Massbach Ridge Winery

I’ve been to this tasting room several times and I have to say I have never been disappointed! Their new space is gorgeous and much more cozy than their previous space down main street.
The pours are ample enough to get a great idea of each wine chosen and who can beat $ 5 for 6 tastings!
This winery creates only home grown wines, and they really know how to do Midwest grapes justice! Some of the best Illinois grown and made wines I have had the opportunity to have!
Staff is friendly and knowledgeable and is always sure to end a wine tasting by asking what bottle they can get you!
Great selection of merchandise, clever and we’ll priced!
Always a pleasure stopping in to sample locally grown and produced wine!

The historic town of Galena, Illinois is a tourists delight, with a great walkable downtown, distinctive shops, a variety of nice restaurants, and beautiful scenery. In recent years a wine scene has developed, and one participant is Massbach Ridge, with a tasting room on Main Street. The wine is reasonably accomplished to our California palate, but the server, a Ms. Gonzalez, was a complete dud. She seemed to be completely disinterested and bored, couldn’t answer questions about the wine, didn’t appear very knowledgeable. Her appearance seemed to reflect a lack of pride in herself or her employer; flannel shirt over T-​shirt might work for a barista at a hip coffee roaster; but wine buyers may prefer more refinement. To her shame, there was no instinct to upsell or encourage a purchase. A kicker was the concluding pour, a dessert port wine, served with… a Kit Kat bar!?! (We had our pick of fun size candy, could have gone with a Snickers or a Mars, but opted for the Kit Kat, hee.) My wife and I chuckled to ourselves, trying to contain any NorCal snobbery. Massbach Ridge wine is serviceable; nothing spectacular. If you have limited time in Galena, and can only have one tasting, go instead to Galena Cellars, which seems to be a more successful and serious wine operation. At least they hire effective servers (our server during our brief visit was Dave, a funny, informative, smart and personable guy, who made our visit a pleasure.) The quality of the wine at Galena Cellars overall seemed better; we transported a bottle of port back to California.

Cute place with pretty good wines. The bartenders were friendly, they had a girl playing the piano in the corner and he wine was better than a lot of Illinois wines I have had before. They definitely have more sweet wines than dry, but that comes with the location. They have a reserve red wine which was absolutely delicious and a few dry white that were great as well.

This was another great wine stop during our Galena vacation. It was not expensive to do the wine tasting and although the pours weren’t huge you still got to sample a couple different types. I ended up buying a bottle of their Elizabeth which is a bottle of their white wine that is on the sweeter side. Great little winery.

What an amazing place!!! We were in town for a family wedding and had some time between the wedding and reception and stopped in for a glass of wine. What a beautiful place… so comfortable. The owner set us up in the back in a comfortable lounge area. Some space was reserved for us, as we called ahead. The owners daughter gave us a personal serenade on the piano that sits in the front of the store. We felt so taken care of and attended to… we couldn’t have asked for anything more! We were so delighted. We will definitely make this location a regular stop on our trips to the area. We bought some wine to take home and were amazed at how reasonable the cost for local wine. I wish we were closer. I would love to have the terrific wine every evening. Thanks again for a great experience!!!

I love me some wine. I’m basically always in for a tasting or two and this tasting room is right in the middle of the main drag in Galena.
It seems pretty standard to charge for tastings anymore, so the $ 5 for 6 tastings did not surprise me.
The staff were — hot and cold would be the best way to describe them. The standing room bar was full, but not so full that another couple couldn’t have gotten in there just by a few people shifting a few inches. The wine-​tenders didn’t acknowledge us or help us get in there until we had managed to do it ourselves. This is not a large venue. I know you can see me looking hopeful and trying to figure out how to get to you and give you my $ 5 so I can decide if I want to spend more money on a bottle or two.
Once we were in though, they were sassy and funny and generally fun to be around. Unless they were giving you a pour or you asked them a question about the wine. There must be a company policy that dictates that whilst pouring, they are to recite the description listed on the piece of paper I used to decide what to taste. I already knew that I had ordered a light crisp spring wine made from Niagra grapes, thanks. That’s why I picked it. Sigh. If you asked any more questions, you basically got the same information over again, just in a different order. One girl seemed to at least know a little more than the others and could add a small amount of personal commentary when asked. Once we had decided to buy two bottles, they were friendly and jovial again, though.
The pours were a little light, but not the worst I’ve seen. The wines were… ok. We ended up buying two bottles, but we weren’t drooling over any of them. There were probably 2 dozen to choose from on the list and they had the requisite palate cleansers — including chocolate chips. Nice touch.
The also sell wine in the spigot sack I’ve seen rum punch in. Very smart. That makes it easy to take wine somewhere where you can’t take glass, like a hotel pool.
The venue was a little strange. The tasting room was odd — like they had just opened in a spot that used to be a travel agency and hadn’t gotten around to decorating or really capitalizing on the space. They had a small rack area of wine by the bottle, but it was just sitting there, awkwardly. I think there was a party room available for rent upstairs, which probably works out really well for them, but the downstairs really needed a design intern to come in and make some recommendations.
I’ve done my share of wine tastings and this one ranked in the lowest segment, but it wasn’t terrible by any stretch of the imagination. It just wasn’t great. The venue was lackluster, the staff were just ok, and the wine was just ok. Nothing really drawing me back, other than the fact that I really enjoy drinking wine and they sell it.

We really enjoyed our tasting at Massbach. All the wines were amazing. Our favorites were Elizabeth, Daffodil, and Seyval. For a busy Saturday, we were served very promptly. She was very friendly and took time to ask us where were staying and dining that night. She was also giving recommendations to other guests.
The tasting was only $ 5 for 6 wines and the wines were comparable to others in price per bottle. We will definitely be going back on our next visit to Galena!

The Traumen red wine was very good. Not expensive at all.

The wines here were really, really good. My fiancée and I drink a lot of wine and prefer Napa Valley or Sonoma wine so liking an Illinois grown grape is a big compliment. We bought about 8 – 10 bottles on our first visit!
The only complaint is that the tasting was just so-​so. Very small pours. The sommelier was friendly enough but not so generous on the wine. If you want me to keep buying, then you should let me keep «trying.» ;)

I was very pleased with my visit this morning. We got there early on Sunday morning just after breakfast which was perfect because that meant we had the whole place. Six wines for 5 $ seems to be the standard rate in Galena which is reasonable to me. My girlfriend and I do not share the same palate we were able to find some great wines for both of our tastes as well as some nice in between finishes that our palates could agree on. The store is very spacious and open. It was warm and inviting on such a cold morning and the woman hosting our taste was very friendly and informative. This was a very pleasant experience for me. Definitely visit!

The phrase, «Meh, I’ve experienced better» explains it well. Within a Main Street Galena storefront, Massback Ridge Winery Tasting Room offers their wines for tastings and purchases, a sitting area in the back and a second story for events that is not up and running yet. I was going to visit their actual vineyard but figured I would see how much I enjoyed their wine before trekking 25 miles southeast of Galena. I’m thankful I did this! I had a coupon from one of the tourist magazines for a free wine tasting, usually costing $ 5 for 6 wines. After three wines, I felt I had drank enough. All of their wines were extremely sweet and tasted like either soap, detergent or an air freshener. Even worse, it is not a good sign when my glass is left with sugar sitting in the bottom. Unfortunately, their one award-​winning red wine from Frontenac grapes, Traumen, is not even that great but probably the best one they make. While I will admit that the woman working behind the counter was very friendly, the wines were far from enjoyable. Be sure to check out Galena Cellars or Rocky Waters Wineries instead.