long to get through, but delicious nonetheless.

more please.

french onion soup. yum.

afterwards we stopped at a winery because my parents had heard about their icewine marshmallows. i was skeptical. i mean, how good could it possibly be? turns out they're really good. 

caramelized sugar from being soaked in icewine. divine.  

we're ready for the long weekend ahead of us, but we're unsure as to what we're going to do. we're sitting at -9 degrees right now (and the 'feels like' is -18) and tomorrow is supposed to be worse, so i guess we'll just see what the weekend brings. whatever it is, i'm sure we'll have 101 layers on.

konzelmann estate winery...

when we went to a winery a couple weeks ago, i had mentioned that we loved it and when we left we had found another deal online that was too good to pass up. for $35, we got a tour and tasting for 4 plus a cheese platter, and a $40 gift card to spend in the wine store. this past weekend, we went with my parents.

beautiful. right on the water. 

and it was such a clear day that you could see toronto right across the water. *:( i miss it* had i brought my good camera, i would have tried to capture it, but it's right in the right hand corner before the 3 trees and the house starts.

modeled after a german castle (the family is german)

which one to buy?

a little spiel about the family from the guide before the drinking.

the bottling room.

6 generations of wine makers.

the 4 wines we tried. their icewine has won award after award after award.

4pack

i absolutely loved the look of this place, more so than the other one we went to. this has more of a castle feel, and less of a 'hall' feel (thinking wedding venue-wise). but, the tour itself, dylan and i agreed that we liked the other winery better (chateau des charmes). it was a bit more professional, there was a smaller group, we sat down to do the tasting at tables of 4, there were separate glasses for each wine. this one was a group of about 20 people, we reused the same glasses, and it was generally more impersonal. that's not to say we didn't enjoy ourselves though! with the $40 we were given to spend in the store, we picked up a bottle of red (for dylan) and i chose pinot grigio and the peach wine we had sampled. we had to put in $15  of our own money, but well worth it! 1 of those 3 bottles was consumed by me the very next day...very delicious indeed.

wine, cheese, and chocolate; oh my...

we ended off my birthday celebrations on sunday with a trip to a winery. back in march i had bought a living social deal that was $25, which involved a wine tour and then a tasting and pairing with cheese and chocolate.  just like niagara falls, we are so lucky to live so close to wine country; not only is it beautiful, but it's a fun day date, too. going to wineries is also a great way to scope out possible future wedding venues. we both kept an eye out for what we liked and what we're looking for ;) (no engagement yet!)

chateau des charmes. 

(i was planning on taking a picture with the real camera after the tour, but it was absolutely pouring, so instagram camera phone will do)

....

 enough glasses?

 finishing off with icewine.

.............................

the tour was great; it was about an hour and we saw all the parts of the wine making process and learned some interesting things. it was nice because there was only about 8 people in the tour, so it was an intimate little setting. once the tour was done, we went upstairs to a room with chairs set up and a view of the vines out back. we  got to try 2 different white wines, 1 red wine, and icewine to end. each wine was paired either chocolate or cheese. i'm still learning to like wine, if that makes sense, but the icewine was definitely my favorite! oh my gosh, it was so sweet; you definitely couldn't drink more than 1 glass of it, but it would be delicious with dessert. we ended the tour in the store, where we bought one bottle that isn't available in the regular liquor store.

i'm pretty sure we found our new hobby. as soon as we were in the car driving home, i was looking on my phone for another deal. what do you know, i found one and we snatched it up. it was $35 and it gets you a wine tour and tasting/pairing for 4, plus a $40 giftcard to spend in the shop and buy wine!! that's a little crazy right? we're getting more money than what we're paying along with a tour. couldn't pass it up! 

time to start getting a bottle from each winery and saving them for special occasions!

by the water...

every summer while my mom is on vacation, we make it a point to go to niagara on the lake for a day of relaxing by the water and a little browsing of the shops. it's not far from niagara falls, and we were thinking how weird it is that people travel from all over the world to see these falls, and yet here we are, just an hour away, and we barely go. the last time i was in niagara falls, was maybe 5 years ago? even if we go to the casino on the american side, we certainly don't look at the falls. perhaps we should take a visit over there this summer and appreciate what we have..

chocolate apples. the best.

mom and chloe, posing perfectly.

i fell asleep, like usual.

i finally got a picture of a bird in flight!

even though this was last week, we went back again yesterday sans chloe, so we could actually go into the stores. we didn't buy anything, except for fudge, which is a pretty important purchase if you ask me. and if you're wondering, we got peanut butter, my favorite :)