North Mountain Vineyard & Winery — Attraction in Virginia

This is a review of my first North Mountain Winery experience on 3-12-21. To begin, I have to say that as far as a setting, North Mountain's is top notch, but one of the drawbacks is that no matter how you access it, you have to go by gravel road. I feel like this might be important information for those that don't want to go off the paved path. Google Maps led me through the back roads out of Woodstock to the winery. The worst of it is actually the driveway from the road to the main building.

Next, I recognize that we've been in a pandemic and I certainly applaud those businesses that have taken the necessary steps to protect their patrons, but I feel like they might be going overboard here at North Mountain, as no guests are permitted to enter the building where the tasting room and bathrooms are located. Yes, you read that right... no public bathroom access if you're visiting this winery. All wine is ordered and served outside. I've been to other wineries and breweries over the last year when possible, and while all of them required masks and social distancing, this is the only one I've seen to this point that cut off access completely, to the point that guests they're selling beer and wine to can't access the bathrooms. Speaking of accessibility, there's no handicap access to anywhere here where you would place an order. All public entrances are accessed by stairs, as far as I could tell.

On to the wine - we ordered two flights, which are broken up by reds and whites, five per flight. You can't order flights that mix reds and white wines, so if you want to sample both, you have to order both flights, which are $15. The flights are served in five 2 oz. pours in plastic ramekins like that you might serve ranch dressing in with a salad or an order of wings. They can't be bothered with glassware here like the other wineries and breweries that are operating now under the same pandemic. If you do want real glass, you have to bring it yourself or buy theirs. The five wines in the white wine flight that I ordered were the 2017 Grüner Veltliner, 2016 Vidal Blanc, 2016 Chardonnay, 2017 Zweigelt Rosé and the 2017 Riesling. Of the five, I recommend the Vidal Blanc. None of these wines made me feel like staying and paying for an additional bottle on top of the two flights (one red, one white) that were ordered.

In short, if you're able bodied (can climb stairs) and aren't planning on staying very long at North Mountain, I recommend taking your own glasses, and ordering a bottle of the Vidal...

We visited North Mountain on a Saturday around 1pm with a wine bus tour guide. Upon arrival 14 tasting seats were set up for our group in the tasting room. Because we were not told anything we were confused and assumed the tasting was possibly complimentary. She did not wait for our entire party to be seated (we were on the bus for 50 minutes and there were only 2 bathrooms at the winery so we were taking turns going) and throughout the tasting she would get frustrated that we had side conversation or any discussions wanting us to quickly finish our sample so we could move to the next one. At one point a table was even called rowdy. This was our first stop and we had not been drinking previously so while we were excited I would hardly have considered us rowdy. After tasting 5 wines she announces the tasting was $25 a person and she can help us at the front counter to pay or for purchase of any wine by the glass or bottle. The wine was okay but the service was poor and we would have spent more if we had not been immediately sat down for a tasting because most would have preferred to buy bottles or glasses than a tasting. I was sober throughout our time there as I am pregnant and found the whole situation uncomfortable and uninviting. We left early to enjoy more time at our next 2 wineries where we were far rowdier but served...

Many quality wines with highly knowledgeable staff. The 2022 Chardonnay was our favorite, hands down. It didn't taste like a typical Chardonnay but then I'm not used to wines age in the "sur lie" style! I love that North Mountain's wines are all made wjth grapes that they grew themselves (estate wines), which is dadly something that so many Virginia wineries no longer do for all their wines. If you're looking for a huge, modern winery, then this is not that. This is a winery that was founded in 1982 and spends far more time focused on the wines themselves than the furnishings or architecture of the tasting room. If you want a someone with an encyclopedic knowledge of the science of wine (!), then Andrew, the assistant winemaker, is absolutely your person. If you're lucky, you might meet the "owner" of the winery, a dog...