Windsor Run Cellars

I’ve always enjoyed the wine and experiences I’ve had here. Everything is really good. It can be hard to choose which wine to have with company while there or which to take with you. I can recommend a wine for anyone. If you like a dry red or white or one that is sweeter, they will have you covered.

Eclectic and fun are the best two words to describe this boutique winery in the Swan Creek AVA. You can sample a wide assortment of wines, including 6 dry wines and six off-​dry to sweet wines. The cherry smash and apple mead are two of the more unique, and delicious, in the region. Also on offer are a series of excellent fortified wines. Don’t miss this winery!

There are wines to ponder, wines to brag about owning and wines to drink.
This small winery in the swan creek ATA of North Carolina makes exceptional wines to drink.
Found this fun small winery after visiting the big one in the area. So glad we did. Adventurous, interesting an delicious wines. We bought 4 of the 7 we tasted. The Cab Sauv was superb.
Pretentious? Oh hell no. We tasted some of the best drinking wines we’ve had in years. Well worth a trip for those who have fun and love wine.

So we tasted these wines at Great Grapes and are planning on going to the winery. Loved the Summer Breeze and Lymncello. The staff at the booth were funny and engaging. Hope they will return to Great Grapes next year.

Not the biggest fan of the wines but the tasting room was cute. Again, note to owners, Napa and Sonoma no longer use the pour stops. My date like the moonshine but I was not a huge fan.

We stopped at Windsor Run to purchase wine while we were in the area. When we walked in someone asked if we wanted to do a tasting. We told them we did not and that we were familiar with their wines and wanted to purchase some. We asked if they had anything new and a gentleman said they had a new Christmas wine. I think it is called Island Holiday. My friend and I asked if we could have a small taste. You would’ve thought we asked for a free case. Clearly they didn’t want us to taste the wine. He also said they had another one that was new and my husband asked to taste that one. (we bought both wines we tasted) Now, by taste, I don’t mean we were trying to do a free tasting. This was in a small disposable cup like they bring your pills in at the hospital. Between the 4 of us we bought over $ 200 worth of wine. Trying to pay and get out of there was a nightmare. The «person in charge» was rude to us and to the gentleman finishing our sale. (she was also rude at the Southern Christmas show) He did not know what he was doing and she offered no help and started to tell us just to wait while she checked out her customer. Then she caught herself and didn’t say it. Well, we had been trying to get out of there for about 10 minutes and I was not moving from that register! We have been to this winery 5 or 6 times and the last 2 times the staff has been very rude. We will not be going back and in hindsight, should not have completed our purchase on Saturday. This winery was much better when it was Buck Shoals.

I will say I liked the wine and fortified wines here! My favorites were the Cherry Wine and the Apple Mead. We were a group of 13 who came into the winery. Trust me I get it, we are loud, and most of us a bit buzzed from the other wine samplings. But, if you tell us to stop talking we will and we want to hear all about your wine. At least that is what happened at all the other wineries we visited. Instead the person here said you can listen to me if you want or don’t I don’t care. So that kind of set the tone right there.
We were going through the tasting and from that point on he didn’t even tell us which one he was pouring. So obviously the group is going to continue talking and get louder if you aren’t even talking to us. At that point its not wine tasting it is just drinking. The girl behind the counter was kind of the icing on the cake for me. The man was trying to follow the wine tasting sheet and noticing him doing this she goes, «who cares they won’t know the difference!» Ummmm I can hear you and I will notice the difference. I spilt a bit of water since I didn’t realize the pitcher was so full, I asked for a napkin and she basically rolled her eyes at me and threw the napkin down.
Thirteen people at $ 5 a tasting and a lot of us buying bottles to take with us, this was by far the rudest service we encountered. Again we didn’t walk in there quiet little angels, I’m not trying to say the majority of us weren’t buzzed or loud, but we were treated with no respect so I guess it goes both ways.

This winery replaced the old Buck Shoals Winery that was previously here. This place is run by the same family that operates the nearby Shadow Springs Vineyard which is also a not to be missed winery. Windsor Run offers something for everyone. From dry to sweet and unique to wine fortified with brandy. The staff is welcoming and you won’t be disappointed with the wine. They also sell Ashe County cheese, which if you’ve been to North Carolina and never tried, you must try it. It’s made not too far from Windsor Run and goes well with many of their wines.

After hitting up Shadow Springs Winery, the person handling our tasting recommended checking out Windsor Run, since it was right down the road. Windsor Run in unique in that it is the only winery in North Carolina that is legally allowed to operate a distillery. The promise of good wine as well as meads and port were enough to tempt us to check it out.
Windsor Run Cellars is not the fanciest looking winery around. It has a more down to earth feel to it and does not try to use fancy interior decorations to make you feel slightly more classy. Windsor Creek was definitely busier than other wineries we’ve been to, and they did not have the staff available to handle the customer demand. Many times our tasting person had to step away for a couple of minutes to help someone else in the midst of our tasting.
They have two different tastings… either six wines for $ 5 or three of their fortified wines for $ 5, or you could combine both tastings for $ 9. I wasn’t as crazy about their regular wines, though I am happy to say that you won’t find any Muscadine wines here. I wasn’t a huge fan of their drier wines, but I did like the ones that fell on the sweeter side, such as the Cherry Smash and Traminette.
What really drew me in was the idea of having something totally different with the mead and fortified wines. I was not disappointed in this, as they were all ridiculously awesome. The Apple Mead had a great sweet, honey taste to it with a wonderful spice finish, and we bought a bottle of it to crack open with the family at Thanksgiving. The Midnight Run was a port wine fortified with brandy and had a sweet, berry flavor to it and the Ratafia was infused with brandy and the Traminette wine giving it a great taste. All of these fortified wines were delicious and smooth, despite the 18% alcohol content.
Overall, Windsor Run Cellars is a decent winery to visit. While I wasn’t floored by their dry wines, I was a huge fan of the fortified ones. It was a really unique thing to find at a winery, and definitely makes it worth the trip out.

We first had Windsor Run at the Great Grapes festival in October. They have a lot of good wines, but our favorite was the Cherry Smash. I was surprised to really love that one, based on the description. We ended up buying a couple of bottles that day.
In January we went to another winery nearby, and decided to stop by Windsor Run to get some more Cherry Smash. It is a nice quiet winery and the ladies working there that day were extremely nice. We told them we just wanted to buy some wine, but they asked us if we had been able to try the holiday wine. They gave us a tasting of that and I’m glad they did, it is wonderfully sweet! It is a little pricey for the little bottle, but it was worth it.
The only disappointment is that they are not nearby and they do not sell in Charlotte but at a small little shop. We went by that shop, and they have a very very small selection of wines, not many of Windsor Run, and no Cherry Smash. :(