Prince Edward County (PEC) Wine Tours

If you are coming from Toronto, you will enter Prince Edward County (PEC) near Trenton. It's then a short drive to the town of Hillier where you can stop at Hardwood Estate Vineyards to do a wine tasting. Why do a wine tasting at Hardwood Estate Vineyards? Coming from Toronto it will be one of the first wineries you will pass on route to the heart of Prince Edward County.

If you are coming from the Ottawa or Montreal, you will be entering the Prince Edward County near Kingston. If you are heading to Picton then stop at for a wine tasting at Black Prince Winery. Black Prince Winery has a tiny tasting room but some very interesting wines. If you enjoy Pinot Noir and Chardonnay then head towards Hillier where you can wine taste at Rosehall Run Vineyards and Norman Hardie. Both are small intimate wineries where you'll likely get a chance to taste with the owner who's also the winemaker. Either way, both of these places are a great way to start your Prince Edward County wine tasting.

A wine tasting is just that 'you only taste wine'. A wine tour can include wine tastings but it will also include a tour of the vineyard. This could include seeing the vines, the production faciltiy, the wine cellar, and maybe even their wine library.

When you are doing a wine tour make sure to enjoy the experience versus seeing as many wineries as you can. A good guide is to plan on seeing 3-6 wineries in one day. This might seems like too few wineries but the day will fly by. Usually wineries are only open from 11am - 5pm. Also you need to plan for lunch and included driving time between wineries.

A great tour group is iYellow Wine Club. Having attended a few of their tastings I can assure you the trip to Prince Edward County to taste some wine will be fantastic.

For now I will leave a list of just five wineries, hope it helps!

1. Rosehall Run Vineyards - small with great wines! They also makes wines for Jamie Kennedy.
2. Norman Hardie - small with a few fantastic wines including their Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Might be the best winery in Prince Edward County!
3. Closson Chase Vineyards - one of the pioneering wineries of the region. Strong concentration on quality.
4. Huff Estate Winery - very nice white wines - Riesling wine and Pinot Gris wine.
5. Long Dog Winery - very small and off the beaten path but worth the trip.

Due to popular demand, here is 2 more wineries to visit:

1. The Grange of Prince Edward County - try their single vineyard wines!
2. Black Prince Winery - try the Cabernet Franc!

Prince Edward County is made up of one region but there are clusters of wineries around the following towns:

1. Hillier
2. Bloomfield
3. Wellington
4. Sandbanks
5. Waupoos

The longest drive been two wineries is probably 30 minutes.

When in Prince Edward County you should definately try pinot noir! However, Prince Edward County has the perfect soil structure and summer climate to grown wonderful rieslings wines and Chardonnay white wine.

Yes, almost all wineries in Prince Edward County charge for tastings. The price can range from $0.50 a taste to $3.00 a taste. Make sure to ask if your tasting fees refunded if you buy something!

There were a few places that would do schedule barrel tastings as part of a wine tour. We don't know of any now but we will update it when we find out.

Premium wine tours are coming soon.

Many Prince Edward County wineries produce Icewine and tastings are often available but at a cost.