Lailey Vineyard

This was the last winery we visited and the tasting guys (all pleasant young dudes) were super friendly and helpful. Our tasting dude kept encouraging us to taste different wines.
My favourite was their ice wine. I now regret that I didn’t buy a bottle. It was absolutely delicious.

On a trip to NOTL, we visited 8 different wineries in total and I think this is the one I liked the most. It’s smaller, so it felt friendly and inviting. The staff was instantly helpful and wanted to get to know us (asked where our group was from, what kind of wine we like, etc.). I tried the chardonnay because they said it was what they were known for, but I didn’t love it. I’m not a white wine drinker, so don’t take my advice on it. I also tried the syrah and cabernet and liked both. However, my Mom tried the ice wine (the $ 63 one, I can’t remember what it’s called), and I tried a sip of hers and it was delicious. The guy helping us gave a few of us a small sample of the more expensive one. Both were very good! I ended up buying the middle priced one and am excited to crack it open after a nice dinner.
I just felt like this winery was the most inviting and helpful. We received varying levels of service, but this one was the best. They gave us a ton of information about the wine, the shelf life of the bottles we bought, how to take care of them, etc. It was an all around great experience that our entire group enjoyed.

Ambience: 3.75÷5
As others have described it below the aesthetic is sleek and modern. However, there is limited space for visitors to move around inside. Basically, when you go inside you are facing the retail counter.
Wine: ³⁄₅
For the price, thought their Reds were nice but perhaps a bit over priced. Did pick up a Pinot.
Service: 2.5÷5
Found their staff to be very transactional.
Repeat: no

This was the first stop in our tradtional Canadian Thanksgiving weekend wine tasting tour and it set the bar for everyone else. Ed actually opened up a bit earlier to accommodate our group of 20 people. He took us into the vineyard and shared a lot of information. Even those of us with 10+ tours under our belt learned a lot. Ed was funny, articulate and handled our diverse group dynamics well. No BS. And the wines were awesome. After our group tasting in the barrel room we were able taste any one of their wines in the small tasting room they have. Their small winery and parking lot means you will never see a bus there and the tour is very personal. We met the winemaker and truly felt the passion they have for wine. And unlike Megalomaniac, Lailey’s waived the tour and tasting fee for those who purchased wine. Lailey did charge me personally for a corkscrew that my wife wanted !

Lailey is a sweet little winery. The setting is contemporary but not cold and sterile. The staff were very friendly and talkative. The size of the tasting area was perfect for the off season but I would imagine it would be quite crowded during to summer season.
They had a nice array of wines to taste and didn’t charge us for tasting as we took home a few bottles.

Lailey Vineyard is modern, chic and rustic as the same time.
The tasting room though a little bit small but this means that no bus load of people will be arriving for a tour or tasting?
The tasting cost $ 1/​$ 2 each which I prefer as I have more flexibility in picking the wine that I am interested in sampling.
After trying a few, we ended up with a bottle of 2010 Cabernet Franc ($ 25) which has a really fruity and floral profile.
The staff here are quite knowledgeable though can be a little more enthusiastic.
The tour which last for 45 minute like a good value $ 5 which includes 4 tasting, maybe next time.

Pretty property and modern tasting room but very sterile. The staff were not engaging at all and the girl taking care of us didn’t make conversation or even smile. No information was offered about the vineyard and questions about the wines were met with quick, uninspired responses. She just stared at us. I couldn’t even enjoy tasting and had no desire to buy anything.

Lailey is a beautifully designed vineyard with a modern aesthetic (a rarity for the region). I didn’t get a tour because they were closing when I arrived but my friend and I had several tastings ($ 1/​taste) and ended up buying 2 bottles of the 2010 Chardonnay which was truly unique at affordable at $ 18/​bottle. Lailey is one of the smaller family-​run vineyards in the region and their staff is very friendly and knowledgeable. The tasting room is narrow.
They also ship cases for FREE pretty much anytime in the year including during holidays and any LCBO strikes (bound to happen). None of their white wines are sold at the LCBO or at Wine Rack (which, by the way, is owned by Jackson-​Triggs and thereby explains the poor selection of other Ontario wines such as Lailey’s)!
And in case Lailey is reading this… would you please consider staying open past 5pm during summer weekends which are notoriously the busiest times for tourism? The sun doesn’t set until at least 8pm and there are many eager visitors to tour your lovely establishment and buy your delicious wines. Also, our only other options are the big wineries which are open later but aren’t as quaint as yours. Thank you!

I highly recommend the 2008 Meritage— a very rich red wine made with succulent mulberry, luscious black currant and spice-​infused cherry.
I cried a little after I drank the last drop from the bottle, but to my surprise I went on their website and they still have the bottle in stock, ready to be ordered & delivered. Yipeee!

It has small and contemporary tasting room. Staffs were friendly and helpful, but wasn’t that knowledgable about wines. They have pretty solid wines. My favorite was Riesling 2011($ 18), I enjoyed melon aroma in the end. 2012 Sauvignon Blanc was so refreshing, good for summer I thought. It’s worth to visit when you visit NOTL area. But tasting room easily can get packed with several wine tour groups.

Another one of my favorites in Niagara Wine Country. Being that this vineyard in particular is very small, all the staff are really friendly and you really feel comfortable visiting Lailey.
I usually only like to do one tour per trip out to wine country because I’m clearly more into tasting the wine! But, I’m so glad that my husband booked us a tour with Lailey! Given that it was an off season weekend, they were super flexible with us and started the tour as soon as we arrived, which was about 30 minutes early. They also asked us a lot of questions about what we liked and tailored the tour!
And of course, the wines were great! I also liked that their wine club was quarterly versus monthly. As much as I love drinking wine, I don’t think I should drink THAT much wine! Now if only Ontario would start allowing wine to be shipped to the states!

This winery is one of the more contemporary ones in Niagara. Their sampling area is quite small in comparison to other wineries in the area. We got there just as a big group arrived and it was really cramped.
Our wine expert was ok — he did give background information on what we were drinking but we were not wowed by his knowledge. It almost seemed like he was forced to service us.
It is worth stopping by to get the feel for a more modern winery.

This place is a skip down the Niagara Parkway, close to the Inniskillen, so if your’e doing your own wine tour, I suggest hit up Reif, Inniskillen and Lailey; to get a good feel. Rief is your medium; Inniskillen being your your major; and Lailey your small/​boutique.
Their boutique is located in the bottom corner of their huge barn, and it isn’t built to accomodate a large capacity, maybe 2 to 4 couples at a time.
Lailey is, also, family run. The experience here is pretty good. Their wines are pretty solid and pretty reasonably priced. Once again, limited availiability at the LCBO. The staff are friendly and helpful in willing to suggest other wineries in the area to test out for a different feel and atmosphere.
I suggest checking their website before hitting them up, the weekend I was there the following weekend they were going to hold a winery/​barn BBQ, which sounded worth checking out… if I wasn’t already busy that weekend (boo!).

Lailey was great! We’ve long enjoyed their Chardonnay and finally today had the opportunity to visit the winery. We called a day ahead to book a tour, a process that was pleasant and easy. When we arrived we found a picturesque little winery surrounded by rows and rows of vines. The shop/​tasting area is in a rectangular wood building with a front wall of glass, which is sharp looking and also makes the tasting room feel open and outdoorsy despite its small size.
Our tour was great! It was only the three — our own private tour with the sommelier. We visited the vineyard, where he spoke at length about the processes Lailey uses to ensure quality over quantity in their grapes. We also visited the barrel cellar, where we tasted a wine directly from the barrel. And, of course, we finished up with a tasting of a white, a red, and an ice wine.
This is a small winery, so do call ahead if you’re interested in a tour, as they don’t offer them all the time, but definitely take the time to visit.