As promised yesterday, I finally got to the photos I took while on the road trip with my son James. The camera I had with me was a spare – my business partner having taken the good Nikon with her to Edmonton. I apologise for the poor quality of the images. Here they are:

As we drove along the Niagara Parkway between Niagara Falls and the Town of Niagara-On-The-Lake, there were signs like this identifying the various winery estates. Most of these wineries are relatively small and family owned. I passed a number of wineries along the road, but on a whim, decided to visit this one.

The above is an image of the Riverview Estates store and facility. As well as two wine tasting rooms, stocked with a variety of their wines, Riverview also has a small area at the front where fresh local fruit may be purchased. As well as the wine I purchased, I also bought a pint of delicious blackberries.

Shortly after arriving, we discovered owner commencing a guided tour of the operation with guests. James and I kind of snuck up to listen while taking photos of the area. Both ____ and his tour guests graciously invited us to continue with the tour if we wanted. And of course, we wanted!

This is an image of a bottling machine. This particular image was taken while visiting the Lakeview Estates vineyard, but Riverview has exactly the same set up, only less cluttered. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to see this machine in action, but it fills the bottles, corks them and seals them.

These are the stainless steel holding tanks for wine as it ages. Temperature may be controlled with the use of an external device that is placed against the tank. I didn’t get all the details on this, perhaps next time.

Another tank that is used for holding wine.

Riverview Estates ages their red wine (and one of their whites) in these oak barrels. Although they are not cheap, the barrels are replaced every three years. Perhaps one day, I’ll have the room to have a couple of these babies in my wine making area!

While exploring the vineyard, these are the grapes we came across that were closest to us as we walked a bit. These are Pinot Noir varietal grapes. Between now and harvest time, they won’t get much bigger than their present size.

My son James is about 5′10″. The grape vines are quite a bit taller than he is! It was quite interesting to see how grape vines are cultivated, and the description of harvesting provided by Mike was very interesting. I hope I can get back there during harvest season to see how it is done, without having to use my imagination.

And for those that want to see what Niagara Falls looks like on a windy day with lots of mist in the air:

I have more pictures, but they turned out worse then the ones above. Next visit, I’ll be sure to take along the better camera, or have figured out how to use this one!

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