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the good earth food & wine Co. F a l l 2 0 1 4 | g o i n g p l a c e s 35 perfect-pour carafes and special-edition pucks for the hockey-loving oenophile. We decide it's warm enough for scoops of pistachio and fi g gelato from Nina's Gelateria and Pastry Shop, then head to the local gazebo five minutes away. e pretty, white-painted structure was built for the David Cronenberg fi lm e Dead Zone, then donated to the town. Peckish again by noon, we head to Trius Winery at Hillebrand – one of the largest pro- ducers of VQA wines in Ontario – for its farmers' market brunch. Executive chef Frank Dodd was a regional winner at Gold Medal Plates, the Canadian Culinary Championship. His restaurant feels Zen, with leafy plants, oak floors, floor-to-ceiling glass windows and a partition wall encasing neat towers of bottles. is style carries over into the clean geometric arrangement of his charcuterie platter, which comes with smoked salmon, soft-yolked duck egg, golden beet pickles and charcuterie, all either sliced or moulded into perfect disks. Chef Dodd doesn't just treat wine as an accompaniment to dishes, but as a key ingredi- ent. He adds icewine to jelly, onion marmalade and beets; he makes parfait with sparkling white; he even blends Trius red into the butter served with our bread rolls. After brunch, we head upstairs to the Loft – a charcoal-walled space with its own bar, just above the more traditional and open tasting room with its barrel tables and oak cabinetry. We're wrapping up this weekend with a guided bubbly tasting. is feels fi ttingly celebratory, yet our wine consultant (a.k.a. Sparkler God- dess) Rahzia Neufeld wants us to rethink spar- kling wine's reputation as a toast drink. " ere are certain days I'd not be in the mood for red or white, but I'm always in the mood for bub- bles," she says. "It's light and easy to sip with almost everything." e light catches Neufeld's crystal earrings and two crystal necklaces as she pours spar- kling tasters, moving from the lightest to the heaviest options, via pink. She off ers samples of Trius Brut Sparkling Sauvignon Blanc. "Our winemaker, Craig McDonald, is Australian, so he likes working with Sauvignon Blanc," Neufeld explains. A local couple we've been chatting with signs up for the Trius Wine Club. Every month for the coming year, they'll get a bottle of both red and white delivered to their door with tast- ing notes from the winemaker and recipes from the chef. It's the perfect souvenir – and con- fi rms my parting theory: the pleasures in Niag- ara-on-the-Lake's wineries only begin in the tasting room. www.winecountryontario.ca GP • A $27 Winemakers' Selections Tasting Pass allows you to try one glass, from a curated selec- tion, at each of Niagara-on-the-Lake's 27 wineries. www.wineriesofniagaraonthelake.com • Register for cooking demos and the Good Girth Supper Club at The Good Earth Food & Wine Co. www.goodearthfoodandwine.com • Check the October 2014 calendar at Southbrook Vineyard for harvest tours with brunch from farm- to-table food truck The Yellow Pear. www.southbrook.com • Book a cheese and wine tasting on weekends at Ravine Vineyard. www.ravinevineyard.com • Complement your sparkling tasting session with a guided tour of the vines and sparkling wines cellar at Trius at Hillebrand. www.triuswines.com OLD TOWN MUST-DOS • In the cocoa-scented boutique storefront at Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, watch staff pour chocolate and snap toffee brittle. www.rockychoc.com • At Kurtz Culinary Creations, sample dips, vinegars, mustards, icewine syrup and other artisanal winery goodies from the Niagara region and pick up cookbooks by local chefs. www.kurtzorchards.com • Catch a play at Shaw Festival Theatre, which stages works by George Bernard Shaw and the playwrights he inspired. Until October 26. www.shawfest.com –V.H. TOP PICKS from the Vines