Niagara wine tours with a private chauffeur: Bench, Lakeshore and Niagara-on-the-Lake

The Niagara wine tour, in one paragraph

The region has a hundred wineries in a strip forty kilometres long, and the difference between a good day and a great one is the chauffeur who knows that the Bench's wineries are ten minutes apart on the escarpment's back roads and the Lake's are five minutes apart on the flat, that Tawse's tasting room needs an appointment and Peller's does not, that the lunch at Vineland Estates' restaurant looks over the lake and the one at Ravine looks over the vines, that four wineries is the right number and five is one too many, and that the cooler in the trunk is where the day's purchases ride home unbroken. This guide covers the region's three areas and their wineries by style, the four-winery day and its pace, the tastings and the appointments, the lunch and the dinner, the vehicle by the group, the safe-ride case, the seasons, the Bench day against the Lake day, the couple's day against the bachelorette's, the falls added, the pickups, the rate, and a worked day.

The region's three areas

The Bench — the Twenty Mile Bench (Jordan, Vineland) and the Beamsville Bench (Beamsville, Lincoln), the terraces below the escarpment's face along the QEW's south side — the cool-climate Riesling and Chardonnay country, the Pinot Noir, the small producers, the views over the lake from the escarpment's edge, the wineries ten minutes apart on King Street and the concession roads: Tawse (the biodynamic estate — appointment), Hidden Bench (the Chardonnay and the Pinot — appointment), Cave Spring (the Riesling pioneer, in Jordan Village with the Inn on the Twenty and its restaurant), Vineland Estates (the 1845 stone house, the restaurant with the lake view), Flat Rock Cellars (the hexagonal tasting room on the Bench's edge, the Riesling), Malivoire (the Gamay, the Quonset hut), Fielding (the view, the patio), Thirty Bench (the small-lot Rieslings), Henry of Pelham (the Baco Noir, the family estate at St. Catharines' edge), Westcott, Kew, Redstone, Megalomaniac (the hilltop and the wit), Rosewood (the mead too), Organized Crime (the name). The Lake — Niagara-on-the-Lake's Four Mile Creek and the Lakeshore, the flat land between the old town and the river, the larger estates and the Bordeaux varieties, the wineries five minutes apart along the Niagara Stone Road and the Parkway: Stratus (the architecture, the assemblage), Two Sisters (the Cabernet, the Kitchen 76 restaurant), Ravine (the organic estate, the restaurant in the vines), Peller Estates (the grand house, the icewine lounge at minus ten, the restaurant), Inniskillin (the icewine's birthplace), Jackson-Triggs (the amphitheatre concerts), Reif (the German heritage on the Parkway), Konzelmann (the lakeshore), Trius (the sparkling, the restaurant), Château des Charmes (the Bosc family's château), Wayne Gretzky Estates (the whisky too), Southbrook (biodynamic, the pavilion), Big Head, Between the Lines, Pillitteri (the icewine volume). The Niagara River — the Parkway's small wineries between Queenston and the old town: Riverview, Reif, Inniskillin's river frontage. The VQA Ontario and Wine Country Ontario sites map them.

The wines

Niagara's cool climate (the lake's moderation, the escarpment's shelter) makes it a Riesling and Chardonnay region first (the Bench's Rieslings from bone-dry to off-dry; the Chardonnays from the Bench's mineral to the Lake's richer), a Pinot Noir and Gamay region second (the Bench), a Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon region on the Lake's warmer flats (Two Sisters, Stratus, Château des Charmes), a sparkling region rising (Trius, Henry of Pelham's Cuvée Catharine, Hinterland in the County — the Prince Edward County article), and the world's largest icewine producer (the grapes frozen on the vine and pressed at minus eight — Inniskillin, Peller, Pillitteri, Reif; the Icewine Festival in January); a chauffeur who is asked "what should we try?" says the Riesling on the Bench and the Cabernet Franc on the Lake, and a passenger who wants a theme (Chardonnay only; sparkling only; icewine only) gets a route built for it.

The four-winery day

The pace that works: the 9:00 pickup in Toronto, the 10:30 first winery (a tasting is forty-five minutes to an hour with the tour of the cellar at the estates that offer one), the 11:45 second, the 1:00 lunch at a winery's restaurant (ninety minutes), the 3:00 third, the 4:15 fourth (the shortest — the purchases), the 5:15 departure, the 7:00 door; five wineries is a rush and the fifth is not remembered; three with a long lunch is the couple's alternative; the appointments booked a week ahead at the small estates (Tawse, Hidden Bench, Stratus, Ravine) and walked in at the large (Peller, Jackson-Triggs, Trius, Konzelmann); the tasting fees ($15 to $40 for four or five wines) waived on a purchase at many; the chauffeur at the lot, the cooler in the trunk (the in-car amenities article's request — the fleet's or the passengers'), the purchases loaded after each stop (a case of twelve is a luggage capacity article large bag), and the hourly absorbing the lingering.

The lunch and the dinner

The winery restaurants — Vineland Estates (the stone house, the lake view, the Bench's classic), The Restaurant at Peller Estates (the grand room, the tasting menu), Ravine Vineyard's (the farmhouse, the wood oven, the vines at the window), Two Sisters' Kitchen 76 (the Italian, the terrace), Trius Winery Restaurant (the garden), Inn on the Twenty at Cave Spring (Jordan Village), Redstone's, Backhouse in Niagara-on-the-Lake (not a winery — the region's best table, the fine dining article's standard), Treadwell (the farm-to-table in the old town), the Prince of Wales (the hotel's dining room); lunch at 1:00 is the day's anchor and a dinner at 6:30 (the Bench's or the Lake's) with a 9:30 door is the long version. The Niagara Falls day trip article's Table Rock House and Skylon are the falls' version.

The vehicle by the group

A couple: a sedan — the S-Class's ride for the three hours of highway and the back roads, the trunk for two cases. Four: an SUV — the room, the cooler in the cargo, six cases. Six to fourteen: a Sprinter — the executive layout's forward seats for the drive (the perimeter layout's bench is for a night out, not ninety minutes on the QEW), the cooler and the fridge, the cage for the cases, the bachelorette's and the shower's vehicle. Fifteen to twenty-four: the limo bus article's mini-coach for the comfort, the limo bus for a party that wants the bar between the wineries (the stag and bachelorette article's licence rules — and the wineries' tastings are enough). Above: two mini-coaches or a coach for the corporate outing. A stretch on the Bench's back roads is a mistake.

The safe-ride case

Four tastings of five wines is twenty pours of an ounce or two — over Ontario's limit for a driver by the second winery for most people and the Ontario HTA rules article's zero for the chauffeur — and the region's police run the RIDE checks on the QEW's on-ramps and the Niagara Stone Road on summer weekends; the private chauffeur is the reason the day exists, and a designated driver in the group's own car is a day ruined for the driver and a risk for the rest. The passenger safety article's chauffeur drives everyone home and the women travelling alone article's door-wait rule applies to the drop sequence at 7.

The seasons

Spring (May–June): the bud break, the first patios, the Bench's blossoms, the quiet before the summer, the Niagara-on-the-Lake Wine Festival's June events. Summer (July–August): the patios full, the Jackson-Triggs amphitheatre's concerts, the Shaw Festival matinees, the busiest Saturdays (book three weeks ahead), the cooler essential. Fall (September–October): the harvest and the crush (the wineries' busiest and most interesting weeks — the tours see the presses running), the Niagara Grape and Wine Festival in September (the parade, the events), the fall colours on the escarpment, the best month. Winter (November–March): the icewine harvest on the first minus-eight nights in December and January, the Niagara Icewine Festival in January (the Peller icewine lounge at minus ten, the street festivals in the old town and Jordan), the tasting rooms quiet and the winemakers at the bar, the winter driving article's QEW.

The Bench day against the Lake day

The Bench day: the escarpment's views, the small producers, the Riesling and the Pinot, the back roads (the chauffeur's — King Street, the concession roads, the Bench's grades), lunch at Vineland Estates or the Inn on the Twenty, four wineries within fifteen minutes of each other, a serious taster's day; the QEW's Vineland and Beamsville exits, eighty minutes from downtown. The Lake day: the grand estates, the Bordeaux reds and the icewine, the flat roads, Niagara-on-the-Lake's old town for a walk between, lunch at Peller or Ravine or Backhouse, the falls twenty minutes away for a party who wants both, a first-timer's and a bachelorette's day; the QEW's Glendale exit and the Niagara Stone Road, ninety minutes. The mixed day: two on the Bench in the morning, lunch at Vineland, the QEW's fifteen minutes east to two on the Lake in the afternoon — the chauffeur's suggestion for a group who cannot choose.

The couple's day against the bachelorette's

The couple: the sedan, the appointments at Tawse and Hidden Bench, the long lunch at Vineland Estates' window, Flat Rock's view and Cave Spring's Jordan Village after, the two cases in the trunk, the anniversary and date night article's dinner at Backhouse, the 10 p.m. door. The bachelorette: the Sprinter for twelve, the walk-in estates (Peller, Trius, Two Sisters, Konzelmann), the Kitchen 76 terrace for lunch, the playlist on the Sprinter's system, the matching sashes, the cooler, the stag and bachelorette article's rules (the wineries' tastings and nothing in the vehicle unless it is a licensed limo Sprinter), the drop sequence home by 8, and the bride's wedding booked with the same fleet a season later. The corporate outing: the corporate holiday party article's team of twenty in a mini-coach, the private tasting at Stratus, the lunch at Ravine, the corporate account's statement.

The falls added

The Niagara Falls day trip article's Table Rock is twenty minutes from Niagara-on-the-Lake along the Parkway: a party on the Lake day adds the falls at 4 p.m. after the fourth winery (the illumination at dusk in summer) for a 9:30 door, or starts at the falls at 9 and reaches the first winery at 11:30 for a three-winery afternoon; the chauffeur builds either.

The pickups

Downtown, Yorkville, the Financial District hotels, the 905's west end (Oakville and Burlington are thirty minutes closer — the Oakville page, the Burlington page), the Pearson arrival for a visitor who wants wine country on the first day (the Pearson to Niagara article), and the Hamilton and Niagara hotels for a party staying in the region (the Hamilton page); a Sprinter collects a group from three condos in a sequence and the group transfers article's coordinator counts heads at each.

The rate

The hourly for ten hours or the fleet's flat Niagara day rate (the engine shows it — the same rate as the falls' day, the kilometres included), the gratuity guide's 15 to 20 percent, the what is included article's inclusions (the cooler, the water, the waiting), the tasting fees and the lunch the passengers' own; the how much does a black car cost article works a Sprinter day divided by twelve against the commercial wine tour buses (the black car is close per head and the day is yours), and a Saturday in September books three weeks ahead.

A worked four-winery day

Six friends from Leslieville and the Beaches, a Saturday in late September, a Sprinter (executive layout). 9:00: the three pickups in sequence; 9:30 the Gardiner west. 10:45: Flat Rock Cellars on the Bench — the hexagonal room, the Riesling and the Pinot, the view to the lake, a case in the cage. 11:50: Tawse (booked a week ahead) — the biodynamic tour, the Chardonnay, two cases. 1:00: Vineland Estates — the stone house's window table, ninety minutes, the Riesling with the lunch. 3:00: the QEW east fifteen minutes to the Lake; 3:20 Stratus (booked) — the architecture, the assemblage, a case. 4:30: Peller Estates — the icewine lounge at minus ten in the September heat, the walk-in tasting, the shop, three cases and a bottle for the chauffeur's dispatcher. 5:30: the Parkway to Table Rock for twenty minutes at the rail (the falls added). 6:00: the QEW; 7:45 the first Beaches door, 8:05 the last Leslieville one, seven cases unloaded to six doors. Eleven hours as the day rate plus one, six friends, twenty tastings, no one behind a wheel.

Niagara wine tour quick reference

Booking a wine tour

The hourly chauffeur page books the day; the engine shows the day rate and takes the wineries in the notes; dispatch books the appointments at the estates that need them on request. Name the style — Riesling, Cabernet, sparkling, icewine — and the chauffeur builds the route.

Book a Niagara wine tour