So yes, Niagara-on-the-Lake is Wine Country!

As I mentioned in a blog post in the Travel Tab, I took a weekend away to visit Niagara-on-the-Lake and had fun at the Wine & Chocolate Festival.

There are over 20 distinctive wineries that are part of the Wineries of Niagara-on-the-Lake and some of the wineries that we visited were very large estates, some of them were medium sized operations and some were small but lovely boutiques. But….. behind the door of each of the wineries I found the staff to be friendly with a very relaxed atmosphere in addition to very comfortable tasting rooms.

But why talk about wine and chocolate when I can share with you the different pairings that I experienced during the festival’s weekend which can be found at www.wineriesofniagaraonthelake.com

So I’m just going to list some the pairings and the winery that we had them at and I hope that by the end of the post, you too, will be heading for a weekend in Canada at Niagara-on-the-Lake!

So let’s start with my absolute favorite pairing which was at Coyote’s Run Estate Winery and was a 2013 Black Paw Cabernet Sauvignon and which was paired with a  dark chocolate and bacon Brownie which I will be calling them for the recipe.  Need I say moreLol

OK. I was so in love with how this dark chocolate and bacon brownie tasted that here’s another shot of it!!

So yum, if you look closely you can see—the pieces of bacon. OK. I need that recipe!!!

The second pairing I loved was served at Ravine Vineyard Estate Winery and was a 2014 Sand & Gavel Redcoat which was paired  with a Roast Chicken meatball in dark chocolate mole sauce.  Need I say more!

The third pairing that I want to share was served at The Reif Winery and it was a 2014 Pinot Noir and a Pork belly “Snicker”.

As you can see, this is quite a “fun” experience…

So let’s check out another pairing which was at the Strewn Winery.  The Strewn Winery paired a 2011 Cabernet Franc Icewine with three samplers.  Those samplers were left to right,  pulled port with cocoa on a torilla chip, roast rhubarb with white chocolate shaving, and let’s not forget about the Thai peanut butter ball in dark chocolate. 🙂

OK. So… Next:

We visited the Konzelmannn Estate Winery where they paired a 2013 Pinot Noir Reserve with a French cocoa macaron filled with Valrhona chocolate and caramel ganache.

OK. This macaron was so glorious that it needs it’s own picture 🙂

Time for some food with a pairing so that happened at Inniskillin Winery where they paired 1 2013 Reserve Merlot with a Montreal smoked meat sandwich in cocoa aioli (another word for sauce).

And the last pairing that I’ll share with you was paired for us at the Jackson-Triggs Niagara Estate Winery. That pairing was a 2014 Grand Reserve Red Meritage with Chocolate and fennel cheesecake.

So I hope that when thinking of where to take your next February weekend out of town that you visit www.wineriesniagaraonthelake.com and try these tastings for yourself!!!