Welcome to the Swirl, Sniff, Sip, Spit Winery Resource! This community resource is the result of recommendations made by a variety of wine aficionados. It is intended to provide people in search of good wine tasting experiences with recommendations on various wineries and tasting rooms around the world. Entries are made by going to the Entry Page. The results shown can be sorted in various ways by using the “sort by” links below. You can also search by key words using the filter to select the entries of interest to you. We welcome your entries and your feedback. Of course, the opinions expressed are those of the people making the recommendations. Enjoy!
We also have our own list of wineries at our Wineries page.
Posted by Dave O‘Brien on 18 Feb 2009
Its the "friendlist" winery in Napa. Tasting is complimentary. Yes it is still free and if not too crowded you can spend hours just talking wine. The best feature of the tasting is that the entry room is for tasting their sparkling wines. Brut, Blanc de Noir, Rouge. If your tastes are to the fruity sweeter wine the rouge will be a treat. The middle room is for the whites and the back room is where my favorites are--the reds. They have small lot Zins, Cabs and their rising star is their Sangiovese. I purchased a case of the cab and Sangio. No regrets! Tasted as good at home as in the tasting room.
The tasting rooms have a number of Disney memorabilia, as Rich Frank is the past president of Walt Disney Studios. You will enjoy!
This winery is located in Calistoga, CA, USA
Posted by David J. Whelan on 03 Feb 2009
Any visit to the Napa/Sonoma area demands a stop at Clos Pegase. Jan and Mitsuko have created a beautiful world that melds wine, food, art, culture, and fun. From the moment you drive up to Clos Pegase, you know something is different. The winery is architecturally stunning, blending into the hillside, enhanced by whimsical sculpture. Inside, the themes of art and wine continue. Sculpture is joined by paintings of the Pegasus, new versions of which adorn their special Pegase Circle releases every year. Wine dinners, tastings, and cruises with the Schrems are part of the annual cycle at Clos Pegase. And what about the wine? Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon are grown and bottled at this estate winery. I can't remember ever having a bad bottle. Just writing this makes me want to hop in the car and drive up from Los Angeles! Perhaps we will cross paths there....
This winery is located in Calistoga, CA, USA
Posted by Diana on 05 Feb 2009
It's a really nice small vineyard near the Shenandoah's. While vacationing in the Shenandoahs, we visited a small winery. It has a raspberry dessert wine. When you do your tasting, they give you chocolate, and have you put it in your mouth and then swirl the wine with it.
Delicious.
This winery is located in Edinburg, VA, USA
Posted by Diana on 14 Jun 2009
It's not a vineyard, but a way to experience Virginia wines. The park invites different vineyards (one at a time) to have a wine tasting at either Skyland or Big Meadiows Lodge. There is a small gathering of people, wine, cheese and crackers. The servers refresh your glasses throughout while the vineyard representative pours your wine and describes it for you. Barboursville Vineyard was there when I went. While I can't tell you about my visit to the vineyard or winery, I can tell you that the wines were very good and the presenter did a wonderful job. My husband and I enjoyed this visit to the park for the wine tasting, for a vineyard that we knew we wouldn't have time to visit because it was further than we were going to travel for a short visit. I recommend visiting SNP for the wine tasting if you are in the area.
This winery is located in Luray, VA, USA
Posted by Diana Hayes on 09 Feb 2009
This is a small micro winery up in the mountains of New York. According to their website they are the highest elevation vineyard in the Northeast USA. I enjoyed their wine when we visited the town of Windham. They have a day in the fall when they invite the locals to come and help pick grapes. You pick the grapes, have a sumptious feast for lunch and then get to use certificates to pick out wine to bring home. I found it while visiting my sister, introduced her to their wines and she went for the picking. She then picked out the wine for the family Christmas dinner.
My sister brought the rose and chardonnay for dinner, but the maple syrup dessert wine is one of my favorites to pour over my ice cream.
This winery is located in Windham, NY, USA
Posted by Diana Hayes on 23 Feb 2009
Put in Bay is a party town on South Bass Island in Lake Erie. On the back of the Island - or is it the middle, is where the winery is located. You get around the island by renting a golf cart.
Their wine is pretty good. My favorite, since I like sweet wine is the white catabwa - that come from the white catabwa grapes grown on the island. They also have ice wines too.
The winery will even deliver the wine to the ferry for you so that you don't have to lug it around on the golf cart.
This winery is located in Put-in-Bay , OH, USA
Posted by DK on 05 Feb 2009
Small winery, kind of tucked away in the hills of the East Bay, CA. But really a gem of a place, especially in the summer. The 2003 cab is a winner in my book - very easy to drink, as my wife can attest! I like to bring the whole family here, and let my kids run around and enjoy the place, while my wife and I sample the wines. Also try the Riesling.
This winery is located in Castro Valley, CA, USA
Posted by Dottie on 31 May 2009
Twomey Cellars has two tasting rooms, one in Calistoga and one in Healdsburg. I've only been to the one in Healdsburg. It is absolutely stunning. The tasting room is spacious and modern. You stand at the tasting bar and look out through a huge bay window onto the vineyards and parts of the Russian River Valley. The staff is friendly and the wines are tremendous. I especially love their Pinot Noirs. Surrounded by the amazing view, the stunning tasting room and nice people, enjoying some fantastic wine. What could be better than that?
This winery is located in Healdsburg, CA, USA
Posted by Edward Lo on 09 Feb 2009
Very interesting winery with strong Italian roots, producing a great tasting Nebbiolo and Super Tuscan. Had a delicious lunch as part of the GrapeLine tour. They have an outdoor area that can be setup for small weddings and their cask room can accommodate a small reception. The guide on our winery tour told us that on certain days, they will let you taste the wine straight from the fermenting vats. The wine club gives some decent discounts, especially if you buy in quantity.
This winery is located in Temecula, CA, USA
Posted by Erica on 12 Sep 2008
Bedell Cellars is one of the oldest vineyards on Long Island's North Fork, producing truly wonderful original blends on their gorgeous grounds in Cutchogue. I treated myself and my partner and parents to a VIP tour of the vineyard and winery for my birthday this year, and couldn't have been more pleased with the experience.
Our guide, Matt, was friendly, courteous, and knowledgeable, and the tour and tasting was shockingly generous. We were given a glass of their Taste White to enjoy during the tour itself, which led us down among the vines themselves, then into the barrel rooms and bottling room, and lasted approximately an hour. Matt gave a great overview of the wine-making process at Bedell, and was very good-natured about answering our sometimes-stupid questions. Then we were led into the owner's private garden for an incredible wine and cheese tasting - 6 different wines and what must have been over a dozen kinds of cheese plus accompaniments over the course of about an hour and a half, all of them delicious. And at the end of the day we were given an extra discount on our inevitable wine purchases, as well as a percentage break on part of the cost of the tour itself, supposedly due to "the heat in the garden" that day. Perhaps they were only being generous, or perhaps this is their standard procedure to get people too come back, but either way it worked - I am now a dedicated customer of Bedell and will absolutely be going back.
One word of caution - avoid the North Fork during harvest season if you can (early fall) and think twice about visiting on summer Saturdays when the weather is perfect, because rest assured that many, many people will have had the same idea you did and the wineries will be crowded. It can get a little wild out there when there's too many people around.
I've written a more thorough review of our visit to Bedell in my blog, "Table for Two?" - you can read it at http://tabletwoblog.blogspot.com/2008/08/we-3-wine.html
This winery is located in Cutchogue, NY, USA
