Emma G.
Yelp
If this review were solely about the winery, this is easily four stars and close to five. I think it's a really good winery on multiple levels, and this to me is the best one in the Hunterdon area right now. My top-tier chums and I came here yesterday for the Hunterdon Wine Express, so a significant portion of our experience was devoted to a very specific event and a collaboration with the Black River & Western Railroad - it's just not as good as the winery itself and in my opinion not worth the money.
We each paid a little over $100 for this event, which involved a ride on a ye olde train starting in Flemington and travelling to the Ringoes, where you then had to disembark onto shuttle buses that took you to Old York for a sit-down wine tasting/pairing and lunch, and then a return drive/drive back to Flemington. The biggest issue with the travel portion is that the schedule and actual managing of the guests is VERY casual, to the point where we ended up getting onto the shuttle buses at Ringoes and literally just sitting there for 15 minutes waiting for people browsing the tiny gift shop or using the restroom. At no point were we specifically told, "Meet here at this time"; it's very open-ended, so you end up losing significant chunks of time that YOU paid for that could have easily been spent at the winery drinking, exploring and/or relaxing. The train itself has a bathroom, and the winery certainly has plenty. My suggestion would be to completely bypass the bathroom at Ringoes, at least on the way there - if you need to go, go on the train or wait the five minutes to get to the winery. They should just get everyone off the train and immediately into the shuttles.
The grounds of Old York are gorgeous, and I say that having not seen the sun at all during our visit. I came here a few years ago when it WAS sunny out, and it's a fantastic optic. You're free to roam amongst the grapes, or you can chill out in the Adirondack chairs looking over the Sourland Mountains. They also have these awesome cabanas that you can reserve for a more intimate experience, though some of them don't have the best views, depending on the cabana (if given the option, I'd try to get the ones by the edge closest to the vineyard). For this experience, they brought us into the Vineyard Tent, which was pretty spacious and had a cool Airstream bar. They had reserved tables for the Wine Express people, which we were directed to shortly upon disembarking from the shuttles.
We weren't crazy about the tasting/pairing portion, and it's entirely possible that we're not the target audience for this - we've been to a solid number of wineries at this point, and I think we're just more into doing our own thing/making our own schedule. Lesson learned. But in my opinion, it's too regimented and lengthy, especially given that you're already provided with a list of the pairings and accompanying tasting notes. It felt a little redundant to have someone at the mic just reiterating/elaborating on the tasting notes, especially because they inexplicably had a second person at the mic (same guy who accompanied us on the train; very friendly fellow for what it's worth) who then...also just talked about the tasting notes. None of us understood why the second person was up there too, but it honestly didn't add anything to the experience and probably extended the tasting by an extra five or 10 minutes, which wasn't necessary. The wine and accompanying charcuterie were really good though. I loved the Albarino and the Cab Sauvignon - smooth and spicy, respectively. Would absolutely come back to sip those bad boys.
The biggest issue to me though is that they have the pre-ordered lunch IMMEDIATELY after the tasting. Huge mistake. None of us came close to finishing our lunch because we'd...literally just had a bunch of charcuterie a few minutes earlier. They should have a big break in there between the tasting and the lunch to give the participants time to digest. It's a shame too because the food was really good. I got the paella which I thought was excellent. Maybe a little skimpy on the meats/shrimp but really hit the spot. I would have loved to have devoured the whole thing. The service as well was spotty and not managed well at all behind the counter. It wasn't clear who was assigned to our table and it seemed like staffers were just randomly chipping in, which led to miscommunication, overall disorganization and long wait times - as an example, it took us over 10 minutes to receive two glasses of wine. At a winery.
Skip the train and just come here directly. The same food/wine options are available regardless, and you don't have to worry about when to get on and off a shuttle bus. Take your time and enjoy the positives of the winery, which unfortunately are negated somewhat from the train experience.
