It was a welcomed deposit into the bank account for five Lincoln wineries during a traditionally slow period in December.
Advertised as the Winter Wine Trail, the weekend wine tour paired a sparkling wine at each winery with food from a local restaurant.
Sue-Ann Staff, president of Sue-Ann Staff Estate Winery in Jordan and one of the wine trail participants, said the event held last December was sold out.
“We ended up selling 266 tickets,” Staff said. “It was neat to see for a first-time event coming out of nowhere.”
The event was made possible thanks, in part, to $5,000 from the Town of Lincoln’s Niagara Benchlands Destination Development Fund, which began in 2022 in a bid to revive local tourism following the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Back for a third year, the town has made available $25,000 to boost tourism in the community.
The deadline to apply for funding is May 6.
“Any tourism-based business in Lincoln is eligible to apply,” said Britnie Bazylewski, Lincoln’s tourism development officer.
“Ideally what we are looking for is the collaborative approach, bringing multiple businesses together and also coming across multiple sectors.”
Bazylewski said typical grants range from $2,500 to $7,500, and applicants are required to provide at least matching funds.
The money is for events, festivals and other initiatives that bring tourism to the community and cannot be used for capital improvements.
Bazylewski said each application is reviewed by an evaluation committee, and this year the emphasis is on projects and events that will draw visitors during the traditionally slow late fall and early winter months.
“We’ve got natural (tourist) traffic from May to September,” Bazylewski said.
“September to December, it becomes a bit more difficult to drive traffic, so we’re recognizing that’s a hole and a gap, so we’ve put a priority in place for our partners to really look at that time of year to see what they can do to put new product (events) or an enhanced product that is already in place.”
Bazylewski said businesses can apply for funding by going to lincoln.ca, adding the application should take less than an hour to fill out.
Meanwhile, building on the success of the Winter Wine Trail, Staff said the same group of wineries is offering a Spring Wine Trail this weekend.
While this event does not have any Benchlands support, Staff said the group will be applying for funding to help back a series of events in November involving 20 to 30 wineries in the Niagara Benchlands area.
“It will be to promote coming to the wineries and to focus on the festive feel,” Staff said.
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