Rendez-vous Winery

I visit the Old Sugar Mill every couple months or so, and I try to hit up a couple different tasting rooms each time. I’ve been to Rendez-​vous a few times, and I am sad to say that while I dig the selection of olive oils and other goodies, I’m not a fan of the wines. Rendez-​vous offers a number of late-​harvest wines, which are significantly sweeter than most other wines. I think this is a good place for novice wine tasters who may find the sweetness of the wines more palatable, but I don’t recommend it to those who enjoy more traditional wines.
Don’t get me wrong, this is a popular winery and has a pretty big following. It’s just not for me. I would consider coming back if there was a wider range of wines (i.e. not so sweet) because I’m sure the winemaker is capable of it.
There are 8 – 10 other tasting rooms at the Old Sugar Mill, and even if you spend the whole day here you may not get to them all (or if you do, you’ll be too drunk to remember what you tasted). If you do visit Rendez-​vous, be open to sweet wines, or skip them altogether and try the olive oil tasting instead. It’s actually pretty fun because you get to try some interesting flavor combinations of infused olive oils and flavored vinegars. As an incentive to take some of these combinations home, a discount is available for buying multiple bottles of olive oils and vinegars that make for great marinades and dressings.
It’s also worth mentioning that there’s usually some chocolate floating around that you can taste alone or with the wines. If you don’t see any, ask. I believe there is usually some chocolate bars and other treats available for purchase.

Always very friendly and although I’ve had some good wines, some are just too sweet for me. I do have to say that-that’s what many of my friends and family do love about them.

Cute place in the Sugar Mill, friendly service and a nice location. However, I was there for wine and this wine was just not drinkable. Everyone has a different palate, so some people may like their wine, it was just not for me. Too many white wines that were blah, their red wines were too sweet, I would not return.
Plus, she charged a $ 5 tasting fee. Sure, if you buy a bottle, they refund it, but I didn’t want even one bottle of wine between four of us, so we donated the $ 20 (4 tastings /​$ 5 each) and called it a day.
I buy a bottle at most wineries that I have visited as I can usually find one decent one and it’s nice (if the service is decent), but I could not find one bottle to bring home. Good luck, I hope they improve their wine.

Unfortunately their guy named a Dave is a pompous prick. I don’t care if you’ve tasted 16,000 wines, tell me about the ones your pouring. Asshat.

Oh my lord! The butterscotch pineapple pairs so well with the Chardonnay and I honestly have NEVER tasted a better dip in my life! I highly recommend stopping in. This is by far my favorite stop in the wine and cheese faire!

The pineapple butterscotch cheese dip is absolutely amazing! Especially paired with their Chardonnay. This is my favorite winery at the Old Sugar Mill.
Oh and they had a super sexy guy working the wine and cheese faire! Awesome wines, treats, and a view! Haha

Had WONDERFUL service from a sweet, 30-​something, pretty blonde lady. She was incredibly knowledgeable and friendly! They have some good wines, but are little high priced for my liking. Overall, though, it was a very enjoyable experience! Oh, I should also mention the olive oil and balsamic vinegar tastings too! We bought a delicious bottle of porcini olive oil.

The new space is wonderful and roomy! The entire staff is excellent and it’s nice to see a new area to try the oils and vinegars. As usual, Larry was out front serving up the deal of the weekend, which was the white sangria. The red sangria was very good, but Larry’s got to get through the licensing process before they can sell it. Steve served us at the new counter and we talked about prior wine club events and award winning wines. The wines here are reasonably priced; our favorites are the chardonnay, rendez rouge and primitivo.

Fantastic winery and great service! Excellent variety of wines. I especially love the white wines and the Grenache Rose. Andrea was very helpful! We will be back!

This is my favorite winery out at the Old Sugar Mill. (I’ve even joined their wine club). The staff is friendly, helpful, and knowledgeable. They pair their wines with a small bite for many of their wines and this is great for learning what each wine pairs well with. I have yet to taste a wine here that I didn’t like.
The price is reasonable and they always make the tasting experience enjoyable.
You really should check it out!

Awesome winery! We went in and instantly fell in love with Lindsey! She’s great and super knowledgeable, she’s actually part of the reason why we joined the wine club, other part is we really like their white wines. I’d recommend this winery and I have to my friends. No complaints so far.
1. Friendly environment
2. Good wine
3. Reasonable prices
SOLD!

We were treated like VIP when we last came in! We were tucked away in a back corner-​we tasted a variety of reds along with (usually my lease favorite) white wine too. I can now say that there is a white wine that I would look forward to drinking. Make sure you try the Chenin Blanc. The olive oils and balsamic vinegars that they sell are also so very good!

I absolutely LOVE this place. I will drive over an hour just to go pick up bottles of their wine. They have the best dessert wines, EVER! They have a Late Harvest Chardonnay that is to die for. If you get that, you can’t leave without the extremely special white chocolate truffles that are made exclusively for this wine, it is like a little taste of heaven in your mouth!
As I rave about their wines you must try their balsamic vinegar as well, I’m sure if you can think of a flavor, they have imagined it and brought it to life. My favorite it the Pumpkin but you just really can’t go wrong.

Hot and cold reception here. But I am still intrigued.

This was my last stop at Old Sugar Mill, and Kevin, the tasting room host, made it very memorable. He is a sweet guy, and one hell of a chef. I squeezed in right before they were closing for the day, and got to try all of their wines. Definetly on the sweeter side of the spectrum, but good wine. My memory, or lack there of fails me, but I got to try a mini vertical of the 2009, 2011, and 2012 Barrel Taste of the Petite Sirah or Rendezrouge. It was a really cool experience and Kevin was so nice I had to sign up for the club!

You can’t possibly taste at every winery at Old Sugar Mill in one day; I’ll skip this one in the future, for the following reasons:
1) The wines are really sweet — too sweet. If you’re a sweet wine drinker, you should consider this place. They blend a few of their wines with late harvest Chardonnay, including red wine. It’s just unfortunate.
2). $ 5 tasting fee for not a lot of wines — I think there were 5 wines, and 3 of them involved late harvest Chardonnay. Several wineries have tasting fees here now (but not Todd Taylor, which is still, by far the best, unrelated to fees), but they have a huge variety of wines to taste. This was $ 5 for 5 wines — we did not like a single one, and were not at all tempted to buy. Generally, it’s a great deal just to taste some new wines, but we did not feel that way about these wines. It’s not a ton of money, but I always feel happy to pay it at Clarksburg Wine Company, Carvalho, and Heringer. Estates. here I felt tricked into tasting and paying for wine I didn’t like at all.
3) Staff didn’t know much about the wine. i get that the winery is new and the staff person was new, but they’re killin’ me.

Rendez-​vous just opened its tasting room a couple weeks ago at the Old Sugar Mill. They share a space with another newbie, R. Merlo. When you walk into the tasting room, they’re on the righthand side.
These guys have an interesting approach to wines and it’s definitely worth a visit to see what I mean. Their first one is a blend of Viognier (75% I think) and their late harvest Chardonnay. It’s quite delicious actually — it’s got the personality and brightness that you’d expect from a Viognier but a light sweetness and smooth texture that’s undoubtedly the late harvest’s influence. Me gusta!
I have to be honest, by the time we got past the first wine, I was a little bit looped from all the other tasting we’d done before we wandered in here… so I can’t remember exactly what the rest of the wines were. Curse you, Sugar Mill, and your endless supply of delicious alcoholic treats! I do remember liking one red and disliking the other. I believe the late harvest Chard was also added to one of the red blends, and that’s the one I liked a lot.
Speaking of the late harvest Chard — that shit is quite nice indeed! Kind of apricot-​y and citrusy with a lovely sweetness. Paired with it is a white chocolate truffle sample… which brings out even more of the wine’s fruit notes. Come try it for yourself! It’s lovely!
The wine was being poured for us by a guy named David, who was super nice and helpful. Even though we didn’t purchase any wine, he waived the tasting fees for us AND let us keep our glasses. Aww! If you stop in for a visit, definitely say hi to him!
One other point of interest: the winemaker for Rendez-​vous used to be the winemaker at Folie a Deux in Napa. Of you’re a fan of Folie, you might enjoy these wines too. At least you’ll have fun comparing!