Viewpointe Estate Winery — Attraction in Town of Essex

Okay, 5 stars? For us, a winery review comes down to 2 questions:

What is the team trying to achieve, and 2. How close are they?

Viewpoint exemplifies the "judge them by their own goals" grading philosophy.

They are shooting at four targets, and hitting all four. Produce novel, affordable, easy drinking wines. Their "Old 18A" rosé is the exemplar here, a big dry rosé that laughs "summertime!" whenever you open a bottle. Produce competitive, affordable, mid-level wines. The Cabernet Franc, a stalwart of southern Ontario, punches in right on target here. A big, tasty red with reasonably balanced tannins (oak tannin plus cluster tannin) that can be enjoyed today or cellared for 6 or 8 years with confident development. Library releases to show off cellaring potential. Sure, a winery can suggest holding a vintage for x number of years, but how certain can you be? Library releases put the truth on the table. Viewpoint's recent release of 2012's proves the point: their best vintages are worth waiting for in your cellar. Crowd-pleasing food and entertainment. Ok, here's where I get off the bus. But that's because my tastes run far wide of "popular" food (I'm looking at you, fried-food lovers) and "popular" entertainment (I'm looking at you, Baby Boomers). But look, just because those things aren't my thing doesn't take away from the fact that Viewpoint delivers EXACTLY what they are setting out to achieve: popular food, on the patio, by the lake, with live music the clientele enjoys. How can I downrate that?

Viewpoint offers a full range of quality wines at reasonable prices that you can take home, have delivered, or enjoy on the patio or down by the lake, with views that don't stop. Judging them by THEIR goals? 5 stars. Check them out.

Easy drive from Detroit, London, or Toronto. Friendly staff. Comfortable seating indoors and out. Easy parking. Groups...

I spent Sunday lunchtime with friends at Viewpointe. We ordered our food and drinks ( the selection of food wasn’t great - and the method of ordering was totally frustrating) we were each given a buzzer to go and collect our food when ready. Our friends buzzer went and they collected their food - ours didn’t when our fronds had almost finished our food (we were still waiting to be buzzed) our friends looked at our buzzer number and said hey I am sure I saw that number when we collected ours - I went and looked and sure enough there was our food … it had been sitting outside on this hot day for a while. I wanted fresh food - not prepared to eat this when it had been sitting for so long. Trying to find someone to help me was impossible - I asked the girl at the cash desk “she was too busy l and said I had to wait . I went into the store the lady in their said she don’t know what to do and did not know where the manager was . I asked on the kitchen they were not prepared to help either. WHAT A WAY TO KILL A LUNCH WITH GOOD FRIENDS. Eventually I found someone who said they were a manger and she arranged for my food to be changed and would let me k ow when it was ready. No real apology just “well we are busy” - honestly not wasn’t really busy at all. The food came - it was mediocre at best and served in their “speciality” take out containers . We left after eating . All four of us vowing not to use this winery again… there are plenty of others to choose from. I have one star because the view is lovely. Knocked off stars for the service ( there was not any) the food (blah)the ambience and the take out containers. On a plus. It’s we hot Dairy Queen after .. great ice cream service and seating . If you are reading this because you want ab honest review I would say”GIVE...

Don’t know where to start…. The owner of this winery has no idea what he’s doing to this place. CLUELESS to say the least. We show up great big building great view. Cordial staff. You need to scan a barcode to be seated, served and get orders. You get a pager to pick up your own food. Wait staff don’t serve you anything in person. Outdoor patio patrons walk 100 ft to get their own food BEEP BEEP pager. LOL….been to over a dozen wineries within the last year in this region. I’m from Windsor. 1st winery to serve wine in plastic cups for the FLIGHTS AND GLASSES….JUST BRUTAL….We cancelled the remainder of our order after our CHARCUTERIE BOARD which we picked up from the front door after buzzard went off. It was served in a PLASTIC CONTAINER meant for STRAWBERRIES you’d buy at a grocery store. How pitiful. No Napkins utensils. Potential dipping sauces etc… no plates. Oh, and no SERVER assistance. Do everything for yourself. This is suppose to be a winery. Not a buffet. No LOCAL BEVERAGES to choose from like IP KINGSVILLE BREWERY BEERS like other wineries supporting local businesses. Home brand was horrible. Wineries like restaurants are there to SERVE PEOPLE….C’mon, Cooks/kitchen staff need to be retrained by Gordon Ramsey, what a kitchen nightmare …..LOL…. I was afraid for our group being served our food in another strawberry container. BAHAHAHAHA it’s unfortunate the girls that work here have no say in RE ESTABLISHING this into a legitimate Winery. No common sense used here. Sad to say the least. HIRE an outside consultant to CHANGE EVERYTHING. Servers were fine.

I would sell this place if I owned it. It’s not worth the Tax Right off that it is.

What a Shame though. Has a lot of potential.

Lastly Its called a “Charcuterie board” for a reason. It’s to be...