Viszlay Vineyards

We came here as a part of the Segway wine tour. I had never heard of the Limerick Lane wineries before our tour, but I’m glad we found them. The segway tour was a ton of fun & the Vizlay owners were expecting us. We parked our Segways along the vines & settled in at several of their patio tables. The wine was good & it was interesting to get to meet the owner and his daughter. They shared their unique story of moving from Chicago out to start a family wine business in California. Viszlay does a wine stomping event and bbq every year that I hope to come back for!

Charming small, family winery in the heart of the Russian River Valley. Be prepared for a warm welcome, genuine hospitality, and great wine. A visit to this quaint, boutique winery will not disappoint true wine enthusiasts.

This is a rebuttal to Lynn and Lanisa’s one star review below. Grow up! I was there trying to enjoy Barrel Tasting. A limo pulls up and half the girls were drunk! Not all of them. They were loud and ruining the experience for all the others. The owner asked if you would quiet down. When that didn’t work he said he may have to ask you to leave. Why? You may not realize it but the wineries can not serve alcohol to those that are intoxicated. It is against the law even if you have a driver.
*****I found the owners to be very nice, educational and will definitely be back.*****

Disappointed by the service at this winery. We were part of a tour that stopped here for our final tasting. First off we were pushed to the back of the tasting area, most likely to accommodate our larger group. Part of the group was a bachelorette party. We were all having a good time until the owner JOHN came over to our group and told us to «shut up or get out» that we were too loud. He then proceeded to lecture our entire group as though we were his children and we needed to be disciplined. Being a woman who is a grandmother, I was quite shocked and frustrated that I would be treated so poorly by the owner of a company. Having worked in customer service for most of my career I can say that John and his staff (family) need some serious training on how to deal with customers. If a group is being too loud there are MUCH MORE professional ways to ask them to quiet down. Every other winery we were at for that day was able to do that. These ladies were NOT out of control, they were only trying to celebrate their friends special day. Unfortunate that such a rude experience put a damper on it. The wine is not even worth commenting about to change the rating any. Fortunately I have the option to never visit this vineyard/​winery again and am able to share my experience so that friends do not have to encounter this type of service. I also hope North Bay Winery Tours removes this stop from their options.

Abbey was the most amazing and helpful wine connoisseur BUT her father, THE owner (John), was terribly rude and threatened to kick us out after having a ‘cheers’ for our future misses. We appreciate abbey’s kindness but will never return due to John’s rudeness. In addition, there was only a port-​o-​potty, they will not allow guests to use their bathroom.

Rudest service ever from a winery I’ve been. I’m shocked since this is on the more laid-​back Sonoma side vs. the more commercial Napa side. We came here on a tour bus with a bachelorette party in the group. The owner’s daughter Abby was our host, and she was super sweet. However, since we were in a big group, it was harder to hear, so as we were tying to quiet the group down, John, the owner came up to our entire group and basically said that if we didn’t keep our voices down, he’d kick us out. First of all, the group was not overly rowdy — we were all having a great time, which is what people come out to wine country for; and he had absolutely NO right to act this way to paying customers. Totally not worth our $ 10 for over-​dry sub-​par wine accompanied with a classy port-​o-​potty. #skipthisplace

Very rude service by the owner, we will never come back. We came in a large group, he threatened to kick us out because the bachelorette group was having fun. Never been treated like this at a winery. The daughter (Abby) is very nice. One star is for the daughter.
Wine is subpar, not worth the drive.

I dropped by Viszlay Vineyard with a group of 4 other friends last Sunday — it was a lovely visit which all of us enjoyed!
My friend had called to make a reservation in advance; although we arrived 30 minutes earlier, we were warmly greeted and welcomed by the hosts, John and Abby (father-​daughter team). Despite the fact that they had other guests with them, they made us feel welcomed and prepared chairs for us.
We did the wine and chocolate pairing — we tasted four different wines (chardonnay, zinfandel, rose zinfandel and port) each paired with four different chocolates — the taste and flavours were amazing! I am not knowledgeable about wines and liked how Abby used terms which we could understand. The four different wines was part of the package we had, but Abby had kindly allowed us to try their special «Five Vines», a mixture of five different wines which tasted very nice. I liked the Zinfandel, port and Five Vines, as I love red wines in general. I really liked how Abby shared about how different wines go well with the different chocolates — it was also amazing that she did so much trial and error all on her own in order to arrive at the right pairings! :)
Abby and John were so warm and friendly and shared with us their personal stories about how the vineyard was started, their most popular wines, and answered a variety of questions which the group of us had about their wines/​vineyard/​how the wines were made by her father. After the wine tasting, Abby brought us out to the vineyard and even helpfully took group pictures for us.
It was a great pleasure to meet Abby and John at their lovely vineyard.

Came here for the Wine & Food Affair event last weekend. We were actually served by the owner, who was very polite and nice. Their vineyard is gorgeous! That is probably the best thing about the winery. We tried several of their wines, but none of them really stood out for me. Usually I’ll find at least 1 wine that I like, but unfortunately not this time. I would recommend stopping here for the view of the vineyard and perhaps you may like their wines, as everyone has different tastes and palates.

Ok Ok Ok… I will probably get knocked for this review, but hey I gotta be honest right… My review so deal with it! LOL
My husband planned a weekend getaway at our beach house in goat rock beach. Im a huge wine fan and have always wanted to do the wine stomp so during this weekend getaway he planned a few fun activities. He found this winery that was doing a wine stomp and bought tickets online $ 30 each. When we arrived it was a beautiful location nestled between quite a few wineries. walking up theres a little barn where Im guessing they do there tasting at. The owner greeted us and said lunch wasn’t ready yet but to grab a seat out back. So we walked to the back of the barn where other guest were sitting. We grabbed a table and listened to the live band. Which played really slow folk music almost, would have loved to hear something a little more upbeat and fun but they weren’t bad. We sat there waiting for a bit and never asked if we needed anything? Kinda weird… My husband got up and walked around and found 2 glasses for us. There was wine on the tables so we just went and poured our selfs some. After about an hour, the owner announces lunch is ready which was bbq and it was really good. We ate our food and then just sat there for about another hour hour and half… we saw staff bring wine to all the tables but ours, we kinda were pushed to the back and weren’t even talked to or offered any wine. We also were the youngest couples there so maybe thats why? We felt so out of place which we do a lot of wine tasting and have never felt that way… We waited… waited… found wine here and there and treated our selves LOL waited waited and finally the grape stomp began and we were called first! Thank god! We did the stomp and enjoyed those 3 mins, def worth the 60 bucks to stomp some grapes and have that experience! We left about 5 mins after that. It was really boring, no one to offer us wine or tell us about the wines or winery which is one big reason why I love going to wineries! I love hearing the story behind the winery! I only got to try the pinot I found and that was good. I think you need to be 50 and over and in there circle in order to enjoy this place. We were like outsiders and no one wanted to let us in LOL I wont be back but thanks for the stomp its been something I have wanted to experience!

Cozy winery and we bought the 2010 Chardonnay and just opened it 5−15−15. Wonderful wine!

We went here as part of a Segway tour we were on and the staff was very knowledgeable and friendly. Enjoyed the chardonnay and heard they have a cabarnet franc that I will definitely be back to try another time. Very nice.

We visited Viszlay Vineyard with Terrific Tours like many others. This was my favorite winery of the day because of the experience. I liked the family feel of the place, and it was great that we got to sit around a table drinking wine with the daughter. It’s great to see someone doing what they love!

Great sit-​down wine tasting experience!
John, the owner, came out and sat with us and talked about the different wines. He clearly enjoys what he does and has fun talking to his visitors. A lot of great, flavorful stuff. We even got a glass of zin right from the steel barrel.
If you’re in Healdsburg, definitely check out this winery!

Had a great time at Vizslay Wineries. Wine is awesome and Abbey and John are good people. You’ll enjoy the stories they share about their winery while pouring wine

I came here as part of a Segway of Healdsburg wine tour, and this winery is gorgeous. They have great wines available only through their wine club.

We visited this winery earlier this week as part of a tour. I absolutely loved tasting the wines while sitting at an outdoor table, surrounded by the vines. In this case, the zinfandel grapes. Our tasting was led by the owner’s daughter who has been with the winery for a few months. John, the owner, was wandering around in the background and stopped by to say «hello».
This is a very small and unique site and I’m so glad it was included on our tour. It’s such a contrast to the bigger, more corporate sites. The wines were all very enjoyable and most people on our tour made purchases.

Hands down one of the best experiences we had while touring vineyards in Healdsburg. I was with my family and we had never really done a true wine tasting before. John’s vineyard was the first stop on our Segway tour (which is definitely the way to see wine country!). John was extremely knowledgable, friendly, and down to earth. He was so chatty with us while we sampled wine and answered my numerous questions. He was even getting a kick out of us because we literally loved every wine we sampled (coming from the East Coast we were really only accustomed to cheap super market wine).
I loved the fact that John’s vineyard was a small 10-​acre plot and the wine could only be purchased there or through his wine club. I wish he lived closer to us and I also wish MA wasn’t such a pain in the you-​know-​what about shipping wine. I will certainly be keeping John in mind if I ever need wine for a function in the future.
Bottom line: if you’re in Healdsburg don’t leave without stopping by to see John at Viszlay!

A pleasant surprise, not the typical experience… it is much more educational! John is a one man show who is investing in his dream of wine. Well he knows his stuff! It was really great to be able to see the process and learn from an expert. He bought it three years ago or so and has a wide range of grapes. Tasting with the owner was fun and the wine was delicious; it was hard to choose which to bring home. This place has so much potential, get to get up close to the vines… cannot wait to see it bloom.

We ended up at Viszlay at the last minute due to a change of plans with our Sonoma tour group. What a happy turn of events! We had a fun and unique experience at this tiny winery.
Our group of 8 was hosted by the owner. We sat outside at a patio table under an umbrella. It was a gorgeous, sunny day, and we were surrounded by the grape vines (great place for photos).
John explained how he got interested in the wine business, eventually buying the vineyard just a few years ago. It’s an interesting contrast to the larger corporate wineries and even the smaller, family-​owned places.
We tried two whites and 3 reds. The first was a prosecco which is uncommon to find in CA wine country. It was a little dry for my tastes, but everyone else loved it. All the reds were wonderful: a blend, malbec and pinot noir. I couldn’t decide which to take home, so my husband bought the pinot and red blend. Two people in our group even joined the wine club.
I would love to come back when we have more time to chat with the owner and tour the winemaking facility. This would be a great place to visit during the crush.