Black Willow Winery

The drive up to BW was teeth rattling due to street resurfacing and I thought I lost a front tire on the road transition so go slow.
Upon entering you see a nicely laid out space with gifts and expensive edibles all about. The popcorn smell hits you when you enter which works for a movie theater but is not good for your senses while experiencing the nose of the wine you are there to experience.
I sensed that this was or was aspiring to be a premium winery so I gaged my expectations accordingly. The bar was full and the service decent given the crowd. So to my surprise when I paid for a single port tasting it arrived in one of those little plastic cups you put ketchup in at McDonalds. Now how on earth can you fairly taste a port when is resides in a ketchup cup? Well I did my best and it was not so good. In fact, I tasted a port that day elsewhere costing $ 10 less per bottle that was significantly better. Wineries attract people from all over the world so BW should think about this revising policy.
At least the popcorn was good.

Great place, good wine and tasty delicacies. Had a wonderful experience

We went here for a wine tour for my birthday, and they had some really good ones to choose from! The Black Widow Berry? I think it was called, was SUPER good. It was fairly cheap, I believe 3 $ for 4 tastings. They also have delicious popcorn to sample while you are tasting. They had a chocolate/​wine pairing option for $ 12, but I was strictly there for the booze.
The décor inside was cute, and they had a neat display of all of their chocolates. They had a lot of little trinkets to look through, and a ton of Halloween décor and wine related gifts.
The staff was less than pleased to be serving my group of about 20 people, however. We called in advance so they knew we were headed their way. They were not very nice when giving the pours, and didn’t explain much.

Author Neil Gaiman once wrote, «I’ve had really nice mead, rich and honeyish, normally handed to me in small glasses by people who had brewed it themselves, and I’ve had a thin and noxious substance that tastes like sweet, alcoholic pickle-​juice passed to me (usually by commercial mead-​vendors) representing itself as mead.»
The meads here are the former rather than the latter. I tried all three on my first visit last October.
Oh. My. Gods.
I truly felt like I crossed the rainbow bridge into Asgard.
Odin’s Nectar is probably the most conventional honey mead. It’s comforting and enchanting and put me into a dream state. Freyja’s Passion was lighter and more playful, and Valkyrie’s Lure tasted like Christmas in a glass. I love pairing these meads with holiday feasts.
The wines range from good to great.
The ice wine is syrupy sweet and decadent, just what I expected from a dessert wine.
The Trilogy Red is the best dry red wine I’ve had. Red wines tend to be thin in this region due to the climate, but this wine is very full bodied with enjoyable berry notes. I also like the Merlots from Victorianbourg and Niagara Landing, but the fullness of Trilogy Red stands up to its oakiness the best.
The Riesling is good. It doesn’t have a soft finish like my least favorite Rieslings on the trail, but it doesn’t have the crispness of my favorites either.
Bare Cat Blush is a semi blush wine. It’s fruity and sweet, but not too sweet.
The Classic Diamond has a distinctive floral flavor. It’s good, but I prefer the Diamond at Honeymoon Trail.
Black Widow Berry is a sweet red wine with berry notes.
In addition to wine tastings, you can try their olive oils and vinegars for free. We purchase them regularly. I also recommend doing a chocolate and wine pairing at least once. The Normal Love truffles are divine. I haven’t tried the locally sourced chocolate bark yet. I always receive excellent service when I visit. Today the owner even offered to take a picture for me.
Black Willow remains one of my favorite wineries.

The tasting room is adorable! They sell a lot of chocolates and cheese as well as wine. They were fairly busy when we walked in, but they were very attentive and we got our tastings in no time at all. It was pretty cheap for a tasting — $ 2 for 3 tastings.
Their wine is good. I’m a big fan of their concord one and the Niagara one. I’m bad with official label names, sorry!
The meads are interesting. I’m not super huge into meads. Their one mead that tastes like strawberry yogurt, really DOES taste like strawberry yogurt. I like my wine to taste like wine so that threw me off a bit, but I can see how that could be appealing for some.

One of 3 Niagara Wine Trail wineries – the others were Schulze and Victorianbourg – my husband and I visited during a mid-​October weekend in Niagara Falls, NY, and Black Willow was my favorite of the 3.
Charming little tasting room set just off the main road with a casual, inviting porch out front. Pretty vistas of fields and orchards, though the sky was rather ugly and the weather rather drizzly during our visit. I’m sure that on a sunny-​blue-​sky-​kind-​of-​day it’s beautiful.
In additional to wine this location sells decorative items, oils, vinegars, and artisan chocolates. The chocolates in the display case looked impressive and delicious. I actually can’t believe we didn’t try any; my pastry and scone breakfast (real healthy) that morning must have satisfied my usually raging sweet tooth. We loved every oil and vinegar we tasted – walnut, truffle, and fig to list a few.
During our time at Black Willow we chatted with several employees, all of whom were very friendly and bracing themselves for the Hallowine Murder Mystery – a big annual event that my guy and I were lucky enough to beat to the tasting room! – expected that day. We left with a bottle of Riesling (semi-​dry) and Bare Cat Blush (semi-​sweet), and pretty costumed Veronica was our tasting room attendant.
A shame I couldn’t get through this review without «Black Widow» getting stuck in my head. What a stupid song!

This rating is base on the wine. The place is beautiful and the people are nice. But the wine is very sweet, not that great. The chocolate is okay. I wouldn’t say it’s the best though.

Come here to try their meads. Mead is a honey wine with an interesting sweetness. It was my first time trying it and I was glad I did! They also have a great selection of truffles and chocolates to try with paired wines.