Tarpon Springs Castle Winery

Went here on a Groupon with another couple. It was a cute little place and the proprietors were nice and very entertaining. It was nice to hear about the European method of wine making. Not many wine options here but what they have is very good.

First let me start off with DO NOT EXPECT IT TO BE AN ACTUAL CASTLE! I purchased a Groupon for two for the chocolate, nut and cheese. My girlfriend and I held a meet up here with another couple who also purchased that Groupon. When we arrived they said they were out of everything except the whitmans chocolate, which was not the fine chocolate I would have expected! Anyway, as other people have stated, at first glance it seems ‘interesting’. The signage is poor, the building needs work and the indoor space is cluttered. However, the couple that runs the place is quirky, funny and subtly hilarious! They have a huge selection of interesting art! There is lots of potential for this place and if fixed up I can see a very successful local business!

So this is coming from someone who has only experienced one other wine tasting in her life, and I am definitely not a wine snob. As an area local, my family and I were looking for something fun and different for a girls night out. We bought the groupon and went. We walked into what appeared to be a storage locker with a hostess that looked as though she had just woken from a nap. Dusty patio furniture welcomed us and each place was set with a box of Whitman’s chocolate and a glass on a folded paper towel. Not a great first impression. But, we were completely won over by Diana’s storytelling and quirkiness, and the wine was lovely. I was never a fan of red wine, but left with two bottles. We were shown the couples art collection and where they make the wine, which was briefly interrupted as Diana left to pay the pizza delivery guy. We found it hilarious as we realized that’s just how this older, laid back couple rolls. Definitely go with the expectation to laugh a lot, leave with yummy wine and a story to tell on Monday morning. I will definitely be going back!

Wonderful place! Joe the winemaker and his wife are the most lovely, hospitable couple! We really enjoyed our wine tasting experience. The wines were delicious! They explained each wine to us and how they are made. I not a sommelier, but you can truly taste the difference between their local homemade wine and commercial wines. Each wine was fresh, smooth and nice on the palette. They gave us chocolate to accommodate our wine tasting experience along with a tour of their fine art collection. We enjoyed our experience very much snd would highly recommend visiting.

The wine is very. good that’s the reason for the 4. stars
The red cab was excellent
Sweet older couple but a few tweaks could bump up the review
The Whitman Chocolates were ok move up to a better version please
This is very. casual not for the wine snobs
Go.for.the wine not. the experience
I was a little disappointed
I like the sangria mix but go find it online for 2/​3ths the price

4 stars is extremely generous, but the charming older couple who runs this place make the difference. This could **easily** have turned into a 1 – 2 star experience without their welcoming vibe.
Basically, don’t expect a «winery»…this is a house with a big tasting room instead of living room. The room is a mess, dusty & cluttered as if you arrived without warning to your Aunt Bernice’s. The attitude of the hosts makes the odd (lack of) atmosphere seem charming.
Between them, the older couple have very serious wine knowledge, and the wines themselves are decent (a couple were quite good). I could go on about how she dribbled wine distractedly all over our table every time she poured, or how she never told us we were finished with the tasting (just left us hanging). Or, how there is no way to rinse your glass out, or a place to dump/​spit wine you don’t want. Or how they use plastic patio chairs and dirty/​winestained patio tables indoors.
But I’ll be damned if the quirks ended up being pretty hilarious in the end.
Well worth the Groupon deal for sure.
I recommend going in with a wide open sense of humor (I was actually looking for hidden cameras at one point)…by the time we got to the final taste (with a few very generous pours), the laughter was flowing.
I ended up buying added wine and one of the cool rubbery wine-​spigot things (don’t worry you’ll get the sales pitch)

This was a such a cute boutique winery! It was definitely not what I expected but like others said we’re in Florida. None the less the wine maker and the wine makers wife were such a cute and adorable couple. The wines were all delicious and my favorite was the Cabernet! I got the Groupon deal and i think the price was a deal for the experience

My friends and I bought this on groupon. Although the place was small it was nice and the wine is delicious!

This is not a place about chocolate or the environment. This is about wine and the wines were amazing, thats why i am giving a 5 star review. The staff, Joe and Diane, are very knowledgeable about what they do. I will be back with more friends and i will keep tasting their amazing wines.
P. S. My recommendations are the merlot and pinot noir

Excellent educational experience
The owners are great hosts
The wine is great and reasonably priced
We’ll be back

Went there last Saturday, with a group of girls. It’s a small place, the outside has potential for outdoor seating, but its not kept up and its rather nasty and dirty. The price for a tasting of 6 samples was $ 14 and you get to keep the glass… I was floored. Now being from Western New York and having tons of wineries near me, I have NEVER paid this much in my life for a tasting. But we did it, and the owners made it fun.
They were a fun, older couple and I learned some new things. I was not impressed with the wine at all, I mean I liked wines such as Merlot, that I never liked before, but not enough to spend $ 25 on a bottle of it. And I prefer white wines and not knowing this, they started out with reds and so I only got to sample one white. However, in hearing that I prefer white, the owner’s wife took me up to the counter and let me sample 2 more whites, which I enjoyed, but again, not enough to buy a bottle.
We had no crackers to cleanse our palettes with and no water to rinse out your glass in between samplings and no container to dump the remaining wine you didn’t like.
All-​in-​all it was a fun time, but wish they had more to offer for the price and fixed up the outdoor area to invite more people to buy a bottle and enjoy it outside at their leisure.
P. S.: They had other forms of samplings too, there was a sangria sampling and a tour of the winery, but I am not sure what the prices were on those.

Went to the winery with another couple on a groupon. While we made the best of it, it was a total joke. The chocolate was from walmart. The wine probably was too. There’s no way they can make wine at this place. Claiming to be federally regulated, bringing their grapes in from all over the country, etc just seem like a buck of fraudulent claims.

I bought a Groupon for the Chocolate and Wine tasting. The chocolate wasn’t that great (Russel Stover), but the wine was amazing! I’ve never been a fan of reds, but all of the wines we tasted were absolutely divine! The couple who runs the winery are kind and seem very passionate about their European-​style wines. This is no Sonoma or Napa, but it’s «Florida quaint» and a fun, light-​hearted experience.

My wife and I bought this as a GroupOn. We read some of the other reviews on Tripadvisor and were a little cautious, but we figured for the GroupOn price let’s try it. I’m so glad we did.
First, this is Florida. If you are expecting a setting out of Sonoma or Napa, don’t. I’ve been to all those places and I can appreciate that experience. On the other hand this is Florida, land of Margaritaville. Of all the Florida wineries I’ve been to, this is the only one I found that makes non-​fruity wine. So take of your tie, put on your flip-​flops and relax.
Second, the password. So this is a little quirky, but if you accept it as part of the experience you will have fun with it. If someone tells you that you need this password to get in then maybe you should write it down.
Third, this is not just an open tasting. This adorable older couple truly enjoys sharing their life and experience as part of the program. We were two of a scheduled group of eight. One couple was fifteen minutes late. When they rang the bell, they interrupted the flow of the session. The owner opened the door and explained that that we were already past two of the five tastings. He offered them to come back later in the day. They didn’t want to and he did let them join the session. I could tell that this wasn’t something from Seinfeld’s 1995 «The Soup Nazi» episode. The owners truly wanted the couple to have the best experience while also respecting the group currently in progress.
Overall, the building wasn’t what you would expect when you hear «winery», but it was a quant building in Tarpon Springs where we got to enjoy about 90 minutes of entertaining stories and some information on the making of wine in a European style. The wine itself was very good. We ended up leaving with our one GroupOn bottle and four more.
If you like good wine and can relax and have a little fun, then you will too enjoy this experience. We plan on going back again with some friends.
Tip: Don’t park in the Chiropractor’s parking lot across the street, we were told they will tow you.

Alright so the in laws got a Groupon to go to the Tarpon Springs Castle Winery. I had no idea what to expect and I did not look the place up before I went. The deal is for $ 40 you get a wine tasting paired with chocolates and a bottle of wine. The winery is located downtown in Tarpon Springs just off of the Pinellas county trail. The business is actually located on the first floor of the building and the proprietors live above the business. As you walk into the business the fence has a ton of locks on it. I am assuming that they are trying to duplicate the trend in Europe (a couple affixes a lock to fence and throws the key away it is supposed to symbolize there undying love for each other). I am not so sure it has been pulled off at the winery and my assumption of the purpose for there existence could be entirely wrong. We arrived a bit early and were greeted at the door by a woman that was not wearing shoes. I found this to be very odd. We were seated on plastic lawn chairs that are paired with small round metal tables. This I also found a bit odd because the chairs were to large for the area. Anyway before we could begin the wine tasting we received a brief history of how the winery came to be and it was interesting. Just before we began the tasting a couple showed up and there appeared to be some issue with the Groupon they had, this was apparent because the couple was grilled on the spot in front of us and the other customers about the Groupon and the date it was issued etc… It made for a very awkward couple of moments. After all of this I needed some wine and badly! We were given a box of Russell Stover’s chocolate to pair with our wine. Yes, that was the chocolate snob in me raising my nose if you couldn’t tell. We were finally served our first of 5 wines and I have to admit I am a beer guy not a wine guy so I couldn’t tell you if I drank the most expensive wine on the planet or the cheapest. Anyway we had a good time after the wine was served and at the end of the tasting you get to enjoy an entire glass of your favorite wine that you tried. I would love to give this local business a higher rating but it just needs a better interior and a more comfortable environment.