As planned I came back to the Pillitteri Estate Winery. I was accompanied by my wife Elizabeth and visitors from Germany to do some actual wine tasting and to buy some wine which was made with local grown grapes.
Naturally, nobody expected to do the "extensive wine tasting" which I did years ago at a friends wine store in Germany. He always prepared a special tomato soup for me when he knew I was coming and also had some special snacks available. Times have changed there too and laws became much stricter everywhere.
Francine, the nice and very friendly lady who gave me a few days before a tour through the winery welcomed all of us and explained in which sequence we should try a few of the best know wines of Pillitteri.
All wines were certified to the strict regulations of the Vintners Quality Alliance (VQA).
We started with two samples of white wine. Elizabeth, is not allowed to drink alcohol because she is on a certain medication which would interfere. So she got samples of none alcoholic fruit wine which was made also in the Niagara region, but not from Pillitteri.
After having enjoyed the white wine, we had a small sip of water and proceeded with two samples of red wine. So far I loved every wine I had tasted.
Francine explained all the features of the wines we got presented. I loved these information and even more the taste of the wines.
The liqueur stores do not offer this kind of service! So my recommendation to go to a winery for tasting before buying wine from Ontario is correct, more fun and also informative.

The wine tasting area is pretty small. I had told Elizabeth about all the jams, spreads, fruits and other things which she can discover here. I knew she would have loved to participate in the testing of real wine and was glad that she strolled with her generous sample of red none alcoholic wine through the store instead of suffering by seeing us trying the real thing.

Sampling normal wine is free. Don't miss the chance to try some of the best Icewine available for little money.
Even being a diabetic I did not want to miss that. I had Icewine years ago, but I had forgotten how it tastes. It was wonderful.
Naturally, I did not buy any because I would have to drink it alone and could end in a diabetic shock - But our visitors added a few bottles to their purchase of white and red wine.

We bought small green and blue grapes - both from Ontario which I love. Health snacks and non alcoholic red wine for Elizabeth and real good real red wine where even I could taste the oak from the barrel.
We can sit down together and pretend that we both drink the same.
In Europe alcoholic apple cider is very popular in certain regions. I purchased apple cider close to Simcoe. It was delicious but was non alcoholic. I still hope that somebody learns to make the real apple cider and good fruit juices similar to those which we import from Italy or Spain.