Wines, like a comfortable T-shirt or a hard candy left to ripen under the couch, only get better with age. Taste the passing of time with today's Groupon: for $40, you get a private group walking tour for 10 to 15 visitors at Pillitteri Estates Winery in Niagara-on-the-Lake (up to a $120 value).

Honoured with more than 500 awards, Pillitteri Estates Winery produces rich reds, fragrant whites, and signature icewines. Tour groups of 10 to 15 visitors kick off their oenophile journey in the awards room, stuffed to an impressive degree with plaudits from both domestic and international competitions and organizations. After a visit to the press room, where vintners do their grape-squeezing and movable type-shuffling, guides usher guests into the neo-Norman barrel cellar, a cooled concrete vault filled with litres of libations aging in oak barrels. From the ceiling hang 23 stainless steel chairs bearing etchings recounting the ancestral origin myth of the winery's proprietors, the Pillitteri family, two generations of whom remain active in the estate's day-to-day operations.

The tour closes with a private tasting of two red and two white premium VQA wines, as well as a sampling of Pillitteri's award-winning cold-harvested Vidal icewine, an intense concentration of flavours, aromas, and roundhouse kicks to the palate. Local cheeses such as white cheddar and havarti accompany the beverages, as do crackers, bread, and fresh fruit.

Reviews

Pillitteri Estates Winery has been featured in Wines and Vines, Spotlight Toronto, and Wine Current.

• It may not have the glitz and glamour of some of the other landmark wineries along the route, but, make no mistake, this family winery has history, tradition and a solid track record up and down its portfolio. – Rick Vansickle, Spotlight Toronto
• There’s an electrified bolt of energy surging through this well-established Niagara-on-the-Lake winery. It’s an exciting mix of innovative techniques and traditional family values. – Vic Harradine, Wine Current