black willow winery

This was our 3rd stop on our personal Niagara wine tour. Everyone was nice and we ended up buying a Mead (honey) wine called Freyja's Passion. I love Mead wine and always look forward to the Texas Renaissance Festival to get some. My wife does not like that mead wine but she really liked this one so I was happy to get a bottle.

We toured several wineries in one day from the Niagara Wine Trail, Black Willow being the first. We tasted three wines here. I should note that while many of the wineries in the area specialize in sweet and off-dry wines, we are strictly dry wine drinkers, so this focused our choices. The Chardonnay was not our type, and that was true for the chardonnays in other wineries in this region. Chardonnay in this region is very different in color and taste from what you have likely gotten accustomed to via chardonnays from California or elsewhere. The Trilogy White was also not our style. We then tried the Trilogy Red and found it to be the best of the three, so we bought a bottle. We drank the bottle of Trilogy Red at home a couple weeks later and were yet more impressed with it then -- it was smooth, low in tannins with nice fruit, and even better than we remembered. Those who like sweet wines will likely enjoy those wines at Black Willow. The tasting room was nicely done and included a nice selection of olive oils and other items as well.

Go for the Wine & Chocolate Pairing! Worth the little extra charge for sure! Great Experience! Make sure to try the Olive Oils too!

We do a lot of the event tastings that take place through out the year on the wine trail. This is one winery I always make a point to get to on our stops. Staff is very helpful as well as knowledgable. A good selection of non wine items are also available for purchase. A must in the wine trail stop. My favorite is the black willow berry and they also have a nice selection if meads. Odums Nectar is delicious!!

We went to 5 "wineries" on the Niagara Wine Trail as part of our Travel Zoo promotional package with our stay at the Sheraton At The Falls June 28, 29.I've written lots of reviews, not many of which are negative. I always justify my ratings.Black Willow was our 3rd stop.It was a new, clean, inviting facility with a proper bar and tasting area with friendly servers who lacked a lot of knowledge about the area.They rinsed your glass with WATER, before pouring you a new/different sample: a big no-no for wine tasting.They offered delicious fresh buttered popcorn to cleanse your palate, even though they should have offered bland, plain "Carr's Table Water Crackers" instead.The 'wines' weren't more than fermented juice, they didn't smell like wine and smelled overly 'alcoholly' like Port. Nearly all of the different wines we tried tasted the same.This is a nice winery to visit. The fields were in bloom with Clover and smelled romantic. They allowed us to pick whatever we wanted from the Cherry trees in the parking: a nice treat.I learned that a lot of the wineries on this Trail were new, with young vines.I would describe these wineries as small 'Mom and Pop' operations; just big enough to engage in public tastings and bottling, but no where big enough to make a product I would like to have served to me, even at a 3.5 Star restaurant.We had to drive ourselves around this tour.It was not worth the hassle and fees to book a "limo" to drive our butts around to these "wineries" when we were only saving about $50 in wine tasting fees. On the contrary, it seemed a bit risky to get looped while driving yourself to and from these tastings.Give these places a few years to refine their grapes and practices.Do yourself a favour and drive the extra 30 minutes into Canada and go to established, experienced wineries in Niagara On The Lake where you can find plentiful, affordable, transportation for your tour, and better yet, where you can taste real wine, not vinegar.

I love this place. Has a large room, good for groups. Not the largest tasting bar, but plenty of room to mingle after you've gotten your sample, so that's not so bad. Friendly staff, busy place.I had 2 friends do the wine and chocolate pairings (4 wine samples, 4 chocolates, $10), while the rest of us just did the tastings ($2 for 3, plus $2 for the port). The chocolate was great! If we had not been in such a large group, I certainly would want to do that next time.Great wine - highly recommend the Black Widow Berry - very sweet red, a must try!Tried the port - too sweet, but it is a port after all. However they did serve it in plastic shot cups, rather than the glasses, which made me feel like I was drinking NyQuil. That part was strange.Oh, and random, but genius, they have $1 bags of popcorn to go, as well.I love this part of the wine trail - this is in the cluster to the North, up by the lake. A little out of the way, but worth it.

My fiancee and I visited this winery as part of a wine package through Living Social. There were 8 wineries listed and we visited 3 of them during this visit. I loved the atmosphere of this winery. Everyone was cheery and seems to enjoy being there and supported the owner and her creations. The fact that she dedicated one of her wines to her cats sold me, as I'm a veterinarian! While we didn't partake, they also have a delicious looking (but pricey!) chocolate bar. I will be ordering more of this wine!!

I have been on several wine tours and tastings and always enjoy seeing the different locations and trying new flavors. I went with a group of family members last weekend along the Niagara Wine tour. We had a great time and saw many different wineries. Early in our trip we stopped at the Black Willow near Olcott NY. As we entered I was impressed with the new and charming facility and was excited to get started. My enthusiasm was quickly doused as it became apparent that our group of 8 was not welcomed. Most of my family had never been wine tasting and didn’t know that you should go from sweet to dry or that the chocolate was to be paired with the specific wine. Overall, the tasting room was not very friendly and not very nice. So we moved on.