Checking out a beautiful sunset from the Marriott Harborcenter from a 43 North event this past week.
A haunted hayride, beer and a bonfire. Becker Farms seems to have it all when it comes to fall activities.
I have been sick all week - so when I came across these cute little messages on my Halls wrappers it made me feel a little better {corny and a little childish I know}.
I still can't get over how pretty Griffis Sculpture Park is. I can't wait to go back.
Like we have done for the past few years, my friend Karen hosted her annual birthday wine tour on the Niagara Wine Trail this past Saturday. While we have been to all of the wineries I'm about to mention before, this time I tried to take a different approach on each place... instead of going to just drink, I observed more -picking out what I liked, didn't like, etc. about each place. While I am no wine expert, below is my review.
I'd love to get to the Finger Lakes and do a comparison of wine trails in the months ahead.
Cheers!
-B
Honeymoon Wine Trail - while it is nice and cozy with the fireplace, I won't purchase wine or tasting from this winery. After what I think was poor customer service, I decided that even if we go there I won't support a business that I think needs some attitude adjustments.
I will mention they did have an artist painting this wine barrel which was pretty cool to see, but she was set up right by the bar area making it a little crammed when groups came in for tastings.
On my top 3 wineries on the Niagara Wine Trail: Niagara Landing Wine Cellar. I love just about all of their wines {minus the chocolate one}. I love the wine bottles, the layout of the winery and you can't beat the price - $3 for 6 tastings, that's a deal to me!
Perfect idea for those couples looking for something to do on Valentine's Day weekend...
Part of the wine trail group!
So many options to choose from...
Schulze Vineyards, while I'm indifferent with this winery, I used my tastings on a lot of their red wine, but did sample the Chardonnay last which was pretty good. The only winery that uses the nicest wine glasses to sample from, the tasting room was nice and clean, along with their bathrooms.
Freedom Run, this made the top of my list of favorite wineries. Not only because I love their barn they use for private functions and weddings, the customer service was amazing. While I don't know the gentleman's name who poured are wine, he was the nicest and most informational man I've met on all of the tours I've been on. Not only was the staff great, but it was a spacious tasting room with unique seats made from wine barrels.
You can't beat the sweet and hot pepper relish and apple butter snacks they had out as well.
Becker Farms, you can't go wrong there, while I opted out of the wine at this stop I ordered a pint of the Winter Ale {I believe that is what it was called}. It was a nice stop and I love all the areas where you can walk outside.
The last stop of the day was at Leonard Oakes, while I liked a majority of their wine and the layout of the tasting room, I didn't like are pourer. I felt like she was a little rude and hurried us along. Offering not only wine, but beer flights as well I thought the flights were a little on the higher price {$8 for 4 5oz. samples}.
A couple weekends ago my sister and niece went with me to pick out pumpkins like we normally do this time of year. Instead of going to the Great Pumpkin Farm in Clarence like we normally do, we decided to go to Becker Farms and change it up a little. While I enjoy Becker Farms for their winery and brewery, I was really disappointed in the service {or lack there of} when it came to the children's area and pumpkin barn.
While every other area was open and ready to go, the area to pick your pumpkins and pay was closed and just opening {at 12:30pm} when we were ready to check out. If you wanted to pay you had to lug your pumpkins to the country store to pay for them. To top it off the staff {if you could find them} was rude and not helpful when it came to answering questions and it made for a not so fun time and us regretting our decision to just go to the Great Pumpkin Farm. The pumpkins were overly priced costing us $33 for 5 of them, that I could have gotten cheaper somewhere else.
So even though I like the winery and brewery on site, I think they should refocus on what they want to do next year. Sometimes its better to not have it all and focus on the areas you're good at. Sometimes less is more...
-B
Even though it was a disappointing experience, I did capture some pretty scenic shots while we were there.
{A smile on my face, even though the service wasn't so good}
...Called Buffalo
