Wednesdays are just Wednesdays, except if your Wednesday includes wine. And food. And a beautiful landscape. And more wine. Last week, a visit to the Cave Spring Vineyard showed me that Wednesday can be the best day of the week!
They invited me and other influencers to visit their vineyard and taste their wines. Actually, it was more than a visit, we had this amazing experience that I wanna share with you.
To begin with, they welcomed us with a glass of Blanc de Blancs Brut NV while walking in the vineyard. Gabriel Demarco, the house enologist, told us their history and how they make wine. Anyone who loves wine would be amazed by all the information we received from him, especially knowing how visionary the Pennachetti family was by buying the property in the 1970’s.
They recognized that the Beamsville Bench area – located between a sloping terrace of the Niagara Escarpment and Lake Ontario – would be perfect to start producing wine. That made the family pioneers of the North American winemaking development.
I can’t say I recognize an area as ideal for wine making, but I can say the view is amazing and it invites you to drink wine!
After visiting the vineyard we went to the tasting room where the afternoon continued to be amazing for us. We had a chance to taste four more wines:
- 2018 Riesiling Adam Steps, Beamsville Bench Estate
- 2018 Riesiling Beamsville Bench Estate
- 2017 Chardonnay Musqué, Beamsville Bench Estate
- 2018 Chardonnay Dolomite, Beamsville Bench Estate
Of course amazing wines deserve delicious food and the amuse-bouche was at the same level. They served four small portions while they continued to explain their wine production and history. The best part? We could taste the wines while enjoying the view from the cellar to the vineyard. (Yes, exactly like in the movies!)
It’s a shame the weather was kind of weird, the photos would be perfect with blue skies. But anyway… did I mention we had wine on our hands? Who cares, right?
Everything looked perfect so far, we couldn’t guess the best was yet to come: the dinner. And more wine.
I can’t even explain how beautiful they set up the table for us. It had that farmhouse atmosphere you see on Pinterest.
I’m sorry I can’t remember the exact name of the dishes they served us that night, but I can summarize saying everything came well together with the wine pairing.
To start with, we had glazed salmon paired with 2018 Gewürztraminer, Beamsville Bench Estate, hands down my favourite wine of the night.
We continued with a fresh salad and a 2019 Rosé, Beamsville Bench Estate. Fresh as the salad.
The gorgeous (and delicious!) shrimp dish was paired with the 2017 Riesling CSV, Beamsville Bench Estate.
To pair the steak we had a 2018 Pinot Noir Dolomite, Beamsville Bench Estate.
To finish our 5-course meal (unfortunately everything has to come to an end) we had the second best thing on earth after wine: chocolate. The 2017 Cabernet Franc Dolomite, Beamsville Bench Estate was the perfect wine to end our lovely day.
It’s very hard to summarize all the experiences I had at Cave Spring Vineyard but, during the event, co-founder and president Len Pennachetti said that wines tell us a story about where they were made and I think that’s the best way to explain: visiting the vineyard is a mixture of appreciation of nature, vision and hard work. Drinking their wines definitely brings all those sensations back.
You can experience it all by yourself. They host different types of events, including intimate wine and food pairings, visits to the vineyard and more. You can check out the upcoming events list here.
You can shop all the wines I mentioned here.
