2090 Coomer Rd., Burt, NY 14028
Web: Schulze Vineyards & Winery
Phone: 716.778.8090
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Alcohol Appleton Burt Drinks Lockport Wine
"There's typically a $2 or $3 tasting charge per individual winery, entitling you to try somewhere between three and six wines; one winery offered free tastings to inspire sales."
Six hours. Six vineyards. Nine people. A limo that started out with cheese, crackers, cookies and snacks, then ended the day packed with reds, whites, blushes, pinot noirs, fruit wines, and ice wines. With the sun shining and a group of friends ready to kick back and sample dozens of wines, this was the perfect weekend to take an extended tour of the Niagara Wine Trail, and we made the most of it; here's how you can do the same for as little as $40 per person, and what you can expect when you do.
The Niagara Wine Trail is a collection of vineyards that are easily accessible to Western New Yorkers, clustered around Lockport and running almost exclusively through Niagara County. Though you can easily drive yourself from place to place thanks to their proximity to Erie County and each other, we've tried this a couple of times and - unless you have a patient designated driver - it's not fun. The best way to experience the Wine Trail is with a nice block of free time, a hired car, and a few $20 bills. Booking a limo costs between $200 and $400 for six hours, including door-to-door pickup and drop-off, which comes out to $25 to $50 per person for a group of eight. We used Lake Ontario Limousine, and were extremely satisfied; we also brought our own cheeses, crackers, and snacks.
As one might expect from small, family-owned businesses, the individual wineries have some things in common, but they also vary considerably in the specifics. Most of the wineries are converted homes or small house-like buildings adjacent to vineyards, each more impressively decorated inside than outside. Every one has at least one bar-like counter for wine tasting, and racks - typically wooden - filled with bottles of wine. Most 750ml bottles sell for $10 to $20, with some smaller ones priced lower, ice wines going for $40, and occasional reserve bottles selling for more. There's typically a $2 or $3 tasting charge per individual winery, entitling you to try somewhere between three and six wines; one of the wineries offered free tastings in the (correct) hope that it would inspire purchases. Our group bought more wine there than at any other venue.
Note that there's one official Wine Trail weekend each month, where a $20 flat fee provides tastings at 10 wineries. Participating wineries told us that these events bring in large crowds of people, which can increase wait times and decrease the amount of time you actually spend sampling wines. We chose a weekend when there wasn't an event, and probably wound up better off in pacing for that choice; it would have been hard, though not impossible, to continue drinking more after visiting six wineries in a row.
The limo company initially gave us the choice of six of the 10 wineries that it typically visits, but offered to add any of the other three official Wine Trail picks if we were interested. Familiar with some of these options from our previous Bubbly columns, we canvassed the Niagara Wine Trail's official web site to see which of the places would best fit the needs of our group. Here are the ones we visited, and what they offered.
Honeymoon Trail Winery: We knew this charming place from its impressive Catawba and pretty good Niagara and Cherry wines, amongst others we'd sampled on a prior visit, and returned again to try even more. Only one of its two tasting rooms was open this time - a second one opens once a month with snack vendors, as well - and we waited five minutes for the group before us to finish their sampling and purchasing. Fun picks included the white, semi-sweet Steuben, the Diamond, and White Lace, while we were taken with the red Frozen Concord, pleasantly surprised by the Apple, and displeased by the dry red Concord Port. This was the second-most popular place with our group in number of purchased bottles, winning fans with everything from traditional whites and reds to dessert wines.
Schulze Vineyards: Spacious and modern-looking inside, Schulze is the sort of winery that impresses with the breadth of its selection, the quality of individual wines, and classy, gimmick-free bottle design. Two of us wound up sampling 13 of the wines here, each paying the standard $2-for-six-wines charge, with a little overlap, plus $4 for two dessert wine samples. We were especially fond of the white Thirty Mile Point Niagara Wine, the red Ruby, and the Vidal Ice Wine - the only Niagara Wine Trail ice wine we've liked enough to purchase - and also enjoyed the Lotus, Thirty Mile Point Catawba, Crackling Niagara, the rich, dry red Meritage, and the Crackling Catawba. We weren't as thrilled by the dry white Siegfried Reserve, the blush Mon Cheri, the watery red Cabernet Franc, or the RCR Red Dessert Wine, the latter of which was a good, not great port-style wine. One couple in our group really liked the Siegfried Semi-Dry.
Niagara Landing Wine Cellars: Having previously loved this vineyard's Port and been less impressed by its Cranberry Wine, we decided this time out to try a bunch of items that we hadn't sampled on a past visit. This was easy, as the popular Niagara Landing facility has a long list of options spread across two sides of a laminated sheet of paper, ranging from whites to reds to roses, fruit, and dessert wines; patrons get to try four wines for $2. While the Rosebud Raspberry had a strong alcohol punch, it also had a nice raspberry flavor - a contrast with the weak fruit taste in the Cranberry Wine. We also liked the Cream Sherry, which true to its name tasted like a sweet mix of cream soda and classical sherry. By comparison, we were fine with the Rosebud Peach, which tasted a little artificial in flavor but okay, and the Baco Noir, a rich, full-bodied red that was in the semi-dry to dry category. None of the wines we tried inspired us to make a purchase this time; a member of our group was notably more excited by the grape-based hand lotion than the beverages.
Warm Lake Estate: We loved this Pinot Noir-focused winery's Glace Noir at the 2008 Taste of Buffalo, but as noted in our subsequent Bubbly column, we had consistency concerns after buying a few bottles some time ago. Our visit this time only heightened those concerns: some of the Glace was being sold out of a shopping cart, and when we inquired as to why this was, we were told that a bunch of the 2006 bottles had been mislabeled with the prior 2004 stickers, which might or might not explain why the bottles we'd previously purchased didn't taste like the ones we'd sampled. We went through a full tasting this time to sample the entire Warm Lake suite of Pinots, and though we didn't buy any, two other couples liked and picked up bottles of the dry, award-winning Pinot Noir. No one liked the accidentally over-alcoholic Glace mignonettes, now labeled as "brandy" - they still tasted like sweetened gasoline.
Freedom Run Winery: Of all the wineries we've visited, Freedom Run has the most modern complex, complete with a glass-enclosed, barrel-filled group tasting room, two outer tasting bars, and sofas for weary tasters to rest on with their glasses. It splits its selection between white, rose, red, and sweeter native grape wines, with estate and premium choices selling at higher prices. We weren't huge fans of the Niagara or Catawba Wines we previously purchased from this place, but gave it another shot; one of us paid a $5 tasting fee to sample up to six wines of the complete 15-wine list; a standard $3 fee offers access to only 10. We weren't wowed by anything here, but disliked the light white Chardonnay Estate, and generally enjoyed the strong dry white Manning Manor. Our group made a few purchases, and the scenery around Freedom Run was amongst the most beautiful on the trip.
Winery at Marjim Manor: Out of all the wineries we visited, this place won more purchases from our group than any other. It wasn't the elaborate, overly long ghost story that surrounded the surprisingly free tasting - one that offered anyone their choice of 4-6 samples from one of two tasting bars - but rather the wide array of interesting options, many of them fruit and dessert wines. We'd previously been okay with Marjim's Cranberry Crescendo and Blue Beryl, finding them more appealing in packaging than flavor, but this time, we were pleased enough by the Heart of Gold apricot and Cherry Concerto wines to purchase them, and intrigued enough by the Pear Made in Heaven to pick up a bottle despite its unavailability for tasting. We tried so many of the wines here - Apple, Katapalooza, Plum Dandy, whites, reds, and blushes - that we couldn't recall them all, but the two we bought after tasting were standouts. Other members of our group bought wines and cheesecake mixes, as well; Marjim's free trial strategy really worked out well.
Though our prior Bubbly columns discuss wines from some of the other wineries on the Trail, we can say with confidence that the places we visited collectively made for a fantastic tasting experience. Fans of dry and sweet wines alike found things to sample and purchase, and the six-hour transportation and tasting cost was only around $40 per person. Over time, we're sure that the wineries' offerings will continue to improve; for now, they offer Western New Yorkers and out-of-area visitors alike a fun opportunity to sample locally produced wines at extremely low prices. If you're looking for a way to relax on the weekend, we'd strongly recommend a visit.
