Cellar Door Wine Experience — Local services in Niagara Falls

Fall means visiting apply farms, pumpkin farms and going on winery tours and I have found the perfect one for you! Cellar Door offers 3 types of tours - lunch, dinner and bachelorette/ special occasions tours. The tour also offers pickup from your hotel or location of choice (within the Niagara region), and my husband and I got picked up at the Outlet Collection of Niagara at 10:30am and was dropped by off around 5pm. I know the website says that the lunch tour is about 4 hours, but that probably didn't include the travel or pickup/ drop off times. We were a small group of 8 and the spacious van with its high ceilings can easily accommodate twice that many people. In fact, the day before, they had 2 vans out for a group of over 30 people. Our drive Tim was kind and informative. He gave us info about the surrounding area, told us about how grapes are harvested and answered any questions that we had. He offered his hand to those who needed help getting on and off the hand. There were umbrellas in the van if we needed them and bottled water to keep us hydrated. I have a feeling that Tim knew more about the wine, wine making process and about the different wineries than the people who actually served us at the wine tastings.

We were at our first winery around 11am and everyone was ready to get their drink on. You cannot pick with winery the group gets to visit - Cellar Door will arrange all that and as Tim said, they like to support the little guys (as the larger wineries sell their wines at the LCBO). The 4 wineries that we visited are as follows: Marynissen Estates, Bella Terra (very pretty setup inside, see posted pictures), Pilliteri (mid-sized winery) and Riverview. At each winery tasting, we were given 4 samples - white, red, sometimes a rose, then were always finished off with a red or white ice wine (my favourite part of the tasting). I like my wines on the sweeter side, so don't be scared to speak up and the server can accommodate to your pallet. I am aging myself now, but I remember when wine tastings at Niagara-on-the-Lake used to be complimentary, as long you purchase the wine. Nowadays, the going rate is $20 for 4 samples. Some wineries were more generous with their pours, others were all over the place (one glass had more than the other). Some servers were more animated and provided more information compared to others who ran away as soon as they poured you the wine. My ranking from the best overall experience (customer service plus wine) are: 1. Bella Terra, 2. Pilliteri, 3. Marynissen, 4. Riverview. I almost forgot to mentioned that with the lunch tour, you can a very very small sample of cheese, salami and olives at our second stop (Bella Terra), then a large stone baked pizza to share between people at Pilliteri. The pizza was excellent that there were probably 10 varieties to choose from. You can walk directly to Barrelhead and other from their menu without having to be on a winery tour or have an interest in wine. My husband and I easily finished the prosciutto and mushroom pizza, the crust was very thin. If I'm ever in the area again, I will definitely stop by to check out the other items on their menu. Pilliteri also sold baskets of grapes, honey, jams, and maple syrup - perfect to take home or gift as souvenirs.

So there you have it, a 5-star review for Tim, I mean, Cellar Door tour. At $159 per person (transportation, 4 winery tours, mini cheese/ham sample, pizza), it is quite a steal if you want to just sit back and let someone else do...

Right from the get go Brendan was wonderful to work with and accommodating for our corporate group through the reservation process. Their vehicles are clean, roomy, and thankfully in this heat wave WELL AIR CONDITIONED. Our guide, Tim, was incredibly knowledgeable both about wine making in general and the history of the area (which we were treated to on a mini detour through historic Niagara on the Lake). We were treated to 4 wonderful small wineries (indoors tastings thanks to our guide), as well as a delicious lunch. Tim was also incredibly helpful making sure we were able to get in and out of the van with assistance if needed, and arranging and storing any wine purchases we made through the day.

Beware though: their winery suggestions are so good that even for an occasional wine drinker like myself, you'll end up coming home with enough bottles to start a home cellar, so plan in advance!!

My only regret is we were having so much fun that I barely took any pictures, but I guess there are worse...

We had the chance of having Rob as our driver/guide for the Wine, Charcuterie and Dinner experience! As my partner and I were the only two on this tour, Rob kept it interactive and was super friendly. He was extremely knowledgeable about the city itself, the many wineries we passed along the way, and, of course, about wine. He answered all the questions we had as it was our first wine tasting; his 35 years of experience truly showed. Since we had some time left after dinner, he took us on a little tour of the town and told us really interesting facts. Thank you so much Rob for a lovely day!

As for the tour itself, we visited four different vineyards, some smaller family-owned and some extremely awarded ones. The day was carefully planned. We had enough time and were never rushed by Rob. We found something we loved at each stop and had such a good time. The view was amazing and the staff so friendly. We were even shown how to do a proper wine tasting.

I definitely recommend this tour,...