Dark Horse Estate Winery
Dark Horse Estate Winery
4
12:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Monday
Closed
Tuesday
Closed
Wednesday
Closed
Thursday
12:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Friday
12:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Saturday
12:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Sunday
12:00 PM - 5:00 PM
About
Dark Horse Estate Winery Inc. is located just minutes from the shores of Lake Huron and next door to the iconic Huron Country Playhouse. The centerpiece of the estate is a 31, 000 sq. ft. manor, which includes a banquet facility, ballroom, state-of-the-art production facility, barrel cellar, tasting room, elite VIP Lounge, and patios overlooking the vineyards. Dark Horse Estate Winery gives its guests a chance to leave the stresses of everyday life behind, to enjoy the robust flavours of their extensive portfolio of wine. It's time to experience something new: Come for the Sunsets, Stay for the Wine. During the summer months from June to August, Dark Horse Estate Winery offers Patio fare and service.
Duration: 1-2 hours
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Most Recent: Reviews ordered by most recent publish date in descending order.
Detailed Reviews: Reviews ordered by recency and descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as waiting time, length of visit, general tips, and location information.
Popular mentions
4.0
199 reviews
Excellent
102
Very good
41
Average
19
Poor
17
Terrible
20
SJB
London, Canada37 contributions
Jul 2023 • Friends
My wife, I and two friends had lunch at Dark Horse Estate Winery on the patio prior to attending a musical at the Huron County Playhouse located next door. We ordered the wood fired pizza and and it was excellent. We enjoyed some wine and a froze with our pizza and they were really good. Our server Naomi provided excellent service. She checked on us numerous times and made sure we enjoyed our meal. We will definitely come back in the future
Written July 30, 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Steve B
1 contribution
May 2023 • Friends
We had dinner at the new Danu Cellars on May 27th. Andrew led us through our experience and was obviously knowledgeable and passionate about wine and the culinary genius of the chef. One of the best experiences and meals we have had in years. Toronto 5 star equivalent cuisine and service and with an ambience in the wine cellar that high-end Toronto establishments will never match. We give it six stars and wholeheartedly recommend this hidden gem.
Written May 28, 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
PHILLIP H
Parksville, Canada1 contribution
Aug 2024 • Family
Amazed that you could have a big city fine dining experience in Grand Bend. The chef demonstrated top notch cooking and plating technique The wine was also surprisingly good. A great restaurant to celebrate special occasions for sure.
Written September 5, 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Pat S
1 contribution
Jul 2022
We had booked on-line and pre-paid as required for a 20 min. structured wine tasting at 2:30. We arrived at 2:20 and were told that the wine expert was running late and that we would have a short wait. 45 min. later the previous tasting was still going on and showed no signs of wrapping up. We advised staff that we had another appointment and were told that he would be ready for our tasting in 5 minutes. After another 15 minutes we asked them to cancel our tasting and requested a refund. They had to get the the owner who then told us they would give us a credit for the tasting against the purchase of wine. So we had to purchase 3 bottles of wine in order to get a full refund for our prepaid tasting. What really bothered us was that the owner offered no apology for keeping us waiting over an hour and that we were not able to have a tasting. We do winery tastings quite frequently and have never experienced such poor service. Very disappointed!
Written July 25, 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Unfortunately you showed up at 2:35pm. Our structured tastings are on the half hour mark, our sommelier was immersed in the tasting that just started, which our staff asked if you wanted to join late, which unfortunately you said no, we offered the 3pm tasting, but it didn't work with your schedule. Our operations manager came out to override the POS system to give you the pre-purchased amount for the tasting back into credit for you to spend on wine in the retail store, which was at 2:47pm. The operations manager did in fact apologize that the staff were new and that it took a few minutes to get her to override the system.
Kind Regards,
Management
Written August 2, 2022
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
Cannuckk
Langley, Canada380 contributions
Jul 2023 • Friends
Ours was an unusual visit in that the winery didn’t seem particularly interested in promoting sales of their wines.
The” tasting” on offer was of two wines at a cost of $15, which isn’t much of an opportunity to really determine which product you might want to purchase, as well as being very much on the expensive side considering you were only allowed two tastings and there was( apparently) no credit if you purchased bottles afterwards.
On reviewing their website later, it seems tastings are normally only Monday-Wednesday ( 4 tastings, $25 ). Maybe they have insufficient visitors to justify tastings on weekends, or have no problem selling all their wine as it is. In any event, if you are someone who enjoys tastings as an activity, I’m not sure this is the winery for you.
Having said all that, we ended up buying glasses of wine to drink on the patio, and the wine we did sample seemed pretty good. Seems like a missed opportunity to me, but ultimately we enjoyed our visit.
The” tasting” on offer was of two wines at a cost of $15, which isn’t much of an opportunity to really determine which product you might want to purchase, as well as being very much on the expensive side considering you were only allowed two tastings and there was( apparently) no credit if you purchased bottles afterwards.
On reviewing their website later, it seems tastings are normally only Monday-Wednesday ( 4 tastings, $25 ). Maybe they have insufficient visitors to justify tastings on weekends, or have no problem selling all their wine as it is. In any event, if you are someone who enjoys tastings as an activity, I’m not sure this is the winery for you.
Having said all that, we ended up buying glasses of wine to drink on the patio, and the wine we did sample seemed pretty good. Seems like a missed opportunity to me, but ultimately we enjoyed our visit.
Written July 17, 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
We offer self guided flights in our retail/tasting area in the summer Mon to Wed, Thursday to Sunday we offer 2 types of structured tastings, one longer version and one shorter version, the longer version is 4 wines and the mini tasting is 2 wines. Unfortunately most wineries have steered away from offering complimentary tastings with purchase of select number of bottles, we focus on education and experience. Our Sommelier on staff is educated and can assist with choosing a wine for you.
Cheers
Management
Written August 13, 2023
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
Scenic87351
Port Dover, Canada1 contribution
Aug 2023
Ridiculous and will never go back. We arrived after a play at the Huron County Playhouse at 4:30pm. We were told the upstairs wine area and patio were closed. Their hours state 11am to 6pm.
We could not get any wine tastings. Then another staff member heard what we were being told and said well you could go downstairs to our fine dining restaurant and they would allow you a glass of wine!
We did go downstairs just to see but who on earth wants to sit in a basement on a beautiful sunny day!
Needless to say we left and will never go back. They must be independently wealthy as they had zero interest in us being there and us spending our money!
We travel to wineries all over Oxford County, Essex County, Niagara on the Lake and the Jordon region to name some, we have never been treated this way or saw a business operated with these ridiculous rules and hours.
Best of luck to you!
We could not get any wine tastings. Then another staff member heard what we were being told and said well you could go downstairs to our fine dining restaurant and they would allow you a glass of wine!
We did go downstairs just to see but who on earth wants to sit in a basement on a beautiful sunny day!
Needless to say we left and will never go back. They must be independently wealthy as they had zero interest in us being there and us spending our money!
We travel to wineries all over Oxford County, Essex County, Niagara on the Lake and the Jordon region to name some, we have never been treated this way or saw a business operated with these ridiculous rules and hours.
Best of luck to you!
Written August 13, 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Roam155028
1 contribution
Oct 2021
We've been there last Sunday, nice weather for a bike ride, nice location, some interesting wines, friendly waiters. First bummer: no pizza after Labour Day... Second bummer: Overpriced (40 CAD), prepacked charcuterie box with crackers. We found in there a rotten strawberry and a container with mouldy pickled pepper pieces. After complaining to the waiter she went to the manager, came back to tell us, the best she could do is taking of 10% of the food box. Not even an apology. Poor management, won't come back.
Written October 5, 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
As previously responded on your google review,
We appreciate you bringing this issue to our attention. Your feedback helps us do better. We sincerely apologize that this happened. Our staff let us know about this later on that evening. Unfortunately they were so busy that they were unable to replace the items or engage the manager to get this properly rectified when it happened. We cannot change the past, but we encourage you to reach out to info@darkhorseestatewinery.com so that we can try to make this right and rectify this issue.
Regards
Management
Written October 29, 2021
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
Sophia V
2 contributions
Jul 2022 • Friends
This winery continues to disappoint. Over the last few years we have attempted to visit numerous times. Unfortunately, each time the service deteriorates a little more.
We visited with friends from overseas (who had had wonderful experiences at the wineries in Niagara on the Lake). We arrived at about 4:30 pm and asked for a table for four. We were told that there was only a table for six and they couldn’t seat four people at a table for six. I indicated that we had four more people at home who wanted to join, so could they accommodate eight people at the table for six? I was told that the winery had no more chairs, thus they were unable to sit two more people.
In addition we were told that they had run out of food and were invited to go to the “wine garden” an unattractive tent with wooden picnic benches to sample wine and order food from the food truck. Not an appealing alternative.
The Dark Horse could be a lovely destination in Grand Bend if it were under competent management. Sadly, in my experience, over several years, it is not.
We visited with friends from overseas (who had had wonderful experiences at the wineries in Niagara on the Lake). We arrived at about 4:30 pm and asked for a table for four. We were told that there was only a table for six and they couldn’t seat four people at a table for six. I indicated that we had four more people at home who wanted to join, so could they accommodate eight people at the table for six? I was told that the winery had no more chairs, thus they were unable to sit two more people.
In addition we were told that they had run out of food and were invited to go to the “wine garden” an unattractive tent with wooden picnic benches to sample wine and order food from the food truck. Not an appealing alternative.
The Dark Horse could be a lovely destination in Grand Bend if it were under competent management. Sadly, in my experience, over several years, it is not.
Written July 17, 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Sophia,
It saddens us to hear this! Our Wine garden is a beautiful white tent with resin (not wood) picnic tables, along with fun outdoor lawn games for larger groups to sit, chat and have fun. We offer wine cocktails and wine out of our wine trailer, including sangria and frose. Our patio off our retail has limited seating, we are sorry we could not accommodate your group size. We tried to accommodate your group at the wine garden which is immersed right in our vineyard. Our award winning chef offered a local farm to table experience from our gourmet food truck. If you have any leads on staff for our kitchen that would be greatly appreciated as I am sure you are aware that staffing is an issue for our area. We are just coming out of a pandemic, and made alterations to the business that works for us.
Kind Regards,
Dark Horse
Management
Written August 2, 2022
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
Breanna S
2 contributions
Oct 2021
Beautiful Venue
Holly walked us through every step of the way, from booking to recommending vendors to the day of. Although it was a COVID year, Ashley and Holly took the time to explain the restrictions and were able to tailor our day to reflect our vision while still adhering to the COVID Policies. Dark Horse Estate Winery is a beautiful venue and very well maintained, there was definitely attention to detail when building this venue. The bathrooms were stunning! Our guests had a great time and are still taking about it!
Holly walked us through every step of the way, from booking to recommending vendors to the day of. Although it was a COVID year, Ashley and Holly took the time to explain the restrictions and were able to tailor our day to reflect our vision while still adhering to the COVID Policies. Dark Horse Estate Winery is a beautiful venue and very well maintained, there was definitely attention to detail when building this venue. The bathrooms were stunning! Our guests had a great time and are still taking about it!
Written November 12, 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Kaitlyn F
London, Canada6 contributions
Dec 2019
Dark Horse Winery is a BEAUTIFUL venue, with great views and picture opportunities. It's location in Grand Bend makes it feel like a destination wedding, even if you're only coming in from an hour away. For that, Dark Horse made a great venue choice for us. Unfortunately, we wish that we had really done our research and got to know who we would be dealing with better before committing to the expensive price tag.
Dark Horse is a pricey venue and after talking to other professionals in the wedding industry, the owners have quite the reputation. The reputation for being rude, unwilling to accommodate, and downright unreasonable at times. We learned all of these to be true and more during the half day of setup, morning in the bridal suite, and the wedding itself.
If you want anything to be tweaked or modified, expect eye rolling, rude tones, and to top it off- nasty side comments when they believe there isn't anyone around. I would never step foot in another establishment that has anything to do with Ashley and Craig [-].
Luckily, the wedding was a success. It was beautiful, it was a dream wedding and my sister the bride, had people like me (MOH), our mother, and other family members to deal with ill-mannered owners and the smaller details to make sure it played out just like she had envisioned. If you're lucky, you won't have to deal with them at all. Several of the other staff, such as Holly, was better to work with.
My advice to you if you are a bride looking for a venue and considering dark horse winery is, ask a LOT of questions. Know EXACTLY what you are getting with your money for the venue. Have support during the wedding day. You probably thought you thought of everything, but you probably didn't. Have someone you can lean on to help you deal with the owners. If you know what you want and envision for your wedding day, go somewhere else. Their lack of flexibility or willingness to accommodate without acting like you're a complete inconvenience isn't worth the struggle. I have yet to meet another venue who appears to hate doing events as much as Dark Horse.
If you aren't looking at Dark Horse as a wedding venue and are just looking to visit. I strongly believe in supporting small business and the local community but I also believe in treating people like you would want to be treated. I would recommend you taking your money elsewhere, where you'll be treated well and people appreciating your business.
Dark Horse is a pricey venue and after talking to other professionals in the wedding industry, the owners have quite the reputation. The reputation for being rude, unwilling to accommodate, and downright unreasonable at times. We learned all of these to be true and more during the half day of setup, morning in the bridal suite, and the wedding itself.
If you want anything to be tweaked or modified, expect eye rolling, rude tones, and to top it off- nasty side comments when they believe there isn't anyone around. I would never step foot in another establishment that has anything to do with Ashley and Craig [-].
Luckily, the wedding was a success. It was beautiful, it was a dream wedding and my sister the bride, had people like me (MOH), our mother, and other family members to deal with ill-mannered owners and the smaller details to make sure it played out just like she had envisioned. If you're lucky, you won't have to deal with them at all. Several of the other staff, such as Holly, was better to work with.
My advice to you if you are a bride looking for a venue and considering dark horse winery is, ask a LOT of questions. Know EXACTLY what you are getting with your money for the venue. Have support during the wedding day. You probably thought you thought of everything, but you probably didn't. Have someone you can lean on to help you deal with the owners. If you know what you want and envision for your wedding day, go somewhere else. Their lack of flexibility or willingness to accommodate without acting like you're a complete inconvenience isn't worth the struggle. I have yet to meet another venue who appears to hate doing events as much as Dark Horse.
If you aren't looking at Dark Horse as a wedding venue and are just looking to visit. I strongly believe in supporting small business and the local community but I also believe in treating people like you would want to be treated. I would recommend you taking your money elsewhere, where you'll be treated well and people appreciating your business.
Written January 9, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Kaitlyn,
Dark Horse Estate Winery prides itself on having a beautiful and elite venue, and we have policies and procedures laid out to protect our venue so that we can continue to ensure all our guests who walk through our doors are still in awe!
All of our services, pricing, policies and procedures including timelines were laid out in our wedding packages, contract and addressed in the final meeting.
We are happy to hear our venue coordinator was able to assist you and your family on the day of Emily’s wedding, and Emily’s day was a success! We wish you and your family a Happy New Year!
As mentioned previously to Charlene we are more than willing to sit down and discuss further.
Kind Regards,
Management
Written January 23, 2020
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
No dress code, we are having a contest for best dressed for the occasion.
Written March 16, 2018
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