Warming up to winter at the 2016 Niagara Icewine Festival

If there’s one bonus to staying in the northern clime of Ontario, Canada in mid-January rather than heading south, it’s the opportunity to indulge in icewine, gourmet cuisine and spectacular winter scenery of Wine Country Ontario. Sure, it can get bone-chillingly cold but that’s just a reminder of what it means to be a real Canadian and is all the more reason to warm up with some VQA icewine.

Brrr…but beautiful! View of the American Falls from Niagara Falls in winter

In fact,  when researching a story for MasterCard’s Priceless Cities in 2015, I enjoyed the Niagara Icewine Festival so much I decided to buy a warmer parka and return again in 2016. Check out my story on Chill out at the Niagara Icewine Festival: To Do List for an Unforgettable Winter Weekend for a rundown on what not to miss.

Here are a few of the highlights of what’s happening at the Niagara Icewine Festival in 2016.

I couldn’t agree more with the sentiments of this Ice sculpture of Ontario cheese

Xerox Icewine Gala: This swanky evening (taking place on January 15, 2016) is an opportunity to sample rare icewines, dance to live music, indulge in fabulous cuisine and gawk at Niagara Falls lit up in its technicolour glory.  The event happens at the Fallsview Casino Resort so if you stay at the Hilton Fallsview you can wear your sparkliest clothing and walk through the handy connecting link without having to wear your winter boots and parka.  When the event wraps up, you can even pop into the casino and try your hand at the slot machines. I’m notorious for losing money as fast as I can pull the slot machine handle but the flashing lights, opulent architecture and ching-ching of everyone else winning big bucks does make an exciting wrap-up to the night.

Ice wine? Yes, please.

20 Valley Icewine Festival:   You’ll want to bundle up for this event held in the pretty town of Jordan Village, conveniently located just off the QEW, between January 15 and 17th.  If you haven’t been to the Twenty Valley area before, it’s worth staying an extra night so you can hike to the pretty Balls Falls waterfalls, explore the quaint shops and make several stops at the Upper Canada Cheese Company until you’ve eaten so many free samples of artisanal cheese that they ask you to leave. (Stock up on Niagara Gold – a buttery French-style semi-firm cheese). Once you arrive in Jordan, you’ll be pleased to see handy shuttle buses to take you from the parking lots to the festival itself. We parked at the Jordan Firehall at 3763 19th Street Jordan and walked in an attempt to wear off a few calories from the previous evening’s gala.

Once there, make a quick stop to purchase your drink and food tokens (and a photo-op with one of the ice sculptures) before heading into the warming tent. Tokens are a bargain at $2.00 each and most items cost just two or three tokens. With 25 food and wine stations to choose from, it’s tough to narrow it down to just a few but last year, we indulged in preserved peaches, ate wood-fired pizza and sampled a variety of delicious VQA icewines.  If you miss the Twenty Valley Winter Winefest, equally pretty Niagara-on-the-Lake is having their street festival on January 23 and 24, 2016.

Use your Discovery pass to sample wine and food combos at the Niagara Wine Festival

Discovery Pass: To wrap up the balance of January, you can continue your Niagara Icewine celebrations with the purchase of a Discovery Pass, a magical passport that allows you to visit as many wineries as you can pack into a weekend on a variety of wine routes through the Niagara Wine Country Region on weekends from January 15-31, 2016. Each passport offers a deliciously inventive food and wine pairing ( there are non-alcoholic choices for drivers) at participating wineries. Some of the exciting combos in the culinary line-up for 2016 include Chicken and Waffles, spread with Riesling Icewine Butter at Iniskillin Winery as well as the crowd-pleasing fave, the opportunity to roast an icewine marshmallow over an open fire at Pellar Estates. I know I’m going to have a hard time tearing myself away from the cheesy chile con queso nachos topped with crumbled bacon and blue cheese at Fielding Winery or the Late Harvest Vidal tucked inside a Chocolate-dipped Strawberry Cup at Pondview Estate Winery. for even more tempting options, check out the entire list of 2016 food and wine at the Discovery Pass Listings.

Interested in more news about the Niagara Icewine Festival? Follow me during the event on Twitter and Instagram at @atastefortravel.

For more ideas on how to enjoy  Ontario in the winter or summer, check out these posts on:

Celebrate Winter at  Le Scandinave Spa at Blue Mountain 

Icewine and Cycling at Niagara on the Lake, Ontario 

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