Last weekend Paul and I had friends from California visiting. We decided to take them on a tour of some Niagara wineries. Our first stop was a newish winery 9well, new to us for sure) called Westcott. I had heard about them, and in fact drank a bottle of their wine purchased at the LCBO, but had never visited. People I follow on Instagram rave about the wines so I thought I'd pay a visit.
Westcott Vineyards and Winery is a very small, artisanal Niagara winery focused on producing exquisite chardonnay and pinot noir wines from their estate grown grapes. The owners believe that a great wine begins in the vineyard and they take great pains to make wines that they feel good about.
Upon arrival we met one of the owners . . .
Carolyn Hurst and her husband Grant Westcott bought the property in 2006 as a new chapter in their lives; a simple transition to retirement life in the country. HA I'm not sure what their previous lives as IT professionals were like but I suspect nothing compared to the backbreaking (and soul crushing) work of a winery.
The night before we arrived was their national rosé day party and they had been up late and I suspect were dragging their heels . . .to say nothing of cloudy brains . . . on a Sunday morning.
There were hints of their pink celebration all around.
I had booked a private tour thinking that it would be a great way for our Californian friends to gain a greater understanding of the Niagara wine industry. I had no idea that our tour guides would be the owners themselves!
Carolyn took us through the winery and showed us their sparkling wine production where they are riddling the bottles by hand. The bottles we saw had been on the lees for 50 months. I can't wait to try a bottle when it is released!
We went upstairs to a private room where Carolyn, and later Grant, talked to us about their wine making philosophy, their wines, and anything else we were interested in and we were interested in a LOT).
It was an amazing start to our wine tour.
In fact, I liked the wines so much that the first thing I did when I arrived in the office on Monday morning was to go online and join the wine club. :-)
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