Marterella Winery

After double checking on Unilocal,we drove an hour to visit. They are not open on Thursday as it said they were.

OK wines but great views. Bonus points for pizza, wine slushes, and being dog friendly. 3.5 stars.
Marterella was offering 3 separate $ 5 tasting options of 5 wines each when I visited; a red flight, a white flight, or a mix of the two. My two friends & I all opted for the red and white flights.
3 of the whites seemed on the buttery side. As I’m not a fan of creamy, buttery whites, they just didn’t do anything for me. But I did like the steel based «Grace» Reisling/​Vidal Blanc blend (which we all shared a bottle of), which had an unusual peach color to it. The Pinot Grigio was OK. But to be fair, my two friends LOVED all the whites. So hey — to each their own.
For the reds, I really liked the Meritage and kinda liked the peppery Cab Franc. The Meritage was smooth, but I was not a fan of the $ 40 price. Surprisingly, I wasn’t a fan of their port-​style, which is unusual since I typically go for ports, no matter what the season is.
The general consensus was of the 3 places we visited that day, the view from their patio put them in the top spot for nicest venue. We also liked the pizza (which they have frozen but heat in their outdoor brick oven) and the wine slushies (although $ 12 a glass seems a lot).
Service wise I think they had some newer folks, since dividing our single bill between different credit cards seemed harder than it should have been. Our server tried to be friendly, but we came in concurrently with another crowd so they were swamped for a while.
But I’ll give extra props for two things; they are super dog friendly, and they support local charities. Their dog policy for the tasting room seems to be ‘if our dog likes your dog, you’re good to go’. Given the way their super-​spoiled pooch’s tail was wagging when we introduced him to a 10 week old Lab/​Poodle mix, I guess we passed the test. They also have dolls for sale, the proceeds for which go to children’s hospitals. Very cool.

Stopped here this evening, on a Saturday evening. Walked in the door at 5:35, the sign says last tasting at six. First, no one greeted us in any way, in fact they never greeted us. We moved to the tasting bar at 5:45, there were two other couples as well. The two not friendly ladies behind the counter talked about us as if we were not there. Couldn’t we see they were almost closed. Then one of the woman says we close at six, there are no more tastings. This winery must do really well. My group wanted to do both tastings, $ 30, we would have bought 3 bottles of wine$ 90 and multiply that by 3 groups. All three were commenting about never visiting again. There are too many very good, very friendly wineries who would have been delighted to take care of us to bother with this one. Cute spot on a hill, nice small winery from the looks but it was obvious we were a bother. Been to about 60 local wineries. Worst experience yet. Change the sign and hire some friendly people.

Great views and tasting room! I like their wines, especially the reds. They had a $ 50 sangiovese a year or so ago that was unreal for Virginia — I would have guessed it was done by a high end Italian establishment. The tasting room is cozy with a fireplace and a lovable doggie who lives on site.

My husband and I frequent wineries including in Tuscany and Spain. We visited Marterella for the first time in early May and did not go to another Winery for over 3 months. We just continued to go back to Marterella. This says a tremendous amount as we have a map of Virginia wineries on our kitchen wall and are working on visiting all of them. We have over 100 within an hour drive from our home.
Kate Marterella and all of her staff are welcoming, knowledgeable, and most importantly fun! When wine tasting, we often have at least a few wines that we either don’t care for or at least could live without. Not at Marterella… We would gladly be served any of their wines or wine slushies — yum!
Please don’t miss the wines, hospitality, and back porch amazing view of this gem! AND they are open until 8p.m. So visit others and end your evening here with a bottle and a fresh made pizza from their brick oven!

Visited last weekend and was very disappointed. Nice location, but very small tasting room (it might actually be someone’s kitchen). Staff was EXTREMELY disorganized, not very knowledgeable, and «Doc’s» hyperactive energy was terribly distracting. A couple of the wines were ok, but not worth purchasing, and certainly not worth the long drive to get there!

The owner served our party of 4 as though we were dignitaries. She shared not only her personal life of being a wine maker but a little history of each wine we tasted. I would highly recommend this winery be at the top of your list to visit. You will not be disappointed.
My favorite was the Chardonnay and I am not a white wine fan.
Not only was the wines great but the scenery is beautiful.

I was pretty disappointed. It was supposed to have an Italian feel to it that I didn’t get at all. There was a table of people that were so loud that we couldn’t even hear each other, one of which I found out was the owner. The woman that did our tasting wasn’t friendly at all which really took away from the tasting. However, we did like one of the wines and bought a bottle.

This place is definitely off the beaten path. It’s really in a beautiful little glen on a hill and next to a lake. The scenery is a 5, but the wine is a 1. I really didn’t like anything that I tasted, and a six glass tasting was $ 10, which is way too expensive.

Fab wine, wonderful staff and Kate is a dream. Every time I visit I feel like family. If want to unwind after a long week I recommend coming here. I love all the wines the staff is helpful when you are unsure what you would like. Also you can bring your own snacks or enjoy the pizza, meat, cheese. Love love love coming here.

Fabulous winery! The scenery is beautiful. Rolling hills, grape vines, and beautiful tasting room.
They have ample outdoor patio seating with a brick pizza oven pumping out pepperoni and cheese pizza. Also, make sure to catch a site of charlie the Lab who is super sweet and friendly. He will even play fetch with you.
There wines are also very good. They have three tastings: white, red, sweet desserts. You can also do a combination of any of the three. Each are $ 3 dollars a piece.
My favorite wines are Grace and Sweet Nothings! Be sure to try them.

Friendly staff. Owner came and said hello to us despite having a busy day with a large private birthday party. Brick oven Pizza that we were told later was a frozen pizza made and shipped direct from Italy. Pizza was sooo good!

Love this winery for many reasons. It is pet and child friendly, as long as both behave well and are on the leash. It is a close enough drive, great views, reasonable enough prices and pretty good wine.
My fiancé and I have been to this winery before and enjoyed it both times. It isn’t very large which I prefer (then again, I may not like that if I wasn’t one of the only ones there). The staff is super friendly and funny. On the tasting they have about ⁵⁄₆ white and red wines each. But they have three different tastings. Just white, just red, library, or a mixture of them. Between the white and the red, it is possible to find something for everyone’s taste.
The prices for the tastings and in general are on the higher side compared to other wineries in the area. Doing just white or red is $ 10, white and red is $ 15, and the two plus the library is $ 20. A glass of wine is $ 10 and a bottle is average $ 27.
All in all it’s not bad if you get a living social deal and that’s the only place you are going to. But I wouldn’t suggest this as a winery on a wine tour.

We really enjoyed visiting this winery… Great service from the staff and tasty wines!
Tasting prices are rather high, as are the prices of their bottles, but it’s still worth a visit!

I’m in love and now I know why Virginia is for Lovers!!! Marterella Winery offers a gorgeous scenery with awesome wine. Perfect for Saturday and Sunday afternoons with the honey.
Although the drive from DC was a little over an hour, it was worth. The winery sits on gorgeous plot of land. As we drove up the hill to the tasting room, we noticed that the grapes were plentiful. The cool part is that patrons can bring their own food. trust me, you want to pack a nice lunch to enjoy the wonderful glasses of wine.
There was a tasting going on outside, but we opted to taste the wines indoors. Patrons are able to sample only reds, whites, or premiums. Since we drove all the way here, we tasted all of the wines. To be honest, I didn’t taste a bad wine, but I was in love with the Sweet Nothings and the Grace. Marterella even have wine slushies which were perfect for the hot day.
The customer service was amazing. Patty was a sweetheart, and the dogs were darlings. Yes, the owner’s dog are roaming around, and they are adorable. I love dogs, so that wasn’t a bother.
Overall, this is the perfect place to spend time with girlfriends to catch up, or the perfect to get away from the city and enjoy fresh air with your significant other. Either way, Marterella is a quick getaway that relaxes the mind, body, and soul..

I had an enjoyable afternoon at this winery. I thoroughly enjoyed all 13 wines, but the port wine was my favorite. The wine slushies were good as well.
The atmosphere is very peaceful and serene. I could spend the entire day here hanging with friends and drinking wine. I can’t wait to come back.

First time at this winery. My great aunt treated us to the day as we were in from out of town. The atmosphere was absolutely perfect. The views of the vineyard from atop the hill were breathtaking. We were served by Carolyn, who explained each wine to a tee. Very knowledgeable and most accommodating! Would definitely recommend this winery to anyone in the area and will definitely take it in again when I come back to visit.

Had a nice visit here on a weekday. No crowds. The tastings are on the expensive side though. I tried just White wines for 7.50 and liked the Vidal Blanc 2010. The tasting notes were right on target for all of the white wines.

Fantastic views and great wines. I’m not partial to reds as I’m new to drinking wine but I enjoyed all of their wines.

This winery was pretty good. The scenery is really pretty and they have a really nice tasting room with food options as well. The guy who gave us the tasting was not very knowledgeable about the wines, but it was his first day so we cut him a break. We even told him a few little stories so it would hopefully give him a few things to talk about with customers in the future. He was very friendly.
The wines were pretty good, but not great. We did buy a bottle, but I can’t remember which one. When we got it home, something had happened to the cork because we noticed wine all over the bag that it came in. That did not make me happy, but my husband just ended up drinking it the next day. It was not really a cheap bottle of wine so we probably should have called them about it to get a replacement.