St. Michaels Winery

St. Michael’s winery sits on a easy access corner on the quaint streets of St. Michael’s. There is a very small parking lot next to the building, however, street parking is encouraged, as well as, a small parking lot for the motor museum just down the street. Don’t be expecting a large and extravagant winery upon arriving. This tasting room is quite small, but the larger than life flavors of their wines makes your visit totally worth it. I am a fan of the drier wines, while my boyfriend prefers smoother wines. We both equally enjoyed the selection of wines, however, the sweet wines were more like drinking juice than a wine (not our favorite). The prices at St. Michael’s are very practical and affordable, even enjoying a $ 5 glass of wine after your tasting isn’t a horrible price for the fill that you receive. However, if you get a glass of the reserve wine, that will cost you $ 8 a glass. Upon leaving we were able to get a bottle of the Pinot Gris with our Living Social deal, and needless to say, but that bottle was gone the next day. The staff is very friendly and knowledgable. They are far from your stuck up winos, and you can even enjoy a friendly conversation with them. This winery is definitely worth the visit if you’re in the area.

I just read Elaine M.‘s review for St Michael’s Winery and agree 100%. I’ll try to give my own opinion, although it mirror’ Elaine M.‘s!
My friends and I strolled into St Michaels Winery on a Saturday afternoon after we attended an Oyster Festival. What I thought was a cute atmosphere immediately turned negative when the man behind the bar offering our tastings rushed us through the whole tasting, didn’t acknowledge us and our questions, and didn’t seem to care to do his job properly. Is it bad to mention that his bed head was out of control?
I was very disappointed in this experience and will not be back.

During a recent weekend visit to St. Michael’s, my friends and I ventured into the winery for a tasting. The man working behind the bar presented us with a menu of our options: six 1-​ounce tastings for $ 6 or a glass for $ 6. We all decided on the six tastings, and he immediately began pouring and reciting his script in an extremely monotone voice. He stood there and watched us drink and had the next bottle ready to pour as soon as the first person finished their last sip… he continued to recite his script for each wine that we quickly drank. We felt extremely rushed and his lack-​luster attitude was not very inviting. We drank all of the tastings rather quickly, at which time he asked if any of us wanted a full glass. We declined mostly due to his institutional persona, so he instructed us to pay at the cash register at the end of the room. Thanks but, no thanks.
On a positive note; we enjoyed the wines, most were whites and of a sweeter variety (even the ones labeled «dry»). I hope that our negative experience was purely because of the bartender, and not the typical experience at St. Michael’s Winery.

Not bad but also not my favorite winery. Very cramped with not much sitting room yo enjoy a glass or bottle. Also wasn’t thrilled with the wines. Didn’t like that there weren’t stools at the bar for the tasting; also wasn’t impressed with the size of the samples unfortunately. Employees were great and very knowledgeable. Good price for trying 13 wines but in the end neither of us were impressed enough to buy a glass or bottle.

Stacia was incredible! We came in on a rainy Wednesday and were immediately greeted and assisted. She was very thorough with the wine tasting explanations and without even enticing us, we wanted to join the wine club. Great service, very good MD wine and super awesome restaurant recommendations. Perfect place for a last minute getaway :)

This was a nice break from our normal weekend. My wife and I went here to get away from the city and try some good wines. We originally came across their name at a local wine store and figured we had to try it. It was about an hour and a half drive from our house, but it was well worth it.
The tasting room is set up like a bar with multiple bartenders that will offer you a sample and tell you about the notes and flavor profile.
They offered three different wine flights ranging from 8 wines to like 15 or you could choose to try random wines of your choice. Everything averaged about $ 1 per sample even for the flights. They had a nice array of sweet wines, dry whites, and dry reds. Personally I enjoyed the «Island Beauty» and my wife really liked the St. Michael’s White wine. We had to buy them. Lastly, the Chocolate Zin was pretty good for some reason. It was better than I thought it would be. This place is definitely a nice time for couples or a group of wino friends.
Forgot to mention, they give you complimentary oyster crackers to eat between tastings.

This is the only wine I drink! Great staff who were extremely helpful and generous with their pours.

Cute, no-​frills, small-​town spot pouring generous tastings for $ 1 each. Stacia guided us through our tasting and shared a lot about the wines, grapes, winery, and even included other fun local stories/​facts. I tried about a dozen wines and found them to be surprisingly good.
The rosé was perfect for the warm weather and tasted of lovely strawberry fruit, so we picked up a couple of extra bottles for summertime. The wineglasses were a steal at $ 3 each, so I snagged a couple of those, too.
Worth a visit (or two… or three)!

Woke up on Easter Sunday and decided to go to St. Michaels Winery. I was expecting a vineyard but found a quaint multi-​use/​office type of building. I had a living social deal that allowed me to taste 10 wines and take a bottle home (great deal). After seeing how things operate, I found a spot at the bar. The customer service was great and I felt like employees really liked their job. I would recommend that you ask to taste the St. Michaels sangria.

I came to St. Michael’s Winery because of a Living Social deal I purchased late last year. It was certainly a drive from DC but its literally a straight shot up 50 E. Once there, we found parking fairly close. There is a brewery right beside it and we accidentally walked in there. Seems like a cool place; we were greeted immediately.
The winery is small but cozy. Its definitely first come, first served so if you see an opening at the counter, TAKE IT and skip going to the register only to have to find a spot later. Once we were at the counter, someone greeted us immediately and after I told him that we had a Living Social deal, he explained to us what we get: pick 10 tastings each and pick a bottle of wine from a selection of about 6. Me and my best friend picked the ten wines we wanted to taste. The chocolate zin, Island Belle and Gollywobber’s Red, Black and Peach were all delicious! They serve complimentary oyster crackers with your tastings. After the tastings, we ordered a glass of the Gollywobbler’s blend of Black, Red and White (I believe) and it was delicious! It is not for sale in a bottle however.
Overall, our experience was very pleasant and was a nice day trip out of the city. I would definitely go back.

This quaint little winery is tucked in amongst the main street buzz of Talbot Street. Be forewarned that if any festivals are ongoing, you may want visit another time unless you are there for the festival because the tasting room is rather small and easily becomes cramped. However, the staff is pretty knowledgeable and attentive. Highly recommend selecting one of the suggested wine flight to get accurate taste. Don’t be shocked though when you get your pours… it is literally a slight sip and that it… if you expect a generous pour the you will be disappointed. For those that like the sweet to medium scale, this will be a favorite.

Came in with my fiancé and a Living Social deal for my second visit to St. Michael’s Winery and actually had even more fun than I did the first time. When we were there, two hysterical and slightly tipsy young women were very much enjoying their tasting, and we chatted and joked around with them throughout our visit. The employee who served us our wine was fun and very pleasant to be around. She definitely knew a great deal about the business and the wines that they made, and was able to answer all of our questions easily.
Their wines are much more on the fun and easy-​going side than the elite and sophisticated side, so just go in knowing that and enjoy the ride. We got to taste ten in total and with the Living Social deal, they let us choose any ten we wanted, which was super nice of them. Most of them are pretty sweet though they have a few full-​bodied reds and dry whites. Fan favorites for us were the St. Michael’s White, Oakey Dokey Chardonnay, Island Beauty, and the Chocolate Zin, though there were many others that we would gladly enjoy chilled on a hot summer’s day.
I was glad to hear that all of the grapes used for these wines are from Maryland and most from the Eastern Shore specifically. It’s always better to know that you’re getting locally-​sourced ingredients.
We ended up buying another few bottles in addition to the one that came with our deal alongside a pair of St. Michael’s glasses. Everyone we came across — both customer and employee — was extremely pleasant and helpful. I was glad to come back and would do so again in a heartbeat. Very fun, and worth a visit.

What a GREAT STOP!!!
In St. Michaels for my dates Birthday, I purchased a «Living Social» Wine Tasting for St. Michaels Winery. What a fun time it was! I’m glad I stopped. The Purchase included a wine tasting of 10 wines, 2 free wine glasses, and a Complementary bottle of one of their Award Winning Wines. The Staff was Pleasant, Knowledgeable, Warm and inviting. What a nice time. We felt like we were at home, not Rushed, or Stuffy. Worth the price even with out the Deal!
My Picks were: Whites (Dry) Sparkling Vidal Blanc
Oakey Dokey Chardonnay (reserve)
Reds (Dry) Island Quality
White St. Michaels White (Vidal)

Sweet Dessert Peach Gollywobbler –My Use would be for a Sangria
ENJOY!!!
CHEF GARY CURRY
PS: VISIT THE EASTERN SHORE BREWERY RIGHT NEXT DOOR!!! MEET BARLEY THE ST. BERNARD PUP/​MASCOT!

..visited this winery bc of a living social deal. loved the ladies working here. very patient and knowledgable. not fancy but down to earth. the wines were yummy. grabbed a few bottles as gifts!

I like to drink wine, but I am no wine expert by any means. That being said, my review is based on me being a casual wine drinker from time to time.
My husband and I came to St. Michaels with plans for dinner and a night at a bed and breakfast. A friend suggested the Living Social deal she purchased from here and used the week before. I bought the deal for $ 21 and it was for two people to try ten different wines, two wine glasses to take home and a bottle of wine to take home as well.
We walked into the winery, and like someone else noted in their review, it is not a winery on a vineyard, but more of a storefront for the wines in a building with a couple gift shops and a brewery next door. Anyway, we walked in and went to the cashier and told the lady we had the Living Social deal and she said to go to the bar and someone would help us with the wines and to come back to her after we were done so she could ring us up. We went to the bar and one of the ladies came to us and explained how the tastings would work. She was very polite and went over the different flights we could choose from or we could just choose our own ten wines. We decided to go with the white flight (I think that was the one) and my husband swapped out a couple of the wines for other choices. The lady was really nice and knowledgeable. She actually let us each have more than ten tastes and said she wasn’t keeping track of how many she gave us. She was very nice and let us take our time with the tasting.
At the end of the tasting we decided we also wanted to buy a bottle of the Bubbly Wobbler White (I just absolutely loved this one) in addition to our Living Social deal. We went up to the cashier and she took the code of of my phone for the Living Social, wrapped up two new wine glasses with St. Michaels etched onto them, the Gollywobbler White that we chose for our deal and our additional bottle of wine that we purchased. All in all, the Living Social deal is a great value (20 tastes, two wine glasses and one bottle of wine) and a nice activity to do while in St Michaels.

I’ve been here twice. The more recent visit took place just two days ago. We had the dry red tasting, and unfortunately I did not find most of the wines to my liking. They were all really light and lacking some depth to suit my taste. Even though I ended up purchasing a bottle of the Island Belle sangiovese, it was more because I didn’t mind the light and sweet nature of the wine. On the other hand, the chambourcin and cab sauv are supposed to be fuller bodied, in my opinion, and I felt both were lacking in that respect.
The sangiovese is actually almost like a rosé; it’ll probably go well with seared scallops and asparagus or grilled chicken. The last wine in the red tasting, the chocolate zin, has a really delicious aroma, but I would prefer a heavier dessert wine — more like a port — that has a thicker texture.
I think all their grapes are from Maryland, though not Saint Michaels. The winery itself is pretty small and nestled in a small building. It certainly appears humble compared to most of the wineries in northern Virginia that have their vineyards right on site, oftentimes with expansive views of mountains or meadows.
The tasting fee is basically $ 1 per wine, and you can pick the wines you want to try instead of their predesigned «dry white,» «dry red» (even though not all these are indeed dry), or dessert tastings.

St. Michael’s Winery is a nice, small-​ish wine store that does very affordable tastings. The wine is good and fairly priced, and the tasting process is pretty average.
For a dollar a taste, you can try the whites (five wines, so $ 5), reds, ($ 5), sweet wines ($ 5), or the staff picks ($ 8). One major bonus — if you want to try a wine in a different «flight» category, you are allowed to swap ‘em out. Or, you could probably just create your own wine flight based on what looks/​sounds good to you. Nice flexibility there.
The staff is nice but you definitely don’t get a lot of wine education with your tastings. Like another Unilocaler noted, the staff (at least, the woman doing our tasting) forgot a few times where in our flight we were, and even blanked once or twice on the specs of the wines we were sampling. The information given was nothing really more advanced than where the grapes were from. So, if you are someone who wants a nice vino education with your tasting, know that in advance (I don’t particularly care — just pour me the wine!).
My husband had the flight of reds and I had the flight of sweet wines («Gollywobbler» is the trade name for their sweets). My favorite was the Gollywobbler black, which is a blackberry wine, and my husband and father-​in-​law both loved the cabernet. The Island Girl was another one we liked. The chocolate zin is pretty strong… I am a big fan of chocolate (and wine, duh), but I thought this was a little «eh». While we enjoyed our tastings, we didn’t feel inclined to buy any bottles (bottles range in price from about $ 12 to $ 45).
St. Michael’s Winery was nice to stop into if you’re in the area (and if you have a lot of time, there are some seats outside where you can enjoy a leisurely glass or two).

I found this «winery» on a random Saturday looking to get out of DC. I ended up on St. Michael’s Island with a friend and decided to kill some time by doing a tasting.
The bottom line: It was fine to kill some time, but not a «you have to go here or you’ll regret it» kind of situation. The wine was alright– we each bought a bottle of the blackberry wine for under 15 dollars. We’re pretty sure the staff was drunk (not necessarily a bad thing since we weren’t in a particular rush) but the person serving us kept forgetting where we were at in our flight, would leave us for long periods of time, and was generally not particularly helpful. We did do a flight, though, and enjoyed it.
Something to note: the winery is located in a sort of mall– there isn’t really a place to sit and enjoy a glass of wine here– it’s really more of a tasting shop. Make sure to check out some of the other shops in the space!
If I go back, I would skip the winery and check out the brewery next door.

I had purchased a Living Social voucher for a wine tasting for two, which included a «cheese board» and take home bottle of wine for $ 22. I’m thinking, not a bad deal, let’s check it out! I always like discovering new local places, and prefer to patronize local small businesses whenever possible, so I grabbed a friend and we took off.
First of all, the winery is NOT at a vineyard. It’s right on the main street going through town. Parking can be a bit of a challenge, as they only have a few spaces beside the actual winery, and we ended up parking in the grass up the street. Fortunately, St. Michaels is small enough that you can walk to pretty much anyplace along the main drag, so even if you have to park a little further away, as long as the weather is nice you’ll be OK.
They do have a couple of souvenir shops, both filled with ridiculously overpriced items, but very cute things, especially if you like the whole «coastal décor» thing, which I do. But I didn’t like anything enough to pay the prices they were asking. I later discovered that this is the case with just about every shop in St. Michaels…$ 75 for a throw pillow? I don’t think so!
Moving on to the actual wine tasting… we went into the tasting room, which was pretty crowded, but the staff did a great job of keeping up with everyone. They have different flights to choose from, but because we had the Living Social voucher, we had a preselected list to sample. We started with the whites, neither of which were really impressive. The chardonnay was OK, but I’ve had better and wouldn’t pay the price ($ 16 a bottle) they were asking for it. (I’m starting to sound cheap, but really, I’m not! I just believe in quality for your dollar.) When we moved to the reds, I really did NOT like the Merlot. In fact, it was so bad that I actually poured it out and didn’t even finish it. The woman who was serving us told us that it had hints of tobacco from the soil in which the grapes were grown, giving it a smoky flavor… and you COULD taste the tobacco, which was a huge turnoff for me. The cabernet was actually decent, but again, definitely NOT worth $ 30 a bottle!
We then moved on to the sweet wines. I’m normally not a fan of overly sweet wines, but these were actually OK… definitely the best of the ones we tried. They offered a red, pink, and white, and of the three, I’d definitely choose the red (in fact, this is the one I chose for my take home bottle). I also noticed that they had a black wine in their sweet line (Gollywobbler), and we tried samples of that as well. This is made from blackberries, and was VERY tasty. They offered it for sale there at the winery, but a quick phone call revealed that we could get it at a store down the street from my house for about $ 4 less per bottle (again, I’m sounding cheap), so we waited until we got back and bought it there instead.
As for the «cheese board», this actually consisted of a few slices of cheese and some crackers on a small paper plate. However, presentation aside, the cheese was quite tasty and the crackers were a great palate cleanser between wines.
Overall, it was a nice day trip, and not bad for the $ 22 voucher. If nothing else, it was worth it for the discovery of the Gollywobbler Black. THAT one is yummy!

I have a major weakness for local wineries. My expectations are usually fairly low for the wine, but experiencing what the grapes in the area are capable of is exciting to me.
My family stopped in one afternoon, and were greeted by two women who seemed to be running the whole shebang, and were incredibly knowledgeable of the product. Tastes were $ 1 each and very generous. The reds left something to desire, but we were told that a few of the ones we tried still needed to age a couple years to truly blossom. That was pretty evident — lots of potential! But to our surprise, my mother and I fell head over heels in love with their Sauvignon Blanc. Light, crisp, and perfect for the end of summer. They happened to be having a sale, so we were able to pick up 3 bottles for $ 30!
The winery is most renowned for its Chocolate Zin, a dessert zinfandel infused with… you guessed it… chocolate! I am NOT a dessert wine person, and nearly choked on this trying to drink it straight. However, it stuck with me, so I picked up a bottle at a local liquor store and brought it home to experiment. Drizzled a little on vanilla coconut milk ice cream, and my cool treat was reinvented. Angel food cake took on a whole new meaning soaked in Chocolate Zin. I love it!
If you are ever in this beautiful little town in Maryland, you owe it to yourself to stop here and see what they have to offer. Wine glasses are complimentary with tastings!