Mattaponi Winery

I did a tasting here for my birthday and I was not disappointed. I thought all of their wines were drinkable and I liked that their red and white wines actually had the taste of grapes. Their fruit wines are delicious – I got a glass of the blueberry and the chocolate covered strawberry and again was impressed with how much the fruit flavors came through. The cheesecake that came with the tasting was excellent and paired so well with the strawberry wine. I also got the sangria mix to take home… when prepared it was very sweet and refreshing. I would want to drink it everyday if it wasn’t so expensive. Still, I’m planning on coming back whenever I can to try some of their other fruit wine varieties.

They specialize in the fruitier, «indian-​style» wines, which are sweeter than my usual preference, but they do them very well. Great customer service, and be sure to try the Pow Wow — chocolate-​covered strawberry flavored — wine with the excellent cheesecake they offer: absolutely delicious.

A very beautiful winery. They have just completed a new tasting room which is absolutely gorgeous. The brother does not have much of a personality when doing the tasting. Their fruit wines are absolutely delicious, but a bit overpriced. Their grape wines are not very traditional in taste, but they aren’t bad. Overall, a neat experience. One of the few in the area that offers fruit wines.

Good wine, great cheesecake! The sangria and fruit wines were amazing, their grape wines not so much. Huge new tasting room/​building and the service was fantastic.

Great tasting room! The fruit wines were great! They are not trying To be anything they aren’t. If you want great atmosphere and great fruit wines, you should check this spot out.
I was worried because of the other reviews, but so glad we went. The service was great for us. They were busy, but well staffed. We bought 2 bottles of wine and enjoyed a glass in the tasting room.
They embrace their Native American heritage and was well represented in the tasting room. We enjoyed our visit!

LOVE this winery. I first tasted their wine at a festival a month ago and have wanted to visit the actual winery since then. Today my boyfriend and I made the trip from Richmond and it was completely worth it.
I can honestly say I enjoyed every wine I tried during the tasting. My favorites were the fruit wines, but the whites and reds were also great. The tasting was $ 5 and for an additional $ 2 added a slice of cheesecake that was delicious! The service was friendly, and the winery is beautiful!
We will be going back again for sure!

Mattaponi is a tough one to rate because the highs and lows of different wine flights were dramatic. I gave them 3 stars as an average, but in reality I need multiple ratings to do them justice. Service: 5 stars. Sangria: 5 stars, easily. Fruit wines: 3 or 4 stars (depending on which one and what you think of fruit wines in general). Grape wines: a measly 1 star.
Their 11 tastings for $ 5 (normally 13 wines but 2 were sold out) is a great deal, even if I didn’t care for the grape wines. Mattaponi is known primarily for their fruit wines; if that’s not your thing, you might want to skip them (although I encourage you to at least try). Many of their grape wines were fruit forward (including Chambourcin, Concord, Niagara). They don’t own any grape vines, which is unusual but given their style of wines, understandable.
I’ll start with the awesome sangria. I discovered Mattaponi at a festival and I kept going back to their booth for more of this sweet sweet nectar. They have two blends; one with Chardonnay and the other with Cab Sav; I had a hard time picking which I liked more. They also sell ‘kits’ of juice and a wine bottle where you can make your own at home. I was tempted to try, but I avoided temptation… this time…
Next the pretty good: the fruit wines. First off I’ll admit; I find fruit wines hit or miss, and this was no different. I liked the Peach and the POW WOW (accurately described as tasting like Chocolate Covered Strawberries) the best; I’d get either again no problem. The Strawberry was pretty good. The Grapefruit and the Blackberry were OK.
Lastly the grape wines. I honestly, truly couldn’t stand the Chardonnay, Riesling, or Cab Sav. The Chambourcin was OK, and the Concord was surprisingly decent (which was odd since typically Concord-​based wines taste too much like jam).
What else to say… the server was incredibly patient; a customer couldn’t quite understand what he meant by a sangria ‘kit’ and he explained it like 4 times in a row. This place is also on the Grape and Grains wine pass, which is a good deal. As of December they’ve had a new tasting building (which is a HUGE improvement over the old one), which is mostly complete.

mattaponi now has a lovely tasting room open. my $ 5 tasting included 13 different wines and they are very unique. staff members were very friendly and accommodating. wine snobs may turn their noses up but if you want delicious wines that taste like real fruit, this is the place to come!

Not great wines. Weird register layout which discourages customers to buy anything more than just a tasting and slows everything down. The people were friendly, but just didn’t quite have their act together. The place is beautiful however; if only the customer service and the wines matched the venue.

Where to begin. After reviewing their website, the Native American culture and fruit wines definitely seemed like an experience to have.
Upon entering the log cabin, the smell of fresh wood and lacquer was amazing and there was plenty of space. As we approached the tasting bar, a gentleman stated that if we were here for tastings then we needed to go to the cash register first to pay. This was a first for me and an immediate off putting vibe for customers coming to their winery to spend money. The lady at the cash register was unfortunately very slow. It was nice to receive the free tasting for Mothers Day but when I asked about a military discount for myself, she asked the gentleman from earlier, her brother. His response, «Unfortunately we wish we did but we don’t, my dad served over 20 years.» This made me laugh. First, your family owns the winery, you can do whatever you want including a military discount If you so choose. Second, if your dad served, that’s even more of a reason to give a discount. First winery I have been too that doesn’t offer a military discount.
Tasting Experience:
For Mother’s Day, everyone received cheesecake for free. The brother from earlier was so worried about getting cheesecake for everyone that my wife and I had to wait more than 10 minutes for the first pour. One of the other sisters noticed how bad the wait was and came up to her brother telling him not to worry about the cheesecake, just pour the first wine then go get it. Their white/​red selection of wines were extremely weak. The brother stated that they wanted you to experience the true taste of the grape, not the tannins and oak flavor you get from other VA wineries. What a joke. He was more focused on that previous sentence then he was about describing the process behind it all. Furthermore, he was more focused on saying how special and different there winery is compared to other VA wineries. Most wineries we have been to say how great other wineries around them are and how they love being a part of the VA wine experience. There fruit wines were decent and I would have enjoyed them more if he would have talked more about them. Three of the fruit wines were quite good to have on a summer day or to share the experience of fruit wine in general.
Conclusion: Once again the red and white wines were definitely lacking in substance, body and depth. The customer service was sub-​par. Apparently they have been around for 25 years but their property has so much potential it’s a shame it’s not put to better use… great piece of land but no landscaping or outdoor seating other than a couple swings facing the gravel parking lot. Oh and if I wanted to purchase bottles, I would have had to get back in line and wait again. It’s good to visit if you just want to knock it off your list, but this won’t be a repeat visit for us. Lastly, if you notice, every person that gave this a 5 star rating doesn’t have a picture…

The BEST wines I have ever had; this coming from a winery fanatic. The most delicious blueberry, chocolate covered strawberry, and blueberry/​strawberry wines (my personal favorites). I’m not sure how they managed to make a 12% alcohol drink, taste like a mouthful of fruit without any hints of biterness. Not to mention their chardonnay sangria which tastes like a refreshing pink lemonade. I have recently been on a fruit wine kick and there is NO COMPARISON to anything else i’ve tried. The staff is extremely friendly and accommodating. The indoor seating is beautiful and rustic, with a refined log cabin feel and wine barrels as tables. Anyone who didn’t give this place a 5 star rating, must not have taste buds.

Mattaponi Winery is a locally ran family business the owners are very gracious they started out in a small room off the back of their house but have expanded into a beautiful log cabin feel room with a wrap around porch that includes an outdoor bathroom which is very nicely themed in the same log cabin feel. The people who gave the bad reviews must have went when they were in their infancy. I would go back to this winery again in fact my family will be getting our Christmas tree there.

Okay, first the good: the fruit wines — which are apparently what they are known for — are good and refreshing. I would happily sip on the grapefruit/​strawberry wine on a hot day. Just not for $ 15/​bottle. The woman who did the tasting was very friendly.
Now the not so good: the tastings are done in a tent in the yard. That’s fine on a day that’s not too hot and the bugs aren’t too bad. Otherwise, not great. The cabernet sauvignon was okay. Also, when we got there we were told that tastings are normally $ 7, but were discounted to $ 3 because they were out of wine glasses. How does a winery run out of a wine glasses? Also, $ 7 is waaaay too much for a tasting at this place.
Now the bad: the chardonnay was awful. That was the first one we tasted and I started looking for an escape route. Also, the guy working the register was kind of a jerk. When I showed up there was a dog in the yard and I got excited and was petting the dog. He called the dog away and sent her inside. Mid pet. It was weird. And rude. I almost left right then, but we needed to kill some time.

My husband and I went here today and were disgusted by the whole experience! We had visited 3 other great wineries nearby and hoped for the same. Well we pulled up and saw a mini tent where they were doing tastings and all the bottles were thrown in a cooler. The person who did our tasting had to be called from his car where he was on the phone clearly arguing with someone. We tried a few wines and they were awful. No other word. We had hears of pruno wines before which means prison wines made from awful things and that is what these must have been. We stopped half way through the tasting it was so bad but still had to pay the 7 pp fee for tasting. I would never go back there again and really question what they are serving people. Awful!

I had their strawberry wine at a wine festival and loved it so I was really excited to visit. However…
The tasting area was small, maybe I’ve been spoiled by the other wineries in Virginia but there wasn’t an area to sit and drink. Maybe it’s better in the summer/​fall?
I assume they were experiencing more people than usual due to the wine trail event because they were very inefficient. It took about half an hour to ring up the tasting and bottles of wine I purchased.
They are out of strawberry wine and don’t know when it will be available again.
After drinking all the wine, there’s a porta potty in the back to bring down your buzz.
One of them felt the need to tell us that there are cameras all around the area so to return the wine glasses when we are done.
If you like their wine, I would try to hit up the events they go to on their website instead. Three stars though because I liked the strawberry wine and hope it will be back soon.

Mattaponi was the second stop (of 6) on our Heart of Virginia wine tour. I’d previously tried their wines at the April Fools Wine Festival at James River Cellars last year, but this was my first visit to their tasting room.
The décor is Native American inspired — not surprising given the name of the winery — and the tasting room has a cozy, lived-​in feel. This is not at all your uppety pretentious winery aiming to impress out-​of-​towners with large pockets. Nope, this is just a casual, family-​run operation with a welcoming vibe. And some pretty tasty wines.
They’re known for their fruit wines, which are personally a tad too sweet for my liking, but that’s a taste preference that rings true across all wineries so it’s not a knock on their wine. If you like sweet wines, then chances are you’ll love Mattaponi’s fruit varieties. The chocolate covered strawberry was pretty darn delicious. Talk about drinking your dessert!
Rather than giving you a tasting sheet for taking notes, their wine list is displayed inside a plastic sleeve and they provide dry erase markers for tasting notes. This is not something I’ve seen before and I found it kind of cool. We took home a bottle of the merlot, and I look forward to enjoying it sometime soon!

Stopped in for a tasting. Very nice staff. The wines however had a «pinsol» background aroma. Don’t know what wood they use. Or maybe the steel tanks were not completely rinsed

We visited this winery as a last minute trip after King’s Dominion closed due to bad weather. The wines here are FANTASTIC! This is the first winery we’ve visited in which we’ve both loved more than 2 of the wines offered. The POW WOW is very appropriately named — it’s delicious! We tasted 10 for $ 3.
The only thing we didn’t like about this winery is that unlike the others we’ve visited they don’t offer any snack foods to enjoy your wine on the property, let alone a nice setting to sit back and relax. Like someone else said, the port-​a-​potty in the front really takes away from the atmosphere, but the flavor of the wines makes up for it!

Family run winery. Great staff.
Their strawberry wine is one of my favorites. Not too sweet and tastes like fresh strawberries.
They also sell strawberries in bulk in the end of the summer which is pretty sweet.

3.5 stars.
If your laid-​back friends or down-​to-​earth relations got together and started a winery, it would look like modest Mattaponi: a faux-​log house with a tasting [sun]room attached to the back of said house, situated on several acres of what looks like a Christmas tree farm. A Banana Banner sign on the road, very few grapevines, a winding dirt road leading up to the family house with dog-​fence and children’s bikes propped on the porch. To get to the restroom, I had to walk through the family’s actual living room while two teenaged sons played Wii. And it was the family bathroom. Might put off some, but I had to laugh.
Mattaponi is a relatively new, family-​run winery run producing a small number of specialized wines. We were greeted warmly by retired State Police officer, Joel, who helps out in the tasting room. He was gregarious, warm, and supremely welcoming. The tasting room itself is very basic, as I said, a sunroom attached to the back of the family home, adjacent to their back deck and above-​ground pool. Mattaponi is a *very* informal, *very* casual winery, if you can even call it that. We had the tasting room to ourselves the entire visit.
For the low, low price of $ 2, we sampled the Chardonnay, which was light and crisp; a mellow and smooth Merlot; the Miskawamin semi-​dry red tasting strongly — but not unpleasantly — of Concord grapes; the tart, sweet Makadewàmin blackberry wine; the Tibik-​Kizìsmin, a syrupy blueberry; and the Odeimin, a very nice, not overly sweet, strawberry wine. If you like sweet wines, you’ll like most of Mattaponi’s. I don’t, but I could appreciate all of them and even purchased a bottle of the delicious Odeimin. None of Mattaponi’s wines exceeds $ 18.
Don’t come to Mattaponi expecting luxury and modernity. Do come here expecting to be treated like family and to enjoy a wholly unpretentious experience down on the farm.