I didn't drink alcohol throughout my teenage years, and even after I joined the military, I didn't initially try many alcoholic beverages. This sort of helped, in some ways, as I was asked to be the server in the Sergeants' and Warrent Officers' Mess for a while, and I remember my very first time there, I poured a beer and asked "Would you like ice with that?" I was green, but then again, my father did not drink much at all, perhaps a drink or two a year.
I remember my first interest in wine started really with a local winery opening: Henry of Pelham. I was more attracted to the labelling at that time, with a clean logo and a caricature of "Henry" carrying a bundle of cuttings from grape vines. I've purchased wines from other wineries as well, but that was my first, and I still enjoy their product. It is only one of two wineries on the Short Hills Bench sub-appellation in Niagara. I may not understand this very well, but it seems that what makes this region distinctive is that the Niagara Escapement here is significantly leveled, and you don't see the imposing wall you see elsewhere in Niagara. What I believe is the consequence of this is that the dolomite cap of the region above the Niagara Escarpment, at least in this region, has been significantly crumbled and mixed with the local soils, thereby adding a higher concentration of minerals than you would find elsewhere in Niagara. I may be wrong...
However, at some point I gained an appreciation for beer.
As for favorite beers, I have many that I enjoy, but there are three beers that I would label as "If I had to live on an island with only one beer, this would be it."
-
Collective Arts "Ransack the Universe" IPA,
-
Descendants "Harbinger" ale, and
-
Bell City Brewing "Eureka" cream ale.
Unfortunately, Descendants at some point two years ago brought their manufacturing of Harbinger back home from Toronto, where it was made through a contract brewery, from what I understand, and the flavor has since changed, and not in a positive manner, so perhaps only the first and third should be listed.
I'm not saying these are my "favorite" beers, but rather that they have pleasant flavors that are continually refreshing.
Wineries
My favorite Niagara wineries in alphabetical order:
-
Cattail Creek (now closed)
-
Stratus
-
Thirty Bench
-
Trius
Another great winery is Coffin Ridge. They are much further north, very close to the 4th Canadian Division Training Centre (what used to be CFB Meaford). This is just south of the Bruce Peninsula.
There are only three questionable wineries, one of which has closed. I tried so hard to try to appreciate the wines from De Moura, but could not find any that I liked. There was apparently one chardonnay that had merit, but many were simply unpalatable. The owner has since passed away, and with that, the winery has since closed. Mountain Road Wine Company doesn't seem to have produced any wines in the past fourteen years, but they are still selling older products. Did the owner pass away, too? That one confuses me, because they did have some nice wines, but since they have not produced a wine since 2007, and yet, on their web page, they have 2008 reds listed as "Coming Soon". It's been thirteen years, Mountain Road, what's up? On their home page, for the last decade, they've had a horrible spelling mistake: "Careful winemaking preserves and thoughtful ageing enhances the expression of terror." The last word should be "terroir", but given that they haven't produced anything in over a decade, perhaps "terror" is indeed the better word. I noted that it appears that the son gave one of the other local wineries a horrible rating on Google; that is simply not cricket. The last is Caroline Cellars, and I tried so hard, too, to find a few wines I liked. Unfortunately, no such luck.
Beer
In the army, I started with beers like OV, Labatt's 50, and other such beers. Black Label was popular then, too. Since going to the University of Guelph, I believe at some point I was introduced to beer from Wellington Brewery.
Since starting my masters at the University of Waterloo, I was introduced to the Graduate House. There, they had a number of craft brews on tap. At first, I was attracted to Waterloo Dark, and often we had Guinness, but then I started to try Special Pale Ale from Wellington Brewery.
In the past decade, a number of microbreweries have started up around Kitchener-Waterloo.