Heineman Winery

I’m giving it 3 stars because of the outside atmosphere, but the wine was kind of icky. Based off of the wine, I would have given it 1 star. I believe it’s made with Concord grapes, which is definitely different, but it just wasn’t very good. It tasted a lot like welchs’s grape juice. Luckily there was a bunch of us that shared the bottle. VERY cute atmosphere out back though with picnic tables etc. Very nice, laid back area.

Had a nice visit and tour. Personal opinion the wine is way better here than the other winery and better priced. Enjoyed seeing the very old wine barrels.

We are not very big wine drinkers (or alcohol consumers for that matter period) but it was kind of neat to see the process and the history of this winery. We went on the tour and our guide was great she was very informative. They also included a free sample for both my husband and I and the kids got a free sample of the grape juice. I had the sweet concord wine and it was really good my husband had the Niagra (dry) and he loved it. Neat spot to check out if your on put in bay island for the day

The two stars for this place are for the many laughs my girlfriend and I had upon leaving and reflecting on this rather strange experience. We did the crystal cave and winery tour as well as purchasing a bottle of wine to drink on their patio. First off lets just say the service here is ridiculous. If you’re not ready for a ridiculous time and are looking for a real wine tour just don’t come here. If you’re looking for a staff of drunk people to give you a short terrible tour that apparently know very little about wine then this is the place for you. It’s clearly seen better days and needs a lot of work. The bathrooms and bar reminded me of a place I would find at a college dive bar. If you’re into that sort of thing which is smelly and dirty and unkept then go for it. This place looks like it hasn’t been cleaned for years and clearly hasn’t had much work done in general for years before that. The winery it’s self smelled like mold and rotting fruit. I’ve been to a large number of places where this was not the case. This place has seen better days and it’s probably best they just sell it to someone who cares.
In all serious a winery should be a fun educational place that just didn’t happen on our tour. The lady giving the tour was clearly drunk and she admitted she drinks a glass of wine pretty much all day non stop and told us how much some of the tours suck and how her days used to be much more fun but now she’s mostly here for the wine.
The guy who gave the cave tour talked about how much he hated being the one to give the tours.
… Point is they don’t make the customer feel welcomed and seem to care less about your experience.

I’m surprised as I read the largely postive reactions to this winery. I admit that the tasting room is lovely, and there is plenty of seating and shade outside. I also admit that I only had wine there, and it appears that my having gone on the tour would merit Heineman an extra star or two.
Maxine W.‘s information from last July is still correct and summarizes the place well:
The wine is $ 2 a glass or $ 10 – 14 a bottle, and the cheese plates and meat sticks are cheap and satisfying. There’s a large outdoor seating area with picnic benches.
Perhaps I’m being unfair: the winery uses Concord grapes, which rarely produce very good wines, and they do charge $ 2 a glass, but that is reflected in the taste. I understand that many wineries are trending toward easy-​to-​drink, sweet wines, but this wine was almost sugary. The whites were only passable, and the red wines are terrible.
In addition, the staff seemed entirely disinterested in their wines or about talking about the area or the wine there. There were but 4 customers in the winery when I went there, but I would think that to make wine staff all the more attentive to the customers there.
I suppose if you’re looking to drink a pitcher of cold, cheap wine (The wines here, red or white, do taste good chilled), you can get your fill here. If you’re looking for top wine in Put-​In-​Bay, however, head on downtown to the Put-​In-​Bay Winery.

Fantastic! It’s the only winery from the area to survive the prohibition! Tons of history and family owned for five generations. You can sample all of their wine selection in small cups for $ 2. I think it might’ve been 5 oz cups so it was a great deal. The patio is beautiful and the staff is friendly and knowledgable. I would visit the island just for this attraction. There’s also a wine tour available!

The charm of this place comes from all the stray cats in the back. I’m actually serious, these cats are friendly and actually probably not strays since they didn’t seem to be full of burrs and fleas.
This is the place to go if you like sweet wines. Everything is high residual sugar Midwest grapes. It’s Welch’s with alcohol, essentially. That’s not a bad thing to some folks, but it’s no go for others. Know what you’re getting into. However, if you do need the dry stuff, they got a good bottle of bubbly that’s dry.

Our group had a really fun experience at Heineman’s! The winery tour-​guide was really informative, and the wines were tasty – lots of sweets on the menu, and they are stupidly satisfying on a hot day. Don’t expect fancy-​schmancy – this is a casual place to have a sit & a sip with friends. The Noiret was pretty interesting, but we brought home a bottle each of the Niagara Wine and Concord Grape Juice (yum!)

If you enjoy drinking super sweet wine out
Of a plastic Dixie cup this is the place for you. If you enjoy good wine, don’t waste your time.

Super unique gem in Ohio.
The wine here is great… esp for the price. Love the history of this place.
I’ve been to wineries in Sonoma, Napa Valley, Rhine River region, and various parts of France. I wouldn’t say I’m a connoisseur by any means, but I would say that many of the wines at Heineman Winery can hold their own next to these wines in more well known regions.
Gewürztraminer is light, fruity, and nice. Cab Franc and some sharp cheddar or dark chocolate is perfect on a crisp, cool evening.
They have great sweet wines. Perfect for dessert.
I always love coming back to this family owned winery. Edward Heineman humbly puts his whole heart into each bottle of wine.

Another PIB gem.
After leaving the Fishbowl, we headed on foot over to Heineman’s. When we got there, it was PACKED. And why wouldn’t it be? The wine is $ 2 a glass or $ 10 – 14 a bottle, and the cheese plates and meat sticks are cheap and satisfying. There’s a large outdoor seating area with picnic benches. Everyone at PIB is always in a good mood, so it’s easy to share a table with new friends.
On this trip I tried the sweet concord, which is not quite as cloying as kosher concord wines can be, and the riesling, which I also bought a bottle of to take home.
Heineman’s Winery is definitely a must-​see in Put-​in-​Bay.

I’m not really a wine snob, so I don’t have much to say. The wines were tasty and the staff was knowledgable and friendly. I thought the wine garden could use some sprucing up, seemed a little lacking to me. This area could use some landscaping or perhaps a water feature or two.

If you’re not a wine snob, you will probably enjoy this place. We visited here on Memorial Day weekend so we could get a glass of wine, snack on a cheese plate and sit down and relax for a little bit after battling bumper-​to-​bumper golf cart traffic all afternoon.
We really liked their wines. The Sweet Belle was delicious and refreshing on a hot day we’d spent most of outside in the sun. The guys also enjoyed some of the darker red wines, but I wanted cold wine.
The glasses are $ 2. They are served in a very small plastic cup, but I thought it was a pretty fair price for the size cup. The cheese plates are $ 6 for a pretty decent serving of different varieties of cheese and several kinds of crackers to go with.
However… I also was really irritated about the smoking situation.
There are «no smoking» signs posted everywhere, but a huge group of like 12 middle aged former bros were still sucking on their cigars on the patio. Smoking was allowed out in the garden, but not on the patio which is kind of enclosed. So we had to gag on their stench, since there were no other tables open.
Eventually a staff member came over and politely asked them to go out into the garden to smoke. Of course they all became defensive and mouthy mumbling about how they were customers too. When we left, they were still smoking.
Which brings me to my next point… we thought going to a winery would be a great opportunity to escape the drunken idiots that seemed to be plentiful at the other bars downtown. No such luck.
I genuinely think on non-​holiday weekend this would have been a much more pleasant trip. We enjoyed it a lot other than the old bros!
Just another note: Their wines are $ 2 cheaper on the «mainland» at the Cheese Haven!

Great local winery. Sweet Belle is my favorite wine, as it the Pink Catawba. I recommend both.

If I could give zero stars, this one would get it.
During my first and last visit to this winery, we were entertained by the scene of the police carting off a group of brawlers. Barfight at a winery? Lots of people smoking in the wine garden… apparently this is permitted here. They didn’t have any cheese plates or any food at all on the Saturday I went. The wine garden was pretty crappy. A bunch of dirty, beat up picnic tables inside a chain link fence. That’s it.
On to the wines… the dry wines were disgusting. No spinning that one. Just utterly disgusting. The boxed wine that sells for 4.99 in the grocery is leaps and bounds better. So I tried a sweet wine. It was at least sort of drinkable, meaning that I didn’t immediately want to spit it out & puke. I managed to finished a few sips of a sample before dumping it, likely killing the grass it got poured on. This was on par with Boone’s in terms of quality. Apparently this is indeed the winery equivalent of wherever crappy, cheap beers are brewed.
Oh, I had the treat of accidentally wandering into the winemaking room and meeting one of the winemakers. he appeared as if he had been on a 10 year bender and his only comment about the wines he made was «yup. You can get some up at that building thar, around those cop cars» and pointed us in the direction of the tasting room.

Great wine! Loved the Sweet Belle

You have to go into this adventure knowing it’s probably a tourist trap, otherwise you might be a bit disappointed. I think it’s worth checking out, however, because how often do you get an opportunity to see a crystal cave? Having been here several times over the years I would normally give a 4 star rating but the staff was kind of rude during my most recent visit. Trust me, I get it. It’s hot out, you’ve given a bazillion tours today, and you are ready to go home. But that’s all part of the gig so put on a smile! Anyhoo, this is a small family run winery. I believe they mentioned bottling 300,000 last year but don’t quote me. Several of their wines are award winners in various categories. You begin by taking a quick tour of the underground crystal cave. While small, it is pretty cool to see. Next, you take a tour of the winery. It’s pretty small but this isn’t Napa Valley after all. It’s a quick tour but very informative. You can then get a sample of wine or grape juice to enjoy in the bar area or out in their garden area. The outdoor garden is nice, there are plenty of picnic tables to sit and enjoy your sample, glass or bottle of wine. There is also a small gift shop. It gets busy here but we snuck in toward the end of the day so it wasn’t as packed as I was anticipating. If you travel a bit south of the winery while walking/​biking/​golf carting, you will see the Heineman’s grapes growing in a lovely grape field. Look for the sign if that interests you!

This is a tourist trap of a winery. The décor inside is 70’s Elk’s Club chic. The garden out back was ok. Picnic tables with some decent shade.
Unfortunately, it was the absolute worst wine I have ever experienced. I actually was not even able to finish it. Not only were the wines sweet, but they were also slippery.
Not a pleasant experience. If you want wine on the island, bring a bottle from the mainland.

Extremely sweet wines that taste like they are made of Welch’s Grape Jelly.
You go for the tour, the knowledge, and if you are lucky, to see the world’s largest geode! You can even stand in it!!!

This is the kind of place just feels like it exists solely to make a buck off tourists. I know, I know, that’s what Put-​in-​Bay is all about. It’s just a place you go because you’re tooling around the island in a golf cart, see a winery, and think «well, of course we need to go there.»
It’s not bad, it’s just not remarkable in any way, other than the fact that there’s a giant geode you can pay seven bucks to walk down to stand in.