Haight-Brown Vineyard

I’ve been here several times already. The staff is great! I love their wine selection. I also loved how they had certain kinds of cheeses and chocolates you could try with the wine. My favorite wine was the apple wine. Delicious! And it pairs well with manchego cheese. I’ve been obsessed with that kind of cheese ever since! The barn is beautiful. One of the oldest vineyards in the state! I love the vintage charm! Litchfield is just a very beautiful town! The view of the hills is breathtaking!

Went for the wine, cheese, chocolate pairing event. Was a good experience. Everything sampled was quite good, assuming you like all types of wine, chocolate and cheese. The room was L shaped, and while we were at the center corner where the presenter stood, I could see how people at the far corners might have difficulty hearing, especially after the group had several «tatstings» in them. All in all it was a good experience that got off to a little rocky start. But the group size was comfortable and seconds came around most of the time to those who wanted them. I would go again.

Fantastic experience. There is a certain charm when heading out for great local wines to be taken in directly at the source — especially in a charming building with a fireplace going such as you’ll find at Haight-​Brown. Helpful staff guided us through 6 varieties before we decided on a bottle (or two) of the Covertside White. A charcuterie board (or two) plus some great conversation with my girlfriend all highlighted a relaxed, winter visit (and the Broncos/​Pats game on a nearby TV with small group of spectators was cool too). Haight-​Brown has a nice, dry Riesling, a peppery medium-​dry red (Morning Harvest), a big red called — Big Red (think BIG flavor), and some apple wines. We picked up another bottle of Covertside and a bottle of Toasty Apple (viscous, sweet dessert wine) for home. Can’t wait to come back and see what a show Haight-​Brown can put on when the weather warms up and we get to experience the outside as well.

We were in the area and decided to give this place a try. Walk in the front door and there isn’t really anything. Looks like used to be a meat market at one time. To do a tasting you walk up the stairs. There you sit at a huge bar. $ 9.40 for a tasting of six wines and you get to keep the glass. I rather not keep the glass but I do understand why they give them away. Overall the wines are ok. Out of the four wineries we visited in CT probably number three of the four. They do something unique. You can choose to do a cheese tasting with your wines. Depending on which six wines you choose is how they determine the cheese that goes with it. We had just eaten lunch or that would be right up our alley. Honestly probably make the wine taste better. If my memory is correct they also do a chocolate tasting with their wines. We did our tasting and left. The lady was nice and answered the questions we had. They also do a train event that looked cool if you live in the area. We were able to pin our town on their big map as no one else had been to this winery from Austin, TX or hadn’t pinned it. A nice experience even though the wine wasn’t our taste. Four stars as the staff was friendly, three stars for the wine.

So 4 stars for my first and most recent visit (10/​31/​2015) — I’m dating this because I am under the impression that this winery had been owned by numerous people throughout time. The establishment has a lot of potential, a very rustic look on the inside and an outdoor deck. They’re all about the wine here. They had a list to order from and all the selections sounded nice I had a Honey Apple wine which was delicious. There was a woman singing live who had a beautiful voice and you can get some pairings to go with the wine. It was a great experience to just sit and have a glass or two and talk with a friend, a nice ambiance too.
I feel like they’re trying to build this place up little by little so an open mind is needed. And I feel like reviews might be hit and miss on here because of the numerous owners.
But as for my most recent experience I’d say give it a chance, especially if you’re just going to try some wines and cheeses. The location is very beautiful. The server asked me what I liked about my wine and helped me pick a good one to my liking.

A friend and I purchased the Groupon for HBV’s Harvest Festival on 9÷19÷15. We made our way over (on a surprisingly short, and beautiful, drive) and found a parking spot rather quickly. Upon checking in at Table One, we were handed a beautiful glass and a punch card of wines and sent on our merry way. Since the line for the first tasting was a good 20-​people deep, we decided to go backwards and started with the reds. Over the course of the next few hours, we tasted all of HBV’s varieties, including:
— Picnic Red (a sangria red — very enjoyable)
— Big Red
— Morning Harvest
— Reisling (nothing special, sadly)
— Strawberry Bliss (explained to us as «reisling with strawberry extract», which is exactly how it tasted. Nothankyou.)
— Chardonnay (I did not like how they used oak chips in the stainless steel… not my favorite chardonnay)
— Covertside White
— Railway White
— Honey Nut Apple
We went with the reds first, then the blends, then the whites, and finished with the two apple wines which were located inside the barn. The first apple was so good I bought a bottle… the second was a wakeup call. It was 18% alcohol and should have come with a warning label!
We sat at the bar to rest after that final wine and had a few different people ask if we were being served. The staff was a bit standoffish but friendly, and the location is so beautiful. It wasn’t crazy busy but they seemed to be handling the crowds ok. I wasn’t really impressed with the wine, but it was worth the drive. The food for the festival was expensive and although it smelled good, it was way too much to pay for standard hot dog fare. We found a local restaurant for sandwiches, which were less expensive and better quality.

Went here for the ‘festival’. wine tasting… bbq … kids activities, local beer tasting. … well.. The wine was not very good.. the website lied about beer tasting.. the bbq was cold and quite awful.. how can would take a hot dog of the grill with no grill lines and cold. … the kids activities. .ha. henna tattoos… .I wouldn’t go back as this was just very amateur… but hey wine country in CT.. What should I expect..

Went on Mother’s Day for a tasting and had a great time. I love the big red, yes, that’s the name of the wine. The facility itself is very rustic and recently renovated in a good way. The variety of local goods was cool and I did end up purchasing a few things to take home. I also got to take home an wine glass which was a nice touch for the price. They didn’t push purchasing anything, rather, we tried it and bought what we liked! Definitely going back.

I felt compelled to update my review after my recent visit. We had the owner doing our tasting and she was such a poor hostess. Full bar and running around, cleaning, on the phone while everyone was waiting for their tastings. We spent an hour and 10 mins for a tasting. She seemed less than interested in anyone or anything. Definitely our worst experience. Now I know we won’t come back. I can’t even believe it. And the wines are rough and very young tasting. Wouldn’t get any of them by the glass

We drove an hour to visit the vineyard on Memorial Day. We asked for the wine tasting, but since it was 4:33 and they close that day at 5pm, they said no because the wine tasting lasts «like half an hour». Employees couldn’t care less about customer service.
In the end we bought a white wine, since we had been told from friends, they don’t produce red wine there and the ones they bottle and sell at the vineyard are not good.
My recommendation, skip the trip and go to any wine store near you, they will have better wine.

One star ONLY for the ambiance/​décor. Hostess/​owner was abrasive and rude for no reason; she seemed very annoyed that anyone would walk in during normal business hours for a tasting. Waitstaff was inattentive; they offered little to no relevant information about the winery and the wines, and even disappeared during the tasting to do other things. Do yourself a favor, SKIP THIS PLACE, and head out to one of the other wineries nearby (Sunset Meadow comes to mind), or spend a pleasant afternoon in Litchfield’s charming and historic nearby town center.

My wife and I tried the Haight-​Brown Vineyard Express. The train ride was a huge disappointment — a trip through the industrial CT back roads complete with numerous boarded up buildings, closed businesses, junk yards, rusted out car graveyards, etc. At 75 dollars per person, we were surprised when we were asked to share the small plastic cup of moist mixed nuts as they were «running low». When we asked what kind of wine we were being served, the response was, :“the same one we poured earlier”.
The wine paring was nicely done, but the winery tour, promised with the package, was a very brief description one of the establishment’s grape vines.
In all — a huge rip off. We strongly recommend against signing up for the Haight-​Brown Vineyard Express package.

On a Friday afternoon, when its naturally slower… after ten minutes of being ignored, we left! The woman, who was either the owner or manager (short hair and glasses) came over to where we were sitting, gave us menus and asked what we’ll be choosing. We told her we are only there for a tasting so she took the menus and proceeded to do «busy» work while we sat there and waited. I felt that she was disappointed that we didn’t want a cheese plate so we were being punished for it… I went to the men’s room expecting my wife to have been approached but to our disappointment there was still no attention. Even when I came back the woman didn’t take notice so we were forced to leave.
This is not our first bad experience but this time you can tell the vineyard was under new ownership, again. I don’t think they’ll ever get it right there. It seems like every owner is just concerned about making money and isn’t willing to make connections with their guests. They should learn from their nearby competitors who actually care about their guests experience.

Went to their chocolate decadence wine and chocolate pairing class for valentines day and had a blast. The owner led the class as we went through several different wines and chocolate talking about how to taste wine, wine making process and different wines. She was open to any question and made the class fun, exciting and surprisingly educational on a number of levels. Afterword we went upstairs to their bar and got a glass of wine and a sausage and cheese platter to split with another couple we met in the class. Overall a great time, a lot of wine and a lot of fun.

Did a tasting here last Sunday. Tried about 9 different wines and only the Chardonnay was drinkable and I normally prefer red wine. The rest were really disgusting.
Plus, the woman who poured was so unfriendly and off putting. We ran to another vineyard nearby and were treated 100 times better.

Saw their groupon for a wine and cheese tasting with a cellar tour for four people. The price was right, and I had never been there, so I thought I’d give it a try. I called a couple days in advance to see if we needed reservations. The pleasant voice on the other end said they no longer offer cellar tours but we could come in anytime. I was a bit disappointed, but I couldn’t complain too much since the groupon was pretty cheap.
First, the vineyard is very difficult to find. My husband and our friends had a hard time finding the place. A sign or two would have been sufficient.
The place is charming, nothing really fancy. There were a few people there, but plenty of seating.
We sat down, and the young woman greeted us. She was wearing a college tshirt, workout shorts, and flip flops. Now, I’m all for being casual, but I think a little professional casual dress is in order, maybe a nice top and jeans? It gave the impression she really didn’t want to be there, which became even more clear throughout the tasting.
She was rude, uninformative, and just flat out didn’t care if we didn’t have a good experience. Not once did she tell us the name of the wine or what we were drinking. When we did ask her, she either sighed and said «I don’t know» or muffled the name and we couldn’t hear her.
I hear they are selling the winery, so maybe that was why there was a lack of customer service, but it’s pretty inexcusable.

I need to bump Haight Brown back up to 4 stars after visiting again. I realize now that I kind of love this place and that the nonsense that took place last time was most likely (hopefully) an isolated incident. The wine is good, the cheese is good, the grounds are gorgeous, they’re open 7 days a week, and it’s just such a nice place to kick back and relax.

With the crowd, I felt that I was at a wine bar in West Hartford Center rather than rural Northwest Connecticut. The wine was fine and the sommelier was obviously very tired. Jason M. and I went at around 5:30. This place deserved kudos for being opened until 6, which was later than the two nearby wineries. I liked that there was a food (cheese or chocolate) option. The complimentary wine glass was definitely the nicest one I’ve received at a tasting.

Sincerely one of the finest wineries Connecticut has to offer, though I must express my surprise at just how crowded it was today.
That’s right, I’m gonna be the angry old man on this one. I’ve been gallivanting about the countryside to get tipsy at regional wineries ages before it became the hip new thing for fake-​classy twenty-​somethings to do. It was a time when you could peacefully contemplate your libations by the pale Connecticut sunlight on a quiet spring day. The days when one could truly indulge in the meditative practice of isolating oneself over a glass of local luxury.
Now, Haight-​Brown is basically a wine bar in the middle of nowhere. Loud, boisterous, bordering on annoying.
But you can’t deny that they do the classic wine tasting right. For $ 9, you get to taste every single wine in the house, and keep the glass you drank from. You can also add cheese or chocolate (or both) for a few bucks more.
And it’s hard not to at least like most of said wines. I prefer their cheaper selections ($ 15 – 16 a bottle), including the Covertside White and the Picnic Red.
Just make sure you bring your fly swatter for all the 23-​year-​olds that just got hired at the hedge fund.

This was the last winery we visited during our «Round 2» attempt to complete the CT Wine Trail 2013. We headed here from Connecticut Valley Winery and after our experience I wish we would have stopped there and called it a day
I will start out by saying that I really, really wanted to like this Vineyard. The oldest in Connecticut, we had a lovely ride there and arrived late Saturday afternoon.
First tip — get there early. It seems to be a popular place and we had trouble finding a spot to park. The grounds are nice and was the first winery we visited that had picnic tables among the vines, a nice touch. An it must be wonderful toward the latter part of the growing season.
Additionally building has two floors. It looks like they host private parties and other wine related events (think chocolate and wine pairings as well as tapas and wine pairings) on the first floor. Until we came to Haight-​Brown, many of the other wineries that we had visited on the quiet/​peaceful side… meaning you could enjoy a glass of wine and have a conversation without having to shout.
That was not the case here. The second floor tasting room (the only one in Connecticut with seats at the tasting bar) was packed, with music playing on the patio, and it was sort of hard to figure out how to have a tasting — some people waited by the cash register thinking that they would be seated. We soon realized it was first come first serve (literally). Luckily we figured out that you taste first and pay afterwards.
You are offered the standard tasting ($ 9) but can upgrade to have it include cheese (some from local creameries) and chocolate ($ 16) — both of which I highly recommend adding.
Yes — you are given a tasting of all 10 of their wines but honestly there is something to be said about less being more. In this case by the time we reached the end of the tasting our taste buds had dulled and honestly the wine was «ok» but not good enough for us to bring any home. I also found out that some of the grapes are «shipped in» such as the grapes used in their Riesling.
The ones that people were raving about (Strawberry Bliss and Railway white) did not please my pallet. If I were to choose a «best of» from the tasting it would be the Covertside White (same as the Railway White but with a different fermentation), Picnic Red (try with chocolate) and the Honey Nut Apple (which uses Bethel, CT apples and local honey).
All in all what I will remember about this winery is that the drive was gorgeous and I had some awesome cheese and chocolate.