Borjon Winery

Unbelievable!!! They just charged us $ 10 each for tasting and refund only for each person/​bottle!!! Not brought up and made clear!!! Very frustrating!!! Not going back.

Signs declaring don’t touch or you will be asked to leave did not make this place feel very inviting.

I am a wine member at Borjon and it is one of my go to spots when I go wine tasting in Amador county. I first fell in love with Borjon a few years ago when I was wine tasting with my folks and we stopped at the winery because we liked that their logo had a cowboy hat on it. We are simple like that ;). What we found when we went inside was a super cute little tasting room with great customer service. The gentleman that poured for us was very informative and most importantly he made us feel special and welcome. We had so much fun and as a red wine lover I was beyond tickled that they only make and serve red wine, SCORE! They also had a fresh salsa pairing to go with the wine. Red wine AND salsa!!! I was in heaven. While I love all of their wines my favorites are the Barbara Reserva, Differente, Complejio, and their Zinfandels. I highly recommend this winery and I will continue to come back time and time again.

Loving the Barbera Complejo and Bull Rider! If you actually know wine, you know this is good, quality juice and winemaking.

This is an update, and I’ve been a club member for some time, and so I sometimes get to be a bit persnickety. My wife thinks I’m high maintenance, and, on occasion, she’s known to be right. That’s relevant here because the wine is so good that it’s often very crowded. it’s also on the main road with a huge parking lot, and so it’s pretty easy to find and park.
So, they’ve got the formula down. Good wine + good visibility + plenty of parking + nice employees = happy wine drinkers = big crowd.
What a pleasant experience it was to be there on a Thursday afternoon on a glorious Spring day in April. For the first time ever, we were, for about six minutes, the only customers in the tasting room. As it turns out, it’s a nice room.
The other new finding on this trip was that they are now allowing you to taste their very expensive wine. We got to taste $ 100 Barbera and the $ 130 Cabernet.
Without going into a whole bunch of detail, I’d simply suggest that you plan for a crowd, have a good attitude, and enjoy some good wine.
All the best!

I decided to try them again. The wines are mediocre and the service is still horrible. Don’t waste your time. There are far better choices in the area such as Runquist, Cooper, Helwigg, and Dillian.

Tanya was such an amazing person! We stopped, by chance, and after tasting the wines and hearing about the history and having Tanya talk is through every tasting, we will definitely refer our friends and we will be back! The wines are spectacular!!!

Great service but was not too much a fan of their wine. Maybe I had too much by this point but just wasn’t jumping out and giving me the wow factor. Maybe ill try again at a later date.

We paid $ 10 for a Barbera tasting. I bought the 2012 Barbera Seleccion. The 2012 Barbera Reposado was noteworthy along with the 2012 Barbera Reserva.

Glad we stopped here. Several Barberas to taste. Bought the 2011 Barbera Reposado. There was a $ 5 tasting fee, but rebated back with wine purchase. Nice guy working at counter. There is a tequila museum here, to look but not to taste!
Will be back, maybe join wine club, they have great Barberas.

This was a first time visit. I love the wines and the tasting room but BUYER BEWARE! We did a «collections» tasting at $ 18.52 for 2. We liked and we bought 2 bottles for $ 52 total. When I looked at our receipt a whopping $ 4.63 had been credited for tasting. Seriously? You spend better than $ 50 and still net nearly $ 14 for the honor. I know the personnel explained this but they were pretty stretched that afternoon and no real dollars and cents were mentioned. No wonder their wine club is so attractive and I’m sure this is a motivational tool.
But speaking of tools, I’m not one so I won’t go back. I completely get the point of charging to taste… and I realize $ 52 isn’t a lot for wine, but there are far too many wineries in that valley where you do not incur such a high cost of tasting.

This was a fun place during The Big Crush, but crowded. Line too long to get food and took a while to get a wine tasting. No white wines. Maybe their vineyard doesn’t produce them… not sure. It was my first visit.

The wines here are REALLY good! I just wish they didn’t charge a fee for tasting. The fee can be put towards a bottle purchase, but it was kind of a bummer when almost all of the other wineries offer complimentary tastings. Oh well, it is definitely worth going to, if you don’t mind paying! I thought the service was good.

Our last couple trips to borjon were sadly dissappointing. The wine is still great but the staff who had been pouring were very uninterested and rude in some cases. We actually canceled our wine club for now. Hope it gets better.

I’m torn. I would give five for the wine and the atmosphere, but I would give zero for the service. We were referred here on a wine buying trip by the great folks at Turley down the road. The rose at Borjon is exceptional and a real treat. The blonde pouring it? I thought I must have done something to offend her, but couldnt imagine what. She seemed actually put out to be pouring for us, as though she could barely stand us being there. Strange vibe. The other employees who were helping other customers seemed very friendly. This young woman seemed very impressed with herself and practically disgusted with us. I still bought bottles and they have been fantastic! But next time I would see if someone else can pour. No one needs to be treated like that!

Beautiful tasting room with a Tequila Museum (miniature museum). I would give them 5 stars if they would just waive that stupid tasting fee charge. We did buy two bottles of their Garnacha, which is fantastic by the way. But the Fee? We ended up sitting outside in their beautiful patio area and had lunch.
As soon as that tasting fee goes away, I will rate them at 5 stars. Their wine is good and they should known that people will buy more if they are not insulted with being charged before they taste. We drove for over an hour to go tasting, not because we want free stuff, we came to buy wine!

I really don’t understand why business owners hire staff that should really be kept in a back office behind closed doors rather than behind the counter «greeting» customers.
I walked in and bellied up to the wine bar. A woman put a glass in front of me and just poured a taste without offering a clue as to what I was tasting. When I asked what she had poured, she put a list in front of my and just pointed to the name of the wine. No smile, no eye contact, no words out of her mouth. This is the biggest turn off!
It is really unfortunate that this was my first impression of this place because it had been recommended by another winery that I really like. I ended up tasting this one wine and then put my glass down and walked out.

This is one of the best kept secrets in Amador, but it’s only a matter of time until the genie comes out of the bottle!
The Latin flavor here gives a vibe that sucks you right in. Often they have a salsa pairing to go with the wines. They make their stuff from scratch and are working toward building an event center and small Mexican deli onsite.
I have been here numerous times for tastings and have been quite surprised each time with how the wines get better as they age.
See Noe… He throws down a mean tasting with lots of great conversation. They make great Zins and Barbara, and often have a nice case special.
This place will become one of the most popular places in Amador over the years… I see it coming!

New kids on the block
Joe Shebl is the winemaker and he is making some good wines for not having many years at the winery. All the wines I tasted were young, fruity and tight. These have aging potential and most likely will be getting bigger notice as time passes. These wines are going in the right direction.
We tasted Primitivo, Barbera, Zin, Petite Sirah and Los Portales (blend). Noe Avila the tasting room manager is very talented with people and has a natural grace with folks. We purchased ECKS 2001 Rose Wine at $ 17 — it is a steal. Don’t start on me about Rose wine — try it and then tell me.

Borjon Winery adds a youthful, Latin flavor to the über-​traditional wine area known as Shenandoah Valley. Not all wine tasting has to include serious discussions about tannins, «nutty or fruity» flavors or what the wine pairs best with. I doubt most people actually know what they’re talking about when they have these discussions.
At Borjon, they make serious wine for the casual drinker. I didn’t feel inferior because I didn’t know a thing about blends or varietals. It’s an energetic atmosphere with a fun, casual staff who know that some people like drinking wine for the sake of drinking.
I first stopped in during an Amador wine event and they had pulled out all the stops: a mariachi band, free tamales and burritos and, of course, some great wine. I had a chance to chat with the owner and he is obviously enthusiastic about bringing a different vibe to stodgy old wine country.
Again, I don’t know much about wine, but if I were to recommend one bottle from Borjon, I’d go with the 2007 Xinfandel.