Chateau Thomas Winery

Had a great time. Decent band and bottles of wine. Would have been nice if one of the employees wasn’t smoking pot in the bathroom for 10 minutes while I waited.

I’m super disappointed with my visit yesterday. In my last post I mentioned that we had purchased a barrel through the Coopers Club. That was 9 months ago. We hadn’t heard anything from them since the purchase so while in the area we thought we would stop by and visit our barrel. Yep, they told us that within a couple weeks, we’d be able to see our barrel on the shelf. Unfortunately, the guy working the tasting counter had no idea what day it was, let alone where our barrel might be. He really didn’t understand the club or what was included. We had to get a brochure to help him understand what we were asking. I had to tell him my name 4 or 5 times with the spelling. He finally went in search of our barrel, only to come back with nothing. After disappearing again, he told us that our plaque was not there. It hadn’t been ordered. Nine months and we have nothing to show for a $ 550 club membership. He did say there were a couple of non-​marked barrels in the back. One of them might be mine… uh what? I asked if I could speak to someone more familiar with the program and again, no answer.
I also asked him no less than three times about the members only glass that we should get with our tasting and he never answered the question. We tried two wines that we hadn’t had before. He didn’t rinse our glasses in between tastings. He provided no feedback or information on the wines we tasted. He should not be running a tasting counter.
We’ve never received any emails with «special» invites… no emails at all. Nothing in the mail. No membership card, no sale notifications… None of the items the club promises in the brochure. Well, we did get the 20% off on a case of wine. Selling more wine is clearly not a problem.
I did not feel special in any way. The guy helping us never said he was sorry, nor did he show any apathy whatsoever. I felt he could care less about our barrel or anything else I asked him about.
He took my name, but I’ve not heard from anyone. I don’t feel confident that we will. We bought a case of wine the day we signed up — in addition to the $ 550 membership. We also bought a case of wine yesterday. That will probably be our last purchase. They have lost a couple good customers.
We thought the whole concept was to start aging wine in a barrel that is yours? We are nearly a year into the membership and we don’t even have a barrel designated for us. Does that mean they will just slap my name on an existing barrel? Will I get my free annual case of wine from some random barrel? The whole experience has been ruined. I wouldn’t recommend signing up for any of the wine clubs. I feel completely cheated.

A $ 5 charge for 5 wine samples. Very stingy on the samples as well. The environment is cold and stale, dated Roman theme going on.
Wouldn’t go back.

First stop on our wine tour and they assumed we were a bachelorette party since we were a huge group of girls and one was wearing a sash and crown. but it was her birthday! We lined up on the side and the woman explained how it worked. We paid our five bucks and began picking out five wines we were to taste. I’m sure we were a bit cumbersome to handle as there were 10 of us and we all wanted different wines so there wasn’t much order, but the service was a bit slow and it would have been ok, if we weren’t on a schedule for the tour. Some of the girls made purchases of the wines, but I did not fall in love with any of them.

If you buy wine they don’t give you 5 dollars off if you’ve already paid for the tasting. Ridiculous? I think yes. I understand technology problems but come on, at least tell your customers ahead of time about this.

Stopped here before we went to dinner because it was conveniently located next to our hotel. Had a lot of fun with Andrea, Who did our tasting. They have a large selection of wines ranging from dry too incredibly sweet. The grapes are from other growers and produced on site. I bought a bottle of the classic Chardonnay which suited my taste buds. The Merlot and cab were also very delicious. A pleasant surprise on our road trip to Colorado.

A winery in the middle of Indiana off highway 70? That wasn’t a first for me. I find the excitement of new (dare I saw exotic?) wines the perfect complement to the road trip — with a non-​drinking, designated driver, of course.
Château Thomas has a pretty building on the outside and a shop with wine and wine-​related gifts inside.
Tasting 5 Château Thomas wines was $ 5 without a souvenir glass to keep. This makes it a little more costly than most MO wineries, where you often get to keep the glass. I didn’t really want a glass, but a $ 3 tasting would have been better. Wine prices had some range, but were comparable to average MO winery prices.
There were a couple of tasty wines, but as I was traveling, I didn’t want to purchase more than one bottle. My bottle of Fleur d’Peche was $ 13, I think.
The tastings were done in real glasses and the sizes were generous without being too much. I had several good sips of each wine. Château Thomas has quite a few wines and a good range of red/​white and sweet to dry and dessert wines too. There were crackers to cleanse the palate too. If you like wine and you’ve got two minutes, pull off the highway and give Château Thomas a try.

We wanted to check out a winery we had never been to before so…
Over the river and through the woods we went.
Most good wineries are worth a long drive as they are relaxing. This one? No so much! We arrived at the hard to find building and expected to get the typical warm welcome you might find in other wineries but no warm welcome despite we were the only people there. We had never had their wine before so since they didn’t offer we asked for a sample. Well then here it goes… First they ask for your ID and require to hold it as you are tasting the wine then they ask if you will pay the $ 10 fee to try them all or you can try up to 3 for free. Well, I could go on and describe the wine but in my eyes this winery had already lost my vote however I had to continue and let you know that I drink wine often and will know tell you… The worst I’ve had at a winery. Save your time and drive elsewhere.

Château Thomas Winery is not the most upscale winery I have been to, but it is definitely a nice place to come taste some new wines or buy a gift/​bottle for someone. We came here a tasted a variety of wines (they have 5 tastings for $ 5). They have a good variety to choose from, and the employees were very knowledgeable and friendly. They don’t have much food (you get some crackers with your tasting). You can buy some cheese/​crackers, but that’s about it. They have a few tables to sit at as well, and when we were there they were setting up live music. They have a variety of gifts for wine lovers as well like glasses, décor, wine holders, etc. I thought the wine was very decently priced, and if I lived here I would come back and buy some. I had a few favorites, and overall most tasted very good.

Château Thomas is a nice winery with a large selection, including slender wines for the calorie conscious. The owner is an MD so the staff is very knowledgeable about the benefits of the slender wine.

When I turned 21 and was very excited to try wine, I came to Château Thomas to try some. I was not treated well by the staff and didn’t return for some time. I have since gone to many other wineries and returned as well and would rate Château Thomas somewhere in the middle. I have enjoyed their Abe Martin wine series but $ 5 for tastings and only selling used corks is just bad business. Only go if you’re in the area, nothing to drive out of your way for.

I have visited many a winery, this is just barely worth doing a review. The location is great, the size of the place is suitable, but $ 5 for a tasting? And sad tasting quantity. I’ve had free tastings with double the amount to truly get the flavor, not a drop that barely covers the tongue that you get here.
And I’ll admit, I prefer my wines a bit sweeter, but these were just acidic. Not very fruity or complex. It was easy to choose a wine since there was only one we liked, the AB. The rest just weren’t anything to write home about. The staff seemed more annoyed that they had to work on a slow night. It just wasn’t doing it for me. I’ve had better wines from other area wineries, and that includes ones that charge for tastings who obviously want you to know what you are buying.
So if you like checking out local wineries, you might find something here, but nothing spectacular.

Not the greatest ambience compared to Napa, but decent for Indiana. I continue to come back here for their great dry reds. I think their prices are reasonable and they get most of their grapes from California. Pair those two things with a 15% club member discount and I’m a very happy wine-​o! My free membership also provides me and a few friends with free tastings from a larger nicer glass too!

I’ve been to most of the wineries in Indiana & a significant number of wineries in California & the Pacific Northwest. Château Thomas is easily my least favorite winery that I have been to.
Positives: it is located close to Indianapolis, they do occasionally have good music groups perform, occasionally they have interesting fairs/​festivals/​farmers markets, there are ample motel rooms within walking distance
Negatives: pompous or unfriendly staff (hello, your winery is next to a Harley dealership & a Cracker Barrel in suburban Indiana… it’s not Napa), and like most Indiana wines they tend to be EXTREMELY sweet, but most Indiana wineries are at least trying to create dryer wines (not just labeling semi-​sweet wines as «dry» like Château Thomas does).
At most wineries the people conducting sampling will chat with you friendly, tell you about the wine, where the grapes are grown, etc… but I have never had this experience at Château Thomas. You are lucky if a server will even crack a smile or make eye contact with you. It is not the fun, jovial experience that you expect with most wine-​tasting rooms, so I can’t recommend it.

In a world of Indiana Sweet wines, I am a dry wine drinker.
That’s not to say I don’t enjoy a good semi-​dry or slightly-​sweet wine at times. But for my palate, dry’s where it’s at.
Jon C. had found Château Thomas Winery online and noted they had a nice selection of dry wines. So off we headed on my birthday to enjoy it! =)
The setting of the Plainfield tasting area does leave a bit to be desired — it’s convenient to the highway but tucked into a lot of hotels and chain restaurants. I knew this going into it, but since I have vivid memories of ‘drive through wineries’ in Michigan, that always sits on me a little funny.
When I’m evaluating wines, I like the setting to be a little less. ‘in the middle of their gift shop’. This was. in the middle of their gift shop.
But, I didn’t judge the wines by that, and I’m pleased I didn’t.
The 5 sample ‘choose your own flight’ is $ 5, which I consider reasonable considering the foot-​traffic that doesn’t purchase that they must get. We sampled some Pinot Noirs (2), Viognier, Mourvedre, Primativo and Sangiovese.
The newest Pinot Noir wasn’t quite quaffable, but the other selections we had were good. We came away with two bottles.
The flightmaster was good, but as Jon C. said, she’d given the talk so many times that I wanted to find a way to very kindly let her know that it was OK, she didn’t have to give it again — we just wanted to try the wines to find out what bottles we wanted to purchase. =) The hospitality otherwise could not have possibly been friendlier!
Our selections were around $ 25 a bottle, which for us is a bit spendy for an ‘unrated’ wine (we’re new to wines, so we try to stay with rated ones or specially recommended ones so we can use that to train our palates a bit).

It seems the wine world — and Indiana wines especially — have gone to mainly sweet or semi-​sweet wines. That’s a shame, because the dryer side of the spectrum is what I (and Lizz!) prefer.
So, while browsing the websites of pretty much every. single. Indiana. winery for wine lists, I was happy to come upon Château Thomas and their extensive list of wines, including many, many dry varieties.
So on the occasion of Lizz’s birthday, we headed to Château Thomas and were not disappointed.
The tasting room and gift shop is very nicely decorated, and the gift shop itself sells a wide variety of hand crafted foods and such — including many local options.
They offer a tasting at $ 5 for 5 choices — which is nice, as they don’t «force» a certain selection. We opted for 5 of the dry ones and liked nearly all of them. The 2009 PNoir needs a little more time. ;) The ’08 Pinot was wonderful as were the rest, including a very nice Viognier.
The only reason I’m going with 4 instead of 5 stars is that the tasting room employee, while extremely nice and knowledgeable and friendly and wonderful in every other way seemed a little too «scripted.» You could definitely tell she’d given the same «speech» hundreds or thousands of times prior, especially at the beginning. And while I totally understand that IS exactly the case — the «best» employees hide that as best they can and make it seem like it’s the first time.
A small thing, but it was noticeable. Though as I said, she was nice, friendly, knowledgeable, and wonderful and NOT at all rude or off-​putting. I just feel she could work on her delivery a bit.
We’ll likely be back for more bottles of their wonderful Indiana wine!

I’m a member of their wine club, which is generally about $ 45 per quarter and I get 3 bottles of wine. Château Thomas’s wine list is so extensive now that being a member of their club is about the only way I’d make my way through everything. I also get free tasting, which is nice, because otherwise they charge $ 5 for 5 samples. That irks me, because usually when I sample wine at a winery I almost always buy a bottle as a courtesy. I feel like the cost of providing samples should be built in. Anyway.
They have music and other events throughout the year. The winery is easy to get to and the people who work there really seem to enjoy wine. One of my favorites is the muscat canelli — it has a little bit of carbonation and that makes it fun to drink in the summer.

We came here looking to purchase wine for our wedding reception. They have a nice gift shop area full of wine snobbery stuff. I love wine, so dont get me wrong, I just dont get into it like some people do. Anyway, we went through two rounds of tastings ($ 5 = 5 selections to sample) which was kinda cheap, but would have been better if the first round was free. Out of the ten wines we sampled, we settled on two out of the THREE we liked. They have a big selection so maybe we just tryed the wrong ones; however, there were a couple of wines we sampled that were supposed to be award winning and didnt really care too much for them. The Dry Riesling, Classic Merlot, and Cabernet Syrah were all good in my book.

If you’ve ever been to Oliver Winery near Bloomington, then don’t bother with Château Thomas.
The atmosphere in the place is nice enough, and the gift shop has lots of interesting stuff to look at (nothing I’d really consider buying). You have to pay if you want to taste any wines (unless they think you’re going to spend decent money). The people behind the counter were nice enough to customers, but they didn’t seem to like each other much, which made for an uncomfortable moment.
I bought six bottles, but two had cork taint and were undrinkable. Most of the wines are more expensive than what you’ll find at a Trader Joes or World Market, but are not nearly as nice. The classic cabernet is particularly disappointing.
Overall, if you’re looking for «the winery experience», then this is better than a grocery store. But not much.

I’d been wanting to check out Château Thomas for a couple years, and when I found out that this weekend they were having their Grape Harvest Festival, it gave me the extra boost I needed to use the gas to drive out to Plainfield. It’s not that far of a drive, and the gas was worth it! A couple girlfriends and I went and had a great time.
When we pulled up, I was a bit thrown off guard — the winery is smack in the middle of a commercial development with hotels, Steak & Shake and Subway. This is, in my opinion, the biggest detractor to the winery. I thought it would be in a different setting, away from other businesses. Call me crazy, but I thought it might actually be in a vineyard! I was wrong, but don’t let that stop you from going.
They make the wine on-​site and have some great selections. We went for the 2006 Dry Riesling, which I highly recommend! I’m a fan of sweet wines, so I also tried the Sweet Aubergine because it is their best seller. Only go for it if you really like sweet wines — it was way to sweet for me! I also took home a bottle of Muscat Canelli — it’s light and fruity, with just enough bubbles. They also have a great variety of cheeses, spreads, meats and crackers to accompany your wine (sadly, no baguettes or other breads).
If you are in Indy and debating taking the drive out to Château Thomas, do it — Plainfield isn’t too far away and the wine is well worth it!