Holy Grail Winery

After reading the previous rave reviews, I was excited to make this our last wine trail stop for the afternoon. Augusta is an adorable town with lots of charm – what a lovely place to have a winery!
From the second we walked in the door it was a strange experience. The advertised special for the day was a $ 10 wine/​chocolate tasting. Since we just had lunch, we weren’t really interested in the pairing. No problem, we were informed that regular tastings were free of charge. Ok, good deal!
We were asked what kind of wine we preferred and I replied (which I think is a pretty standard reply) «not too sweet, not too dry.» Instead of focusing recommendations for wines that fit this profile, we were poured the Vidal Blanc, which was listed as a «semi-​sweet.»
Maybe it’s just our taste in wine, but these were unbelievably sweet. Okay, no biggie, let’s move on to the next one. I asked for the Malbec which is my standard go-​to wine. The lady working seemed pretty baffled by my selecting this – it actually made me feel pretty inferior (in a Missouri winery? come on!)…Again, crazy sweet. It was missing a lot of the delicate undertones that Malbecs typically have and is presented on the wine list as «semi-​dry.» For the last one, the owner (I assume, not 100% sure) asked if we wanted to try the ice wine. My husband said, «Are ice wines typically sweet?» To this we were told that this one isn’t like the «commercially produced ice wines.» The other worker told him to «only pour us a tiny bit» (which came off tone-​wise as not wanting us to try it at all…). Again this one was extremely sweet, but at least we expected it. The owner seemed very kind, just very busy.
We thanked them for their tastes and I left a decent tip.
I’m not sure how to verbalize it, but the experience left us feeling extremely inferior and were disappointed that this was our last wine stop. We weren’t treated with much courtesy (maybe because we didn’t do the $ 10 tastings?) and were given our wine tastes at the cash register. That was a little awkward – nobody even asked us if we wanted to sit. We probably would have purchased a glass or two if they tried to get us to stay.
I hate leaving negative reviews, but if you’re young and from the city, there are better places you can spend your money. And better and less expensive wines to try in the area.
I’m definitely not complaining about free tastes – we were willing to pay for the normal tasting, we just weren’t interested in the chocolate tasting special (the menu says normal tastes for $ 5 I think). I would think that a place like this would be happy to have people coming in from all over Missouri to try their wine, but we didn’t feel welcome at all.
I hope that something positive comes from this review and that maybe we visited on an off day.

This was our first trip to Augusta and to The Holy Grail. It’s a super small little winery but it’s really cool once you get inside. They serve you most of the wine out of cool canisters instead of the usual bottle. We did the $ 5 tasting as I’m not a huge fan of chocolate. They have mostly dry wines, but there were enough on the semi-​sweet side that I was happy. I ended up purchasing a bottle of Chambourcin that was really tasty. My boyfriend was really impressed and he said there was not one variety that he didn’t like, which is really unusual. He ended up purchasing 2 bottles of Norton, 1 as a present for his father for Christmas, so you know he liked it if he thought it good enough for a gift! They have a couple of little tables in the back of the building if you want to sit and enjoy your wine. We just wanted to get back in the car in the air conditioning as it was sweltering out :) If you get the opportunity, stop by and check out this place, you won’t be sorry. No, there isn’t a band or scores of people here, but it’s a nice little change.

New favorite spot on the Augusta trail! What a hidden gem! My family and I loved all their wines, which is a rare occurrence. The owner serves all of the wines in vintage decanters, which is a great touch. Don’t miss this place when you’re driving through Augusta!

The chocolate and wine pairings were fabulous. Their Cabernet Sauvignon was delightful. The rustic tasting room is adorable and they even let us take a photo with the holy grail.

Holy Grail has been closed most of the days I go antiquing and wine tasting around Augusta and Defiance. Their hours leave something to be desired; I recommend calling to verify that they’ll be open before making a special trip.
I visited for Augusta’s fall festival (or whatever it is called) a few weeks ago. Lo and behold, Holy Grail was open! I went in for a free tasting of a couple of wines, but I liked the second wine so much that I opted for their full tasting, which includes $ 5 off a bottle of wine, or something like that. There were a couple of good sweet reds, but I must recommend the apple wine. I forget what it was called. I wish I’d picked up a bottle before I left. I think they’re closed for the season now. Oh, and the tasting room attendant did a fun pairing of chocolate chips and red wine. That’s not something I see a lot of, but I really appreciated it!
The tasting room was small, but even on that busy day, it wasn’t overcrowded.
Long story short, I plan on visiting Holy Grail at least a few times a year. If you’re going to any of the wineries in the area (Montelle, Augusta, Noboleis), a stop at Holy Grail is warranted.

This winery is fantastic. A must stop when in Augusta. The Petit Verdot is absolutely fabulous.

Small tasting room, no tours or café.

Really appreciated their wines and ended up purchasing the Rougen (who can’t like a wine with the description including black forest cake). All their wines ran on the sweeter side, but I like that so that worked! Nice seating area outside, cut little place. We were excited to have found The Holy Grail!

There are several wineries in this area and they all tend to blend together by the end of the night. Fortunately, Holy Grail really stood out in my mind. I tend to really like small tasting rooms that are quaint and noise-​free, which is exactly what I found with their cozy and welcoming tasting room. The staff were really friendly and poured us several dark wines (and one white wine). We also tried a wine poured into a chocolate cup (yum!). I tend to like sweet dark wines, so I really enjoyed this place (and you will too if your tastes are similar to mine). More specifically, we really loved their dessert Chambourcin, and took home a bottle. In addition to the tasting room, they have a small, but nice deck outside. In sum, this is the place for you if you want to try some dark wines and escape the loud bands playing at the other wineries. I definitely plan to return in the future.