Putney Mountain Winery

We stopped by the winery in Basketville today for a tasting. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the wine maker was serving the wine. They had some nice fruit wines, and we liked the rhubarb blush the best. At $ 2 for a full tasting of their offerings, you really can’t go wrong! It’s not really a place to hang out with a glass of wine, but it was cool to take a look at the winemaking through the observation windows into the winery. A nice place to stop, for sure.

So disappointing! I was excited to try my first Vermont wine and this seemed like the place to check out. The pictures on the website are beautiful and the reviews are great. I emailed the owners to check on the hours and were excited to hear they were open.
First, this is NOT a winery. This is a counter at a Basketville. There is nowhere to sit, there is no food for a true pairing and the woman working at the counter was kind of snarky. When I asked her if this was the right location she looked at me like I was crazy and said something along the lines about OF COURSE it was. I said, «I thought there was an outdoor space and pairings,» and she said it was indoors but I was welcome to sit in some of the chairs at Basketville. She was incredibly sarcastic. I can be sarcastic too, but I know enough not to do so when I’m working. She didn’t get the memo. I asked her about the pictures on the website — of people enjoying wine outdoors and she SCOFFED and said, «Do you mean THIS picture?» pulling out a brochure and flipping it over to the picture on the back (the one from the website) and I said, «Yes.» Her response? «Oh, that’s just the owner’s house.»
Wait, what? I’m sorry, but in my opinion that is deceptive advertising. If I wanted to stand around a plywood bar and have someone be rude to me I’d go drink a Bud Light in someone’s garage. Bummed the business does not advertise appropriately and that the staff is rude. We won’t be back.

I did a wine tasting today inside of the Cabot Quechee Store. The woman running the tasting bar had a great sense of humor and knew the wine well. She was very engaging, I wish I knew her name so I could compliment her more! The wine itself was amazing. I decided on purchasing Blueberry Blush but I was torn between that and the Apple Maple wine. Highly recommend trying a tasting sometime so you can sample all the great styles and flavors. It is well worth it!

Yum! I found the wife of the winemaker at the Brattleboro farmer’s market while we were there over the 4^th of July, and I was happy I did. I sipped some wines at 10:30 in the morning, and left her stand with a bottle of cassis ($ 18.49, plus tax), which will soon find its way into some glasses of champagne when Dorian comes home from France.
Before settling on the cassis, I tasted the rhubarb blush, which was yummy, but too sweet for my taste. I also tasted a little bit of the champagne, which was also really good and crisp. I was given tips on how long my cassis will last opened and how to store it (put it in the fridge once opened and it’ll last forever) and was given tips of uses. Adding the cassis to champagne is how we’ll be using it, but other options include marinating berries in it, and dripping it over ice cream. Mmm, booze ice cream.
I’ve looked online and they don’t seem to have a website, and I can’t seem to find anything indicating they do any sort of tours. They do seem to have a good presence at the local Vermont farmer’s markets, and the next time we go back, I will hunt them down again and see if they do any tours. The winery folks at Putney Mountain Winery definitely love their craft.