BellaOnline Forums Food and Wine Wine Winery Visits - Your Best and Your Worst

Few things are better than a great visit to a winery. You can discuss the wine with those who created it.

On the other hand, a bad winery visit can spoil your day.

What was the best winery visit you ever had?

What was the worst winery visit you ever had?

One of the worst I visited was the Renault Winery near Atalantic City.

I haven't been to many, but I did spend a day going to different ones in Long Island -- they were, for the most part, very nice. Three that stuck out in my mind are W�lffer Estate, Bedell, and Lenz. I will have to stay away from the Atlantic City one you mention above!

It's the same for both-the Inniskillin Winery on the Niagara Peninsula. Though to be fair, the worst part had nothing to do with them, it was a self guided tour and it was cold and windy and raining...
The best part was that it was just before Christmas and they were offering a ten year old petite syrah for a steal, due to the fact that it would soon begin to age too much. I ended up getting several bottles of $75 wine for $17. The only problem was not gulping it it was so delicious!
Kristi

Kristi, What a deal!

I was in the finger lage area at Thanksgiving and was able to visit one really nice winery there. Most were closed.

I think that many of the smaller wine regions are very good for visits. They are often very friendly and you can get a good look at the winery.

We like to take day trips visiting area winerys. Most are very nice and the people very friendly. My favorite is the Oliver Winery in Bloomington Indiana. They have a beautiful lake with a picnic area where you can relax with a glass of wine, which is excellent. The worst trip we made was driving all day to find a place called, I think it was, Possum Lake Winery. Lots of back roads and when we got there is had been closed for several years although it was still listed in the winery guide for that area.

I am headed to Sonoma this July w/the company I work with. They have lined up a bunch of wineries for us to visit and lunch at. We're staying at the Sonoma Mission Inn and Spa which I heard is wonderful!
Any suggestions for dinner or lunch if we are on our own one day??
I've been to quite a few vineyards in Bordeaux, Florence and the Loire and I'm very excited to finally visit some of the famous vineyards in my own country!!
Cheers!
Linda

Sonoma has great wineries, I love Arrowood there. That is the one place I always am sure to stop. Valley of the Moon has gorgeous old vines like little trees.

My favorite winery is in Napa. The V. Sattui winery is fantastic. It looks large and impersonal, and often is packed with people, but it is great.

It's one of the few places that doesn't charge for tastings. The last time we were chatting with the charming, older gentleman who was pouring our wine. It turned out to be the family patriarch.

I like Bully Hill in Finger Lakes. It is a lot of fun.

The Finger Lakes have many great wineries. Last Thanksgiving I visited several. One of the best I found was the McGregor Winery on Keuka Lake.

Where is Bully Hill located?

Bully Hill is on west side of Keuka just north of Hammondsport see http://www.bullyhill.com

Oh, I was close by. The area is beautiful. This is not the New York state that most people think of. It's rural and gorgeous.

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McGregor is a good winery to visit, also one of my favorites. Some nice and unusual wines

Wineries that offer something out of the ordinary are a treat. When I visited the Eckert Estate Winery (review of the visit here) I tasted a Charbono. It was a great red. There are only 80 acres of Charbono grapes in California, so it's not something found everywhere.

Agree with you about out of the ordinary wines. We like the Charbono from Summers Winery in Calistoga

Thanks for the heads up. For those iterested, here is the wine Linda is talking about. This is a wine for serious red wine drinkers.

I grew up in the Finger Lakes, I find that the best wineries are the ones between Cayuga and Seneca Lakes (some of my favorites: Lamoreaux Landing, Wagner Vineyards, Lucas Vineyards and Sheldrake Point Vineyards). The reason that the wine is of a higher quality here is because the two lakes, by far the largest of the Finger Lakes, create a microclimate between them where the temperature is slightly higher in the winter and slightly lower in the summer (we're talking a mere 2 or 3 degrees here, but that's a big deal when it comes to grapes!).

Try the Rieslings from any of these wineries, the Pinot Noir and the Cabernet Franc from Lamoreaux, the Vidal Blanc ice wine from Wagner, the "Tug Boat Red" from Lucas, and the Petite Dry Rose' from Sheldrake Point (pink wine doesn't have to be disgusting!!).

Thanks for the recommendations. It's great to have first hand recommendations.

Hello Friends!

My favorite vineyard visit was several years ago in northern CA at a place called Hess Cellars. They combined wine tasting with art; you could taste their offerings while browsing through their art gallery. I loved it!

The two things that really turn me off at wineries:

First, when they come at you like used car salesmen to join their wine club.

Secondly, when they sell more retail thingies than they do wine. If I wanted to buy outdoor furniture I would have gone to Home Depot!!

Oh, I dislike that as well. I also get upset when they are more interested in promoting their golf course, concert series, t-shirts, antiques, than explaining their wine.

I visited wineries in northern California last year. My favorite winery was GoldenEye. The winery is absolutely spectacular and the wine was simply delicious.

Katie

Where is Golden Eye?

The best visit I had was at the Madonna Estate in Napa Valley. I discovered my favorite wine there, Muscat Canelli. Its really light and fruity.

On a recommendation on Canada's CBC radio wine program, we headed out to Peninsula Ridge near Grimsby in the Niagara area. It is a small winery but charming- a victorian house is its primary feature, and the tasting room and store is all wood beams and skylights- lovely! The wine that took us there is an award winning Viognier- a steal at $12.95 C per bottle. The reviewer said he would buy a case and every Sunday afternoon this summer he would open a bottle. Hearty praise from some pretty jaded palates! From outside the winery you have a hilltop view clear out to Lake Ontario. Worth the sidetrip off of the QEW and a definite stop on the Wine Route of old Hwy 8 along the escarpment.

I visit so many wineries and can appreciate different wineries for very different reasons. One of my favorite winery visits was to a small winery in the Sierra Foothills (outside Jackson, California). The winery is called Avio Vineyards. The setting is beautiful and the owner encourages you to take a walk through the vineyards. The wine is good....and the friendliness of the owner makes you feel as if you have made a friend as well. I have returned numerous times since that first visit.