Niagara Grape and Wine Festival and the Year of Wine Events

The Niagara Grape and Wine Festival is the region's harvest party, held each September with its main weekend in Montebello Park in downtown St. Catharines. It is only one date in a full Niagara wine country calendar, though. Niagara's wineries run icewine weekends in January, self-guided food-and-wine passes in spring, summer and fall, and town-wide tasting programs in Niagara-on-the-Lake. NiagaraFallsLimo.net drives festival guests between all of them, so the group can taste freely and nobody has to find parking near a packed park. This guide lays out the year, the distances and the honest choices.

When is the Niagara Grape and Wine Festival, and how do you get there without driving?

As of October 2026 the organisers had not announced 2027 dates, so treat late September as the planning window and confirm on niagarawinefestival.com before booking hotels.

Who runs what

Two organisations produce most of the events visitors ask about, and knowing which is which saves confusion when you search.

• The Niagara Grape & Wine Festival organisation, based in St. Catharines, runs the September festival at Montebello Park, the winter icewine events (which it calls "Canada's Coolest Festival"), and seasonal Discovery Passes that send you to wineries across Niagara.
• Wineries of Niagara-on-the-Lake, an association of 20-plus member estates, runs weekend programs inside Niagara-on-the-Lake: Chocolate & Cheese, Sip & Sizzle and Taste the Season, plus a year-round Winemakers' Tasting Pass.

Individual wineries add their own events too. Jackson-Triggs, for example, hosts a summer concert series at its Niagara Stone Road estate.

The Niagara wine festival calendar

Exact dates move each year; only use the organisers' sites for planning. Our wider Niagara Falls events calendar covers non-wine events, and the Shaw Festival guide covers theatre season, which runs alongside most of these.

Right now: Taste the Season, November 2026

If you are reading this in autumn 2026, the next event is on your doorstep. Wineries of Niagara-on-the-Lake runs Taste the Season on weekends in November: eight wineries each pour a wine with a harvest-inspired food pairing, and you move between them at your own pace. It is self-guided, which means someone has to drive between eight estates. A five- or six-hour chauffeured booking on a Saturday covers most of the route comfortably, with the car waiting at each stop. Our Niagara-on-the-Lake wineries guide shows how close the estates are to each other.

The Niagara Grape and Wine Festival at Montebello Park

The Montebello Park weekend is the festival's public centrepiece. In 2026, according to Wine Country Ontario, it ran 24–27 September with free park entry Friday to Sunday. Expect wine and food vendors, entertainment schedules posted by the organisers, and big crowds on Saturday afternoon.

Getting there and away is the part people underestimate:

• Downtown St. Catharines gets busy. Streets around the park fill with festival traffic and some may be closed for events. We agree a drop-off and pickup point near the park in advance, based on the organisers' and city's notices for that year.
• Leaving is the bottleneck. At the end of an evening, the taxi queue is long and rideshare prices rise. A chauffeur with an agreed meeting time avoids both.
• Combine it with the wineries. Many guests spend the morning on a Discovery Pass route or at two estates, then head to the park for the afternoon.

Montebello Park is also a short drive from the Welland Canals Centre at Lock 3, where ships rise and fall in the lock (the canal closes from early January to mid-March), a good stop for anyone in the group who has had enough wine.

Distances to the main festival locations

From the United States, plan on crossing at the Lewiston-Queenston Bridge for Niagara-on-the-Lake events, or the Peace Bridge if you are staying near Buffalo and heading to the Bench wineries. Every passenger needs their own valid documents, and festival weekends are busy at the bridges; we never predict waits. Flying in? See Toronto Pearson transfers or Buffalo Niagara transfers.

January: the Icewine Festival

The Icewine Village takes over Queen Street in Niagara-on-the-Lake across two January weekends, with fire pits, ice carving and icewine from many producers. The organisers' site said "see you in winter 2027" as of October 2026, without dates, so wait for the official announcement before booking. It is cold, crowded and very atmospheric. Our icewine guide explains the wine itself and what a winter tasting day looks like, and the Winter Festival of Lights, running 14 November 2026 to 10 January 2027, is an easy evening add-on.

How Discovery Passes and tasting passes work by car

Passes are the quiet backbone of the Niagara wine year. You buy a pass from the organiser, then visit participating wineries over a set period, each pouring a wine with a food pairing. They are excellent value for the wine lover and a logistics puzzle for the driver, because participating estates may be spread from Niagara-on-the-Lake to the Beamsville Bench.

Three tips from our chauffeurs:

1. Pick a cluster, not the whole list. Four to six nearby wineries in one region beats ten spread across the peninsula. See Twenty Valley and the Beamsville Bench if the pass includes the western wineries.
2. Start early. Saturday afternoons are the busiest; morning tastings are calmer.
3. Send us the list the day before. We route the stops to minimise backtracking.

Book your festival chauffeur

Choosing a vehicle for festival weekends

• Two guests: a Standard Sedan or Mercedes-Benz E/S-Class.
• Up to six: a Standard SUV or Executive Black SUV, room for six bags or a few cases.
• Up to twelve: the Executive Sprinter, or a Party Bus (up to 12) for celebration groups, availability confirmed at booking. Neither allows drinking on board.
• Larger groups: a Stretch SUV Limousine (up to 16) or, on request, a coach. See group transportation and our party bus page.

Stagette groups often build a festival weekend around a winery day; our bachelorette limo page covers that.

Ways to get to a Niagara wine festival compared

When is something else better? A Toronto local heading only to Montebello Park for an afternoon can take the GO train to St. Catharines and a short ride; that is sensible. Two friends staying downtown in St. Catharines can walk. The chauffeur wins once wineries are involved, when you have a group, when you are carrying cases, or when you want a guaranteed ride at closing time. Read the full chauffeur vs taxi vs rideshare guide, and if you prefer rail, our train station transfers meet you at the platform.

Who festival transport suits

Individuals often join for the Montebello Park day and book a sedan for the evening return. Couples use Taste the Season or Chocolate & Cheese as a romantic weekend, with the chauffeur waiting at each stop. Families come for the September parades and family events; booster and child seats are booker options. Groups of friends, wedding parties and company outings book Sprinters or stretch SUVs; see our page for groups visiting Niagara, and planners coordinating several vehicles can use our event and wedding planner service.

How to book this in 3 steps

1. Where and when. Enter your hotel, airport or home address, the date and time, and choose "By the hour" for a festival or pass day (add the flight number if we are meeting a plane).
2. Vehicle. Pick the class for your group; each one shows its fixed fare.
3. Finish and pay. Add guests, bags, child seats and extras, pay securely and receive the email confirmation. Send us your pass route or Montebello timings.

The how to book a limo guide explains changes and the cancellation schedule. Festival weekends may carry a different cancellation deadline, printed on your confirmation.

Check your fixed fare