Parallel 44 Vineyard & Winery — Attraction in Town of Franklin

We have been meaning to go to this place for a couple of years. Today was the day. We walked into the building and found it open and light. A friendly lass approached us and filled us in on the protocols. We were directed to a tasting area in the back. Here Steve offered us samples of 4 wines, a white and three reds. There were also some tasty cheese samples. Although we don't usually drink white wine, we found the white pretty good. All the reds were outstanding. The Marquette Reserve is pure nectar! We moved to the front room, to the bar. There was live music. We were offered another four samples. All the wines were reds and there wasn't a bad one among the batch. In fact they were all really good. Make sure you try the wild grape wine. We thought about joining their wine club; but balked when we found we had no say in the wines that would be shipped to us every 3 months. We have no desire to be offered a sweet white wine and have no alternatives. This cost them a star. So no, we didn't join up. All in all, this is a nice winery to visit. The people there are extremely nice; and their wines, albeit a bit expensive, are excellent. If you like fine local wine; and are up for a ride in the country, it would behoove you to come out here, enjoy the scenery, and...

Terrible customer service but decent wine. My husband first called ahead to make sure they were giving tours since the tour of the vineyard was the main reason we chose to go to this winery. Once we arrived we waited about ten minutes before any worker acknowledged us so we again asked about the tour. We were assured that we could make the 2:30 tour so we proceeded with the wine tasting and bought two bottles of wine. The whole time we were there there were only a handful of other customers but hadn't heard anything about the tour so we asked a final time during checkout when the tour would start. The woman (who we had asked about the tour upon our arrival) glanced at the clock and said the next one was at 3:30 since it had just turned 2:35. She made sure to mention that we could purchase glasses of wine and sit and wait another 50 minutes for the next tour to start. It seemed very suspicious that we weren't told about the tour until immediately after we had purchased the bottles of wine so we were not willing to spend one cent nor one minute more there.

My summarized advice is to skip this place altogether. If interested in their wine just go to your local Festival Foods since the bottles are cheaper...

Oh, what a magical and charming place it is! In the middle of nowhere, in the sense that it's surrounded by ordinary (also charming in its own way!) Midwest farmland, and yet its architecture, decor and business seems somewhat otherworldly in this context. That in itself wouldn't merit a 5-star review if it wasn't for the wine selection! Some of the vintages are quite amazing (the "Bottleshock" movie comes to mind!). The sample selection in particular is worth trying. It doesn't mean a customer is going to like ALL of them, it seems to be designed to offer a selection from which at least a few appelations/vintages will please everybody. Which means you're not going to leave the table disappointed but pleased and even positively astonished by a few items on the list. Not to mention the prices. Spoiled Napa Valley producers are way too accustomed to their name recognition and should all pilgrimage to Parallel 44 for a few humility lessons and a reality check. Take that from a...