Grape and Wine Tours

Fun afternoon tour (1 – 5 p.m.) with a friendly and knowledgeable driver in a reasonably comfortable 6-​seater van. We stopped at four wineries ranging from very large, family owned empires with amazing storefronts and 50+ acres of land, to relatively new wineries which had been recently bought or sold with tiny stores and a mere 8 acres, for example. Each has its pros and cons, so it was nice to visit a variety. The office location is centrally located in beautiful Niagara on the Lake, encouraging exploration before or after the tour. Wine-​wise, we probably had 4 glasses each in total, with one small plate of cheese, which was satisfactory by my measure. Others might get more or less depending on the size of the group. We had just 4 which meant personalized attention and perhaps more generous portions. Of course, bartenders have a pour limit, but in some places one can move to another area of the bar for more samples. Pillitteri and Reif were highlights among the large establishments, but the smaller alternatives lent more charm.

My wife’s cousin gave my wife and I a gift certificate that they couldn’t use to checkout the Afternoon Delight tour. Now I have been going up to Canada for wine tasting for close to 15 years but never did an actual tour, and after doing this one, I would say you should experience it as least once.
Booking was seamless, as I called and they were able to look up the info on the gift certificate. We were told to meet them at their hub for pickup and we would go from there. When we got there they were very accomodating getting us registered and having some cheese and chocolate to start. We met up with our Tour Guide Kim and driver Rob. Both were excellent throughout the whole trip. We got teamed up with two Bridal shower parties and two other couples for 20 people on the tour altogether. Which really was enough people to have a good time as a group while still remaining intimate.
We were taken to 3 wineries, Diamond Estates, Cattail Creek, and Konzelmann Estate Winery. They were basically a large, small and medium winery. The time we had at each place was really just about perfect. We had a private tasting with a host from the wineries filling us in on some background on the history of the wineries themselves, the growing region, or the specific wine we were tasting. Then we had some time to check out the shops and buy some wines (or taste a bit more if you’re a lush like myself). They kept an eye on our bottles as we then headed off to the next place.
The tour itself lasted from 1:30 to about 5:15pm and while I actually didn’t know how long it was going to be until we got there, and I then thought wow thats a little long for three wineries, really the old saying hung true and time flew by as we had so much fun. So even as a seasoned wine taster I thought the tour was fantastic. Could be just as fun for someone new to the experince who wants to devle deeper into the world of wine.

I had so much fun on this tour!
Dave was a very professional, experienced and knowledgeable tour guide! And kept us entertained for hours with his many stories hehe: D He was also a very responsible driver *thumbs up* and I really appreciate all the times that he helped us carry out the truck-​load of wines that we all bought, much thanks!
Great choices on the wineries/​vineyards! Learned so much about the history of each place we visited, the behind-​the-​scenes, and a lot of fun facts about Niagara-​on-​the-​lake! We visited 6 places in total… each had their own unique stories and very unique-​tasting wines! Overall, a very memorable day :)
1. Diamond Estate Winery
— One of the 2 wineries in Niagara that offer Cabernet Sauvignon Icewine #tasty!
— Best known for: 20 Bees, Fresh, Dan Aykroyd Wine XD
2. Trius Winery at Hillibrand
— Huge winery w/​a top notch in-​house restaurant… amazing food/​service/​ambiance!
— Best known for: Icewine: D but it can range from $ 85 — $ 200 o_​o
** Lunch at Riverbend Inn & Vineyard **
— Included in our wine tour, a 3 course lunch, overlooking the beautiful vineyard: D
— I had arugula salad, mushroom risotto, and warm caramelized bread pudding #yum!
3. Riverview Cellars Winery
— Small family-​owned winery… I can really feel the passion from the owner :)
— Best known for: Fontana series! Welcome to the #FontanaFanClub
4. Konzelmann Estate Winery
— German wine maker… wines tend to be sweeter :)
— Best known for: Peach wine: D
5. Small Talk Vineyards
— It used to be Stonechurch Winery but they are re-​branding to Small Talk
— Best know for: Small Talk series, Top Secret (white wine blend of blanc de noir)
6. Between The Line Family Estate Winery
— Unfortunately, they don’t sell any of their wines at LCBO… so, MUST VISIT: D
— Best known for (according to me!): Cabernet Franc Icewine (it tasted like strawberries, and best paired w/​blue cheese!)
I’m looking forward to do this again during winter/​Christmas times… hopefully they will have icewine tours available! #loveicewine #superexcited #alcoholicsunite #toomuchfun Until next time :)

I almost always judge a book by its cover. A website that is ugly or difficult to navigate tells me that either you know it’s bad and you can’t be bothered to do better or you don’t know it’s bad which tells me that you’re out of touch with a host of other things as well. In the case of Grape and Wine Tours, I decided to look past the poor website design and amateur layout problems because the office staff were very quick to reply to my email inquiry, very friendly, and very accommodating. I should have listened to my gut.
Where to start… Three of us booked a full day tour with lunch (for my birthday!). We were picked up precisely on time, so that’s a positive thing. However, the fellow who picked us up seemed sort of flustered and told us that he wasn’t a guide but that he was filling in because our guide didn’t show up for work. Warning! Warning! I’m sure that was the truth, but telling us meant that a) we now had to think that he knew nothing about anything and b) the company sounded like it was run by a bunch of high school kids. Neither idea inspired confidence.
Our first stop was not far away from our hotel. Happily, while we were touring that winery, someone found us an actual guide to take over from the first fella. I use the term «guide» loosely here; it would be more accurate to refer to him as our «driver». He was perfectly pleasant, but had no knowledge about or passion for wine, and didn’t offer much in the way of information or actual guidance. I wasn’t shocked by this, but it was a bit disappointing all the same.
Other issues: Prior to booking the tour I spoke with the office person about my need for a gluten-​free meal. She assured me that this was not an issue and that they would simply let the restaurant know ahead of time. They didn’t. It worked out fine because the server at the restaurant had it together and was very helpful, but, with a fixed menu, it could easily have gone poorly. Points off for the tour company.
Also prior to booking, I had a back and forth about which wineries the tour visited. We really really were not interested in visiting four big, soulless wineries. We’re much more interested in small, quirky wineries. I researched a few tour companies and pretty much all of them said the same thing: they visit one large winery, one medium sized winery, and two smaller wineries. Which we were willing to accept.
But one of the things that swayed my decision to book with this company was that the office person told me that we could put in a request to visit this one particular winery that I was interested in. Sold! Of course, that visit didn’t happen. I recognize that on a tour I can’t make all the decisions, and I was sacrificing the autonomy to choose for the ease of having someone else drive us around. But I booked with this company in part because they told me we could visit this winery, and we didn’t. Not only did we not visit that winery, but we drove past it. Twice. And the driver offered no explanation for why we weren’t visiting. Just ignored it as an option. Colour me annoyed.
What made that exclusion sting even more was the fact that the very last «winery» we visited was terrible. Completely terrible. It’s a big huge winery, but not even one of the beautiful big wineries. Visiting the large scale wineries can be nice because they’re so very lovely. Not so with this one, which seemed like sort of a clearinghouse of wineries — they carried four different wine labels at the ’boutique’, all of which are available at the LCBO. Nothing special about that at all. And the physical space was just unattractive. There was a giant building in which the wine is made, which looked like any industrial factory from the outside (we didn’t go in). And the store/​tasting room was in… a portable? I think that’s the only word for that sort of structure. They were clearly still constructing a more permanent building. I say ‘clearly’ because you couldn’t miss the noise and the smell of sawdust was prominent. And the wine was terrible. Which we already knew because you can buy all of the wines from the LCBO. Nothing interesting, pretty, or compelling about this place at all. I know that the tour company doesn’t control the behaviour of the wineries we visit, but they did make a decision to take us here, and I fault them for that. The place I wanted to visit was less than five minutes away, which made visiting this one feel all the more like rubbing salt in a wound.
I’m not saying Grape and Wine Tours are a terrible company. Certainly not. They were prompt, pleasant, and the tour group was small (just my group and one other couple). But unprofessional, fully mediocre, and not able to keep promises? Yup. For sure. And since pretty much all the tour companies in the area offer variations on the same day or half day tours for the same price (90 – 100 $), I think you could do better for your money.