Canada’s largest annual Icewine Festival is about to be launched this weekend with a myriad of wintry events along Niagara famous wine route. Starting Friday September 16th, Montebello Park in downtown St. Catharines will be the place to be for the next two weekends as the Balderson Wine Cheese and Food Experience brings over 40 Ontario wineries and restaurants together. Sample the best Niagara and Ontario has to offer, while enjoying wine seminars, art shows, children’s Grapeland, grape stomps, cooking demonstrations and big name jazz, blues and pop recording artists on the Main Stage. This year’s weekend headliners include Tributes to Chicago and Ray Charles on Friday evening, Sue Foley on Saturday night, and Ian Thomas on Sunday evening. Over 40 wineries are nestled in the rolling landscape of the Niagara Peninsula. The Niagara Peninsula is recognized globally as an outstanding wine producing region. Its soils are excellent and the climate is similar to that of great wine producing regions of the world such as Burgundy and Loire Valley of France plus New Zealand.

Upwards of 200,000 people are expected for the 56th Grape and Wine Parade. The pageantry will commence at 11 am on Saturday, September 24 through downtown St. Catharines. “Musical Moments to Remember” is this year’s Grande Parade theme, and it is only fitting that Niagara’s own Walk of Fame and Grammy Award winner Walter Ostanek is this year’s Grande Parade Marshal.

You’ll find everything from ice wines and crisp chardonnays to maturing merlots and pinot noirs. Some of the better places to tour and taste at include: Hillebrand Estates Winery, Inniskillin Wines, Jackson-Triggs Niagara Estate Winery, Konzelman Estate Winery, Peller Estates Winery, Stonechurch Vineyards and Strewn Estate Winery. You’ll want to learn the limit on wine you can bring back through Customs before you plan your day. It’s that time of year again! Time to take part in the time-honoured ritual of being among the first to taste Niagara’s new vintage. 2007, dozens of Niagara’s most celebrated winemakers will be on hand, along with a host of chefs who will entice you with fabulous dishes, painstakingly selected to compliment the wine. With tours, tastings and culinary extravaganzas to entice your inner gourmand, it promises to be an unforgettable celebration of Ontario’s newest wines.
There truly is no better time to explore the 15,000 acres of vineyards in the Niagara Region than during the annual Grape & Wine Festival. The Niagara Grape & Wine Festival is actually a series of seasonal wine festivals in the Niagara region. The Niagara Icewine Festival, the Niagara New Vintage Festival, and the Niagara Wine Festival attract many visitors every year.