Angels Gate Winery Review

Today Rick & I decided to hit the road and visit our first winery since we started this blog (of course, we have been to many wineries before itsfridaysowine.com came into existence).

Angels Gate Winery is a Canadian winery located in the Niagara Peninsula wine region of Ontario. The winery was founded in 1999 and is known for producing high-quality wines using sustainable vineyard practices. Angels Gate Winery produces a range of wines including Chardonnay, Riesling, Pinot Gris, Cabernet Franc, and Merlot. The winery’s tasting room is open to visitors year-round and features a selection of wines for tasting and purchase. Although they do not host events like weddings, we understand that this will be a future service.

Slideshow

Ada—

The winery was beautiful. The inside was dreamy creamy white with soaring ceilings, overlooking the vineyards. I loved the packaging and labeling of the wines, they nailed it. There was a strange random rule where if you sampled from one set menu, you could sit down on a patio under a flowering wisteria. However, if you sampled from another menu, you had to stay at the bar. When I asked the rationale, the reasoning didn’t make sense ( you have to stay here in case you have questions…???). My suggestions to improve the experience would be a) have some seating at the bar b) provide charms to put in the wine to better identify them (for example with numbers on them) there was a little confusion as to which was which, although we figured it out c) link the numbers on the charms to the menu and provide a little bit of back ground on the wines, the type of grapes etc.  the only descriptions were, for example, “Oaked, dry”. 

The wines we tasted were delicious and we ended up buying a bunch, which at a certain spend, the tasting was free, so this was a very good deal and nice way to try several different wines. We actually each tasted 4, so we had a good cross section to try.

.

My rating-

Rick— The grounds were beautiful. We could see Toronto across the lake, and sprawling vineyards up close. There were also a lot of manicured lawns surrounding. I would have preferred to see those areas planted with native/pollinator-friendly gardens.

Although the wines we tasted were very nice, they really need to work on their tasting experience. It was a bit lacking in execution and knowledge transfer. I also would have liked to see some of their operational areas.

My rating-

Here’s the tasting we opted for–

Angels Gate Public Tastings

Group size:  Enjoy a tasting for up to 6 guests

Length of tasting:  15 minutes

Wines available:  An assortment of wines

Date:  Daily from 11 am until 4:30 pm

Cost:  $15/per person and includes 3 (1oz) samples and may be refundable with purchase

Our Takeaway

We ended up buying just over $100 worth of wine from Angels Gate. By doing that, we got our tastings for free. Here’s what we purchased:

• Syrah (Mountainview)
• Cabernet Franc (Mountainview)
• Riesling (Angels Step)
• Sauvignon Blanc
• Pinot Gris

Finding Angels Gate Winery

It was about a 45-minute drive from where we live to Angels Gate Winery. This area is where the vineyard region in Niagara begins, coming from the west. From here east, it’s solid vineyards and some fruit tree orchards. all the way to Niagara Falls.

I’ll also mention there were many other wineries right in the neighborhood, so you can pick and choose. One I saw I definitely want to go to was called Organized Crime – LOL.