Featherstone Estate Winery

I really like Featherstone. They have a lovely little tasting room in an old farm house on the property, and in season they offer some artisanal meats and cheeses for consumption out on the veranda where you can get a lovely view of the vineyard and the sheep roaming the property.
They make some lovely wines here that offer a great expression of the Twenty Mile Bench, and while I won’t get deep and technical about them all, I will tell you a little about two of my favourites, the Black Sheep Riesling and the Black Sheep Merlot. Both are wonderful, clean, gentle expressions of the grapes. I like to think of the merlot as a light weight Pomerol and the riesling as a softer Rhine wine, and you get the feel for the place.
They recently introduced a sparkling wine, the Cuvee Joy, which is a surprisingly good methode traditionelle bubbly for the price point, and the judges at the All Canadian Wine Awards agreed by giving it first place!
Stop by and try them out and see what you think.

Different than your typical winery, but in a good way. I went with my parents and my boyfriend, and my mom had booked a table on the veranda about a week in advance. When we arrived, they had apparently lost our reservation. It wasn’t a huge deal since there were still plenty of tables available, but to make up for it, we were given a complimentary glass of their sparkling wine. We ordered 4 different cheeses and 4 different meats, along with the hummus and dukkah, and of course wine. Everything was absolutely delicious and it was plenty of food for the 4 us to nibble on. It was such a nice, relaxing afternoon, just sitting on the veranda, sipping wine, overlooking the vineyard. They also ‘employ’ sheep to eat the bottom of the wines and that produces better wine. If you step over the electric fence (you’re allowed), you can go see the sheep and the ducks which live on the property. The sheep really want nothing to do with you, though. I’m not a huge wine person, I really can’t tell the difference between most, but we left with 6 bottles, so I guess that’s saying something.

We came here for the Niagara New Vintage Wine Festival, which was an awesome time! The staff here was incredible, they were very welcoming and enjoyable to have a conversation with, really enhancing my time here. The wine offered was really delicious. They gave two samples for the festival, one was their new Rose which would be a super awesome summer wine, really crisp, light, and refreshing. The second was a late harvest Cab Franc, somewhat akin to an ice wine, but not quite as sweet or syrupy, certainly strongly recommended.
The real highlight was the food they offered. A grilled angel food cake topped with strawberries that were out of this world delicious. They were giving out the recipe for the strawberries and we can’t wait to try it at home. They also offered some bleu cheese with cherries that was also tasty, but not quite as memorable.
We were told on the way in that they harvest wine in a very earth-​friendly fashion, bringing in sheep to eat the low-​hanging fruit and help fertilize the fields. Apparently, they also serve these lamb for dinner in a local restaurant.