By Richard Reichert

We had another excellent experience that I want to share with readers. We drove into the parking lot of Fielding Estates Winery and got out of our car. As we approached the entrance to the wine shop we were greeted by staff who were waiting for us almost as if we were family. They held the door open for us and welcomed us with a warmth and personal charm that I will never forget. The staff were young (probably 1st or 2nd year university) but they showed a level of knowledge and professionalism that I have rarely seen. They let us try a sample of their wines which were still not ready for sale and asked us for opinions of it.

The building above is called the Wine Lodge. It is a Haliburton cottage styled structure made of cedar, glass and stone. The wine shop and wine production facilities are located here. The property is located on the slopes of the Beamsville Bench and is next to East Dell Estates Winery.

The owners, Ken and Marg Fielding spent a good portion of their lives in Haliburton cottage country (thus the reason for the design of the Wine Lodge)and are very comfortable with people having spent 25 years in the fast food industry. Believe me, it really showed well in the staff they hired to service customers. They have a son Curtis who is General Manager and handles the business operations and his wife Heidi is Hospitality manager.

The wine shop.

The wines do not get distributed to many places primarily because the batch lots of wine that are made are small in volume. Essentially you can get them at the winery itself or at small number of restaurants that are listed on Fielding Estates Winery's website.

The wine production area in the Wine Lodge.

A view of the vineyard from the balcony. This vineyard is twenty acres in size. They have another vineyard near Lake Ontario of forty acres from which twenty are planted. Varieties grown are Chardonnay, Pinot Gris and Riesling for whites and Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Syrah and Pinot Noir for reds. Low yields are grown in order to concentrate flavour and produce a higher quality end product.

Realistically, circumstances came together that allowed us to experience the best visit to a winery since we have started going to them. All I can say is that if anyone visiting Fielding Estates winery gets treated half as well as we were, they will make a point to return another time.

Copyright 2006 Richard Reichert of Wine Dining .net