THE SOPHISTICATED WINO - Sue-Ann Staff Estate Winery
August 19, 2016


January 2026

 

Niagara Grape & Wine Festival

ICEWINE DISCOVERY PASS

January 30-Feb 1

Get ready for a self-guided tasting tour through Niagara’s most scenic vineyards! The Icewine Discovery Pass pairs world-class Icewines with spicy, savoury, or sweet bites from inspired local chefs — the perfect way to warm up your winter weekends.

Our offering? Tinga, Tango, Taco! Imagine a juicy, spicy Tinga de Pollo (chicken in a smoky tomato/chipotle sauce) tucked into a warm, soft corn tortilla, dressed with lime crema and a cilantro garnish. Paired with our 2018 Vidal Icewine, it’s a divine marriage of spice and ice!

Find all the information and tickets online at niagarawinefestival.com

 

 

February 2026

Every Day Is Valentine's Day: Wine & Chocolate Flight

$20 pp

Available daily February 2 to March 1, 2026

Treat yourself and your favourite person to a Wine & Chocolate Flight and explore how two of the tastiest things in the world work together!

Includes three wines and three chocolate treats. The best part? You get to choose your wines based on our recommendations!

Swiss Milk Chocolate paired with your choice of:

  • Fancy Farm Girl Frosty Fizz
  • Riesling Loved By Lu
  • Bank Barn Baco

Dark Chocolate Covered Cherries (from our Vineland neighbours Cherry Lane) paired with your choice of:

  • Fancy Farm Girl Flirty Bubbles 
  • Fancy Farm Girl Flamboyant Red
  • The Gritstone Cabernet

White Chocolate Coconut Almond Confection paired with your choice of:

  • Lavelle's Vidal
  • Fancy Farm Girl Foxy Pink
  • Howard's Icewine Vidal

$20 per person. Reservations highly recommended to ensure best service, but walk-ins are always welcome. Reserve now: https://www.sue-annstaff.com/collections/tasting-flights/products/everyday-is-valentines-day-wine-chocolate-flight

 

 


Lu & Lavelle Sweet Treat Tasting

$10 pp

Available daily February 2 to March 1, 2026

Celebrate long-lasting love with this sweet treat!

Sue-Ann's grandparents Lula and Lavelle were married for over 60 years and were honoured by having their favourite wines named after them.  Enjoy a tasting of both Riesling Loved By Lu and Lavelle's Vidal along with a little sweet treat.  

Only $10 per person. Available daily February 2 to March 1, 2026. Reservations highly recommended to ensure best service, but walk-ins are always welcome. https://www.sue-annstaff.com/collections/tasting-flights/products/lu-lavelle-sweet-treat-tasting

 


collage image of Sue-Ann Staff in winter, three Icewine bottles in the snow, and the wine shop door in the background, tinted blue.

FLIGHT OF THE ICE QUEEN: Icewine Tasting

$20 pp

Available daily February 6 to March 2, 2026

No one loves making Icewine like Sue-Ann. And that's why we call her the Ice Queen!

This February we are celebrating Canada's liquid gold with The Flight of the Ice Queen, a unique tasting of three of Sue-Ann's finest Icewines, including past, present and future releases! 

  • 2018 Howard's Icewine Vidal (future-release)
  • 2017 Howard's Icewine Vidal (current release)
  • 2012 Howard's Icewine Vidal (library wine) 

Your flight includes an ounce of each Icewine, and each wine is perfectly paired with a gourmet tidbit.

$20 per person.

Available daily February 6 to March 2, 2026

Reservations highly recommended to ensure best service, but walk-ins are always welcome.  https://www.sue-annstaff.com/collections/tasting-flights/products/ice-flight

 

 

SAVE THE DATE!

The Winter Wine Trail, a collaborative event with Sue-Ann Staff Estate WInery, 180 Estate Winery, Malivoire Wine Co., Cave Spring Vineyards and Fielding Estate Winery is set for March 7 & 8, 2026. Stay tuned for details! 

 



THE SOPHISTICATED WINO

 

Wine from a fourth-generation Fancy Farm Girl

By Shari Darling, The Peterborough Examiner

I just tasted a fun and fabulous off-dry rose produced in Niagara called Sue-Ann Staff Fancy Farm Girl (FFG) 2014 Foxy Pink, (CSPC 469338), $14.95, available at the LCBO Lansdowne West near The Parkway).

I like the name and label of this wine. Catchy. I feel like a fancy farm girl myself!  While not a farmer, I do enjoy renovating homes and wearing steel toed work boots.  I also sell makeup online and am blessed to operate a business in wine and food. 

So, there's some farm and fancy in my lifestyle, as well as in the lives of many of my girlfriends. 

One of my best friends, Cora Whittington, runs Golden Pathways B&B and Leadership Retreat. Cora and husband David operate a farm, all the while hosting fancy events at their retreat. They live a fancy farm life, too!

It's a fitting brand name. On her website Staff says, "Years back, while tending my family farm, I had a revelation. I loved the farm. This is my Paris, my Australia, my South Africa, my freedom. So I dress the part and enjoy life through the rose-coloured glasses of the fancy farm girl. The farm is a metaphor, the attire an approach. The reality? There is a fancy farm girl in all of us."

Under this brand you'll find four wines called Frivolous White, Flamboyant Red, Foxy Rose and Flirty Bubbles.

Staff is a fifth-generation grape grower. In 2002 she won the Ontario Wine Society's Ontario Winemaker of the Year Award. Staff studied winemaking at the University of Adelaide in Southern Australia, and she went on to make wine at the family's 200-year-old estate in Jordan, Ontario. Now with 450 national and international awards under her fancy belt, Staff now operates her own winery at 3210 Staff Avenue in Jordan (Lincoln), Ontario - http://sue-annstaff.com

The label itself is very feminine with shades of pink and lime green, created by artist Francesca Waddell. I'm drawn to the label.

As for the liquid inside the bottle"¦.it's a winning rose.  Interesting, different, and delicious.

FFG is a fun and well balanced rose with quite interesting character. The nose swirls with aromas of fresh orange and peach. The palate offers both orange and berry notes. This is due to the interesting blend of grapes - 90 per cent Riesling (white grape) and 10 per cent Cabernet Franc (red grape).

The blending of these varieties create a delicious, easy drinking rose with good weight, refreshing acidity, lovely flavours, and some sweetness (1 to 2 on the sugar code).  The sweetness is not over-riding because acidity balances it out.

Best of all this wine is low in alcohol (11 per cent), making it an afternoon sipper by the pool or lake. It's also the ideal quaffer for girl's night in!

A whole range of foods will work with this rose, such as fancy hors d'oeuvres celebrating tanginess, saltiness and gentle sweetness. Pair this wine with Radishes Filled with Salmon Roe (salty) and Lemon Cream (tangy) or Canapés with Smoked Salmon and Capers (salty).  

To prepare the most harmonizing cheese tray to pair with FFG, use Parmigiano-Reggiano (salty), Gorgonzola (salty and pungent), and Stilton with Mango and Ginger (sweet). 

Because of the wine's berry character and sweetness, this gem will complement fresh salads of greens sprinkled with blueberries and strawberries. Be sure to use a rice or white balsamic vinaigrette. Wine vinegar is too acidic and will make the wine's acidity taste rancid. 

Its off-dry quality will also work with both subtle sweet and spicy barbecue sauces for grilled chicken and ribs. Examples include St. Louis (tangy); Memphis (sweet and tangy); Kansas City (sweet and tangy); Char Sui (Chinese barbecue sauce that is sweet; Honey and Bourbon; barbecue rum sauce.

Shari Darling's books and other publications are available atunderstandpublishing.com


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