Ertel Cellars Winery

Well the food was okay for the most part. The crab cake was good. The dinner salad that comes with your meal was fresh but I was a little disappointed that I was not able to change to a Cesar salad without paying the full price. I can understand a up charge for the Cesar but having you pay full price is a little ridiculous. I ordered the steak special. It had great flavor and a large size but was a little tuff. Overall everyone was happy with their food. The waiter was extremely friendly but the service was very slow. It was not that big of deal for us as we were visiting with our family. However it did take a while to get our drinks, bread and wine. Very nice environment.

This is our go-​to place for celebrations including Thanksgiving. The food is always delicious and the staff couldn’t be friendlier. They do fill up for holidays, so calling ahead for a reservation is your best bet to make sure you get in.
According to the website they do a lot of fun special events. If I lived closer I would be a regular.

Nice scenic view when we arrived. Very inviting. Was greeted right away and given wine tasting instructions and offered a table for dinner. We opted for the wine tasting. The wine hostess was very attentive and didn’t make us feel bad for tasting almost everything on the menu. You must try the Blackberry! We left with two bottles of it for about $ 30 bucks BUT found out the next morning that there’s CVS stores that sell their wine about $ 3 cheaper a bottle. Hope this helps!

I dined at Ertel Cellars Winery this past Saturday evening. This was the fourth time I have eaten there in the past several years. I am continually impressed with the quality of the meals. I had the blackened grouper with mashed potatoes, pan seared green beans and soup while the others in my party had the spinach ravioli, grilled grouper and Chilean sea bass. All were excellent and our total bill with wine came to $ 140. I feel that $ 35 per person is a great value for this quality of food. I highly recommend Ertel Cellar Winery for dinner! One other point of interest, there were several vehicles from Ohio in the parking lot which shows that people are willing to drive here for dinner. If you are on a schedule it is wise to make reservations. We did not and waited 1 hour to be seated.

what happened to common courtesy? tried to make a reservation by calling the «reservation line» and Shelly/​sherry didn’t know if she could take a reservation and asked to call back in five. waited 30, called again and Shelly/​sherry still didn’t have her act together and said again she would call back in 5…24 hours later still waiting for a call back. Ended up at Walhill and had a FABULOUS meal!

We’ve been in the area for the weekend and are sick of greasy diner food. I’m so glad we found this gem! The restaurant is beautiful, inside and out. Service was spot on. The food was very good. Everything we ordered was on the Specials board, all seafood. It was fresh and prepared properly. I guess my only complaint is that they are lacking in the dry red wine department.

Wonderful atmosphere, service, food and wine! Definitely worth the drive! Try the blackened shrimp tacos with the Chambourcin. I can’t wait to go back in the summer!

Pretty good experience overall. The wife and I decided one Saturday morning, (OK, early afternoon), to do one of the IN wine trails. 6 wineries in 1 afternoon. About 300 miles or so of driving. In order to hit them all based on their saturday hours, we ended our adventure at the last stop, Ertel Cellars Winery. Totally chance, but worked out great. Because, they were the only one with a true, nice restaurant as part of it. So, let’s start.
Wines, I try not to be a wine snob. But, seriously, I’ve never had an IN wine that I really like. We don’t generally don’t like sweet wines, so that obviously jades us as we haven’t found a great Cab or Merlot made in IN. (Exception, Huber makes a very good Cab-​Franc). So, we hit 6 stops, all had a few interesting wines to sample except one that had 6 wines and none were very good. I’m not going to name the stop because you should visit and make up your own mind. So, Ertel was the last stop and we still didn’t find a «gem» to rave about. I only mention this because, the only wines on the menu are their own. So, we did our tasting, and decided to have dinner here.
We skipped apps, there were a few interesting sounding items, but nothing to jump off the page. Let’s start with the the bread. Awesome. We all know the only reason most of us ever go to O ‘Charley’s is because of the warm soft, tasty bread rolls. These are similar, except they are «dusted» with a (Garlic/​salt???). not sure, but it is tasty. Damn tasty. The menu. Very surprising, not just in variety, but prices. Very good value for your dollar. As we usually do, my wife got the salad and I got the soup so we could compare. The salad was good, typical lettuce/​cherry tomato/​cucumber/​croûton. But, the balsamic, very tasty. The Veggie soup, tasted real, homemade, lot’s of content with a flavorful broth. The wife ordered Chicken Francaise for only $ 18. They give you options, do you want it over angel hair, penne, mashed potatoes, or with a baked potato. That’s pretty cool. Make it «your» way without having to ask. It was outstanding over angel hair!!! I had one of the many dinner specials on the board that night. A seafood combo, crab stuffed tilapia, with 2 bacon wrapped shrimp, and a 3 oz lobster tail. FOR ONLY $ 26!!! The fish, 4 stars, lobster, 4 stars, shrimp, 3 stars. baked potato, (It;s a baked potato, did you really think I was gonna rate it, (???), The side of the night, green beans. Normally, yawn… not these. Fresh, but not cooked firm. Medium texture, no extra flavors, not hard, not mushy, they got those just right.
Our server. Almost perfect. ALMOST. Nice older lady, prompt, great at explaining things and at telling you what she was going to do next. My only compliant. She dropped our entrees off, and never once returned until we were done eating by about 10 minutes. Luckily, we needed nothing and the food was very good, so no harm, no foul. But if there had been an issue, I would have been very upset about the lack of the attention. No deserts tried, coffee was good. The house branded Cab-​Sav was OK, but, only $ 25. So, hey, cheap and drinkable.
So Overall, Wine, 2.5 stars, food, 4 stars, value 5 stars+++, service, 3 stars, but would have been 5 without the minor error. Ambiance, décor, etc, 4 stars. Is it worth a trip from Indy? Probably not since we have Cooper’s Hawk. Not as good of a deal, but better wines at CH. In the area??? Hell yes. Hands down, go here if you’re nearby. Or, if you’re gonna do the wine trail thing, make this your last stop and enjoy!!! I’m glad we found it!!!

Absolutely love this winery and just tried the restaurant. Very good food and fabulous wine. I would most definitely recommend a visit.

What a wonderful wine tasting and dining experience. The stuffed tilapia was very tender mixed with a succulent bernaise and seafood. Planked salmon with tomatoes and capers was served on plank and cooked to perfection. Fresh whole green beans were wonderful with baked potato which was good but underdone a bit. Atmosphere was great and maître d so friendly and kind. Would go back anytime!

I can not tell you how much I love this winery. Luckily, my boyfriend lives less than 2 minutes away!
I almost always order the same thing, the macadamia nut crusted Chilean sea bass. It is absolute perfection!!! The portion is very ample and satisfying. I am not a huge fan of sweet wines so the Cabernet always hits the spot for me! The staff there is so friendly and always remembers you.
The facility itself is hands down GORGEOUS. The grounds are beautiful and the interior is pristine. Perfect ambiance for a date night or private event. My Boyfriend hosts his sales meetings there and lets them handle all the food and drink for about 70 people!
I would not change a thing about this place. If you are ever in the area, do yourself a favor and visit!!! They have a tasting station at the bar and you can sample all the wines before you have dinner! It does not get any better than that!

The food and location are both excellent. We love going to the Sunday morning buffet to enjoy breakfast and mimosas, but the buffet line can be long at times. The service has always been excellent.
My only complaint would be that the seating is a little cramped and you really must have reservations during dinner hour. We have tried to go there several times without a reservation unsuccessfully.

I almost never rate a restaurant five stars, but everything about a recent dinner at the winery was basically perfect, from the aesthetics of the dining room to the comfort of the chairs to the professionalism of the server to the reasonably priced and beautifully presented food. I recommend the baked brie appetizer, the macademia encrusted sea bass and the filet. Hubby and I spent about $ 100 total for two for dinner, but could have dined for quite a bit less had we stuck to only entrees – which come with ample portions of salad, potatoes or rice, and a vegetable.
The $ 15 Sunday brunch buffet sounds wonderful, although our server said it does attract large crowds.
All in all, well worth the one hour drive from Cincinnati.

We live in Cincinnati, and when we heard my gradparents wanted to eat here for their anniversary dinner we had some reservations. It is far from the Eastside of Cincinnati, took about 1 hr from Smith/​Edwards. The building itself is very nice. It is made of stone, vaulted ceiling with wood beams, and also has nice outdoor seating. The back wall of the main dining room is composed of huge windows that look down into where the wine is produced. The outdoor seating has a view of the grapevines.
As a winery they have a good selection of wines, some of the wines are made from grapes outside, but they have 7 or 8 E = Estate Wine-​Grown, Fermented and Bottled at Ertel Cellars. The wines were pretty good and affordable, range from $ 14 – 24 a bottle.
We had a a group of 14 people (one child… Erlte is kid friendly & casual). The service was very good, and the food was solid. The entrees range from $ 17 – 26, and come with a salad, veggie, and starch of your choice. Everyone seemed to really enjoy their meals. My youngest brother’s was the best in my opinion: Shrimp Capparelli (shrimp wrapped with proscuitto & provolone, topped w/​garlic & herbs, baked & served w/​creamy garlic sauce. I had the cedar plank salmon which was very good.
In summary, we thought it was far to drive since we have so many options close to us. However, if we lived closer (Harrison or West-​side) it would be a great place to regularly visit for a nice meal.

I liked the fact that they had a variety of items on the buffett like chicken marsala, beef stew, shrimp scampi, and the usual omelette and prime rib station but it was odd that they did not have any waffles or pancakes on the buffett. the bonus was the free wine and dessert tastings.

The best food in the County! We happened to go on «seafood buffet» night. I am not much of a buffet person BUT this was different. THere was a cook there who would sear pieces of tuna or scallops for you. They had a pasta station along with oysters Rockefeller, snow crabs, fried and broiled cod, shrimp, baked brie, fried oysters, and all kinds of different salads.
The chef is from florida so he is good at seafood. I didn’t order form the menu but I saw some nice looking sea bass and cedar plank salmon pass by my table. The portions were huge and everyone was pleased at my table. They only have wine as far as we saw, no beer or liquor. The place looks great for weddings, anniversaries, or birthday celebrations.

Bistro is great – Sunday brunch is the best

I was very excited to see the restaurant at this winery. Tennessee wineries can’t serve food. This was a Great place to eat. We enjoyed the beautiful view Of the vineyards as we waited on our food.
I ordered the chicken salad. It was excellent. It is hard to find great chicken salad but I found it here.
After we satisfied our hunger we stepped over to the tasting room. We tasted the dry red wines. They were all good but my favorite was the Marechal Foch. It was a medium-​bodied red wine and I bought a bottle for the romantic week my husband and I have planned.
This winery is one of the wineries on the Indiana Wine Trail.

Great stop on the southern Indiana wine trail. MJ was our wine tasting bartender… She provided great info about each wine and some entertaining banter. The owner provided a tour of the winery. Overall a great experience. I would return to have lunch at the bistro.

Great Place out in the country! I went to Sunday Brunch with my family at Ertel’s. It was a great price! Only $ 14 per person. The brunch buffet offered made to order omlettes, made to order pasta, a variety of breakfast and lunch items along with delicious desserts. I do not believe a drink was included.
If you are looking for a nice drive to a unique place you should check this place out!