We went here the day after a wedding on our way home. The owner was very friendly and the building was very nice. The sampling cost $3 for 4 (tiny) samples. The fee was waived if you bought any wine. I wasn't impressed with the wine but we bought a bottle to try at home. I think it's great that small vineyards are popping up around the western WI and eastern MN border.
I stopped at Garvin Heights on a leg of my wine tasting bachelorette party with a group of 15 women. Overall, I was not especially impressed with the wine. The wines were incredibly aromatic, but were not too pleasing to the palate. I, as well as other members of my group, felt that the wine tasting pours were rather stingy when compared with the other wineries we stopped at that day. It also felt as though the people doing the tasting were more concerned with making sure no one got an extra pour of wine than whether or not we were actually enjoying what we were drinking. The staff harped at my group about paying for their wine tasting with $20 bills (sorry, but that's all that comes out of the ATM)! I do not imagine I will ever return to Garvin Heights.
This winery is about average from the others I have been too, but it is not bad for being a smaller winery. We tried the wine tasting and also the additional port tasting and the wines were great. I enjoyed the raspberry wine and mixed with the port was even better. The small tasting area was busy but we were still given good service, even though it felt a little rushed. The wine tasting is $5 which is refunded if you buy a bottle of wine, and the port tasting is $3 and you get to keep the glass. The drive to the top of the bluff where the winery is located is worth it too.
We stopped in on a touring day, and the setting is very nice. Nestled high up in a very rural area, the day was beautiful.At first look, the building was small, but the staff made up for it. We only did a tasting and shopped the fun merchandise. Again, these are Minnesota cold grape vintages--which the staff was careful to mention. You won't get the typical California wine taste.As such the reds were more to our taste. We like drier wines, and they had two I liked. The bottles were reasonably priced, and they deducted the tasting price (only $5) when you bought a bottle.Again, they were so helpful, and gave us directions to continue down to the Mississippi, and also some information on the Minnesota-Wisconsin wine trail.The views from the outdoor patio are very nice, and it's a relaxing place to sit and wine.A nice stop, decent wine, and a lot of local flavor.
As other people have said ... don't trust the GPS. However, if you visit their website, you are warned in advance and given very good directions. We were there at 10:00 in the morning and the gentleman that greeted us was extremely friendly and informative. We enjoyed the tastings and the visit. Personal preference was the Brianna wine - very good. I believe tastings were $3, but refunded with the purchase of a bottle of wine. Nice selection of gift items. Nice view. To hot to sit outside when we were there, even at 10:00 a.m. Would recommend a visit, nice little winery.
Lovely vineyard featuring a truly unique and surprising Choco Peche wine. The owner was nice and taught us about cold weather grapes.
The Marquette Wine is palatable and by far the best they offer. The view from the deck is lovely and a perfect place to sip a glass of wine and enjoy the day. The staff was friendly, but did not necessarily exude a passion for discussing the merits of the wines chosen for tasting
As far as vineyards go, I was a bit let down. They have an OK tasting room, offer 5 wines for $5 and have a small vineyard on the grounds. My host for the tasting was great, offered up tons of history on Winona and the area, but I just didn't like the wines and found the reds having a bit of a Robitussin taste. It's not to far from the Garvin Heights Bluff overlook, but just struck me as more of a Home brew set up than any real production facility which may appeal to some.
We really lived the location but only found one wine that e liked. Our host was very friendly and suggested several places for dinner. We were refunded one of our $5.00 tasting fees because we bought one bottle. The place was nice but we were disappointed.
Service was good. Wine was average for Minnesota wines. We bought a couple of bottles of two wines we tasted and liked. The red we bought must have been from a different year than what we tasted or something happened in the wine making process because it was nothing like what we tasted at the vineyard. It tasted of vinegar and was not even drinkable.