Niagara on the Lake - winery suggestions?

[thebulldog]

We are heading to Niagara Falls with my 72 year old mother for Columbus Day weekend (longer description below) - we were there in 2010 for the same time frame with DH's family and had a great trip. We have Inniskllin, brunch at Trius, a stop at the Gretzky distillery,  and looking at Peller Estates too. Any recommendations welcome for wineries, tours, "experiences" and dinner recs. 


(longer post)
Family lore dictates then when my mom was pregnant with my sister and I (twin power) they tried to drive to Niagara Falls from Illinois but she got too sick along the way and they turned around. My dad died five years ago and mom has not really been to anywhere besides Disney World for the first time last year and occasional day trips (our one family vacation growing up was Wisconsin Dells when I was in 4th grade). She has never left the country and got her pass port SPECIFICALLY so she go could see Niagara Falls (how adorable is this). She has limited mobility and uses a walker due to arthritis so I want to make this happen for her sooner rather than later. DH and I have been all over the world and I am happy that her first border crossing will be with us. We are just driving over from Buffalo and she is going to lose her mind. When I called to tell her i booked the plane tickets (I got her out of Chicago to connect on our exact flights out of BWI) she was full out giddy. 

This will be a much more touristy trip that we are used to but so be it. Because it is hard for her to walk a ton we got a falls view room at the Hilton right on the water-- we checked a bunch of the hotels along the water and this seemed to work best for us. 

We aim to hit the American falls and the Canada side stuff on Saturday (any recs for lunch?) and then do NOTL on Sunday. She has only been to wineries in Michigan and has not seen anything like this before. She likes wine but I am looking more for a cool experience for her than tasting the best of the best, which will be lost a bit on her. (Cooper Hawk is her favorite). 

We are going down the Google/Trip advisor road but wanted to check in here too. 

[bullygirl979]

I just went there in April. We had dinner at Treadwells and it was AMAZING. I'd definitely go back there. I really enjoyed Kitchen 76, but the menu was more my taste than my H's. We both enjoyed the Cannery for something more upscale and Farmhouse Cafe for casual. The winery attached to Farmhouse Cafe was just meh.

For wineries, other than what you have listed we liked Jackson-Trigg in that area. If you are willing to drive west a bit Hidden Bench was fantastic. They just won a bunch of awards including best winery in Ontario, 2nd best small winery in Canada, etc. The sommelier at Treadwells recommended HB and we were glad we made the drive. Tawse is right around the corner from Hidden Bench and we enjoyed that one a lot too.

[achi]

I live in Ontario about 1.5-2 hours from NOTL. We go often enough and I have opinions.

1. Konzlemann - started as a peach orchard and is now a winery - they make amazing peach wine on top of their regular ones
2. Trius - they make what is probably my favourite Riesling
3. Hernders - they have a super yummy wine slushy you can buy in store, and they sell other sauces and things. They make a hot sauce that they age in barrels and H says it's so good he just eats it off the back of his hand. It is not in NOTL proper, about a 20 minute drive but worth it IMO
4. Southbrook - kind of cool since it's on a marshy piece of land (is also just down the road from Trius)
5. Stoney Ridge - they have an amazing cheese selection onsite as well and you can have a checuterie (sp?) style lunch, but also not NOTL proper
6. Stratus - it's fancy

I like Jackson-Trigg and Peller Estates well enough, I just think they're kind of "been there, done that" and there's a lot of lesser-known options that are really amazing.

ETA - Hernders has a history of hiring female wine makes, which I like. And their Baco Noir is by far my favourite of any I've ever had.