Lake Erie North Shore Wineries

A little over two years ago, our friends across the border took us on quite the wine tour along the Lake Erie North Shore and Pelee Island appellations in Essex County, Ontario.  During that tour, we hit up 7 of the wineries, including:

• Aleksander Estate Winery
• Mastronardi Estate Winery
• Muscedere Vineyards
• Colio Estate Wines
• Colchester Ridge Estate Winery (Crew)
• Viewpointe Estate Winery
• Pelee Island Winery

Back in 2008 with Tara and Brian, we visited two other wineries in the same region

• Sanson Estate Winery 
• D'Angelo Vineyards Estate Winery

Today, we ventured back across the border for what we thought was just a simple lunch at Oxley Estate Winery, but the same Canadian friends - Mike and Sandy - did some good work showing us more of their growing wine region.  Below you'll find our play-by-play at each winery.  

We started at Oxley for lunch where they basically had two options: a Steak Lyonaise with fried onion wings, shallots & mushrooms and a demi-glace, with Lyonnaise potatoes or a grilled chicken caesar salad and navy bean & ham soup.  While Sandy was the odd woman out selecting the grilled chicken caesar with the soup, the rest of us, including some friend's of Mike and Sandy chose the steak, even me!  All of us cleared our plates as this meal more than lived up to its description. It tasted very much like it was farm-to-table, and we devoured it while moving our way through sampling some of Oxley's wines.

The winery itself was located off a gravel, dirt road not far from Lake Erie in a very modern house.  The interior offered an open area for wine tasters, a small dining room with about 5-6 tables, and an upstairs for what I imagine was used for group events or weddings.  The house offered a lot of light which worked out quite well today with the sun warming us up.  I'm not sure if the land overlooking the lake was taken, but it's a shame that the view is just out to what looks to be a fun patio area for the summer instead of the lake.

We tried the following wines (bold ones received a check and a fist pump, red ones we purchased!):

• '11 Rose
• '11 Cabernet Franc
• '11 Chardonnay
• '11 Pinot Noir

After spending a good few hours stuffing ourselves at Oxley, we drove over to Cooper's Hawk Vineyards to do some more sampling (and purchasing).  Most of these wineries are within 5-10 minute drives from each other and about 45-1 hour away from the Detroit-Windsor border, thus, there's no reason not to try at least 2-3 while you're out here.  On the outside, Cooper's Hawk seemed like an industrial warehouse; however, inside we received a warm greeting in their tasting room.  This winery is run by a female winemaker, and she's done some fine work with the wines.  We really enjoyed the Riesling which had the perfect balance of sweet and crisp freshness.  But make no mistake, she also knows how to make some good reds, especially after they've aged.  Even the Rose here impressed me, but that could have been because of the tasty dark chocolate that accompanied it.

At Cooper's Hawk, we tried the following wines (bold ones received a check and a fist pump, red ones we purchased!):

• '11 Riesling
• '11 Merlot Cabernet
• '11 Merlot Cabernet Reserve
• '09 Pinot Noir
• '08 Cabernet Merlot Reserve
• '11 Rose (with a piece of chocolate)

The next stop was to Sprucewood Shores Estate Winery located within steps of Lake Erie in a beautiful mansion-eque building.  Inside, we met a friendly gentleman who poured us samples and even helped us out by opening some crackers that we all eyed.  

At Sprucewood Shores, we tried the following wines (bold ones received a check and a fist pump, red ones we purchased!):

• '10 Pinot Noir
• '08 Merlot Reserve
• '10 Cabernet Sauvignon
• '08 Meritage
• '10 Lady in Red

Our tour ended over at North 42 Degrees Estate Winery where we piled into a "wee" tasting room that shared some space with their neighboring store.  The store sold a lot of natural lavender products.  While they only offered 4 wines (all of which were whites at the moment), Scottie and I shared sampling.  They did offer a unique comparison of two of their Gewürztraminers.  The '11 "is a full-bodied dry wine that is delicious, fruity with flavors of apricot, lychee and baking spices."  The '12 "is a  actually quite weighty and has a superbly rich mouthfeel.  The nose displays intense complexity; orange blossoms, exotic lychee and lavender.  Young guava plays on the tongue and is rounded by delicate honeysuckle and then finishes with compelling spices."  When we tasted, we found the '11 to be lighter than the sweeter '12.  

At North 42 Degrees, we tried the following wines (bold ones received a check and a fist pump, red ones we purchased!):

• '11 Gewurztraminer
• '12 Gewurztraminer
• '12 Riesling

We concluded the day back at Mike and Sandy's for some good old Windsor Italian-style pizza.  I don't think a trip across the border would be complete without at least some Italian food in our belly's (and of course, some of their wine).  Thanks again to our hosts for another good tour across the border!  And a bonus thank-you to poor Sandy who couldn't really drink much due to #2 along the way.  What a trooper!

More pictures from our tour here (including one noting that at the border, we may be charged $0.20/bottle for any over 2 that we carry over.  Lucky for us, the border patrol was more interested in me being from Missouri than the amount of wine in our trunk!).