River Bend Winery

Great ambiance, great wine, and great food. We stopped by for the wine tasting and were delighted with the Trifecta, Rose, and River Bend Red.
Stop by on wine down Wednesday’s for $ 2 glasses and live music. We got to hear local Katy Rene. She was amazing!

I couldn’t even finish most of the wine tasting. They were just not good. The food is overpriced. It’s not in a good part of town. I wouldn’t recommend this winery, or restaurant.

This place isn’t even worth a full sentence based review. Here’s the rundown:
blasey service
sugary wines
rushed out at 10pm
overpriced deli level food
empty with zero ambiance
edge of town with nothing around it.

Bourbon Barrel wine = awesome KY proud gift for out of towners and pretty awesome for my belly as well. The rest of them are decent. I personally say either do the über cheap wine tasting flight ($ 5!) or just get a five buck pour of the Bourbon Barrel.
Also, I went for dinner for the first time last week. While the menu wasn’t what I expected (it is a really classy looking place but a pretty bar food like menu for the most part, plus a couple pasta dishes.) It was also sooo cheap. I still feel like they are having an identity crisis. Classy wine bar or chill, cheap, borderline diner. Now don’t misinterpret. The food was pretty solid. $ 5 for a big old BBQ sandwich or $ 6 for a yummy buffalo chicken sandwich. They come with chips and you can get a side salad for a couple bucks. Really, really good choice for a cheap dinner. Or sit at the bar and grab a nice glass of wine. What ever suits your fancy… or not fancy.
Not the best area of town as I hung out in the parking lot on the phone waiting for my friends. Just be smart about it.
Bottles are 10 bucks to take home with ya by the way. Just don’t stock up on presents too far in advance or they might just slowly evaporate before you know it!

«Is everything going down okay?»
When my waiter who admitted to me he had only worked at this place for four days asked us this question I should have responded in kind below…
Yes everything about your restaurant is going down and it is not okay. I used to love this place, go out of my way for a bottle of wine and entrée dishes. Now I live two blocks away and feel shammed driving by. I recommended this place, which is now under some type of new management that insists on every appetizer being fried and offering a NY strip steak as a Ribeye cut. If there are two things I know one is a cut of meat and the other is to stop emotionally investing in a sinking ship.
Until I am contacted about my last experience at River Bend and guaranteed to have a new menu on the table I will not be back.
I also want to know how you are a winery who gets to represent Louisville by being the official red wine of the Kentucky Derby and then serve two diners YOUNG acidic wine. I still support the winery, but not your establishment.

I visited River Bend Winery on a Monday night for a fundraising/​networking event and I think it was a great venue for a private party. I could not quite get a feel for what it would be like for public use, but for the purpose it was mean to serve it did the trick. The atmosphere and décor is cool. I liked the exposed brick and the windows into the winery. The thing I found odd was the location. It just felt strange to have a winery in the middle of downtown. Also, I did not love the wine. The Bourbon Barrel Red was by far the best, but the others (especially the whites) had a strange aftertaste. I think for a fun adventure in the city taking a tour of the winery and eating in the restaurant would be great. I am for sure going to go back and try the food and give it a shot as an actual patron. Final judgment is TBD.

I’ve given this place 4 times to impress me, and it continues to fall short.
I had one dinner service (we had to sit at the bar for lack of tables) and the food was incredible. My bf got the braised pork and it was so tender it blew us away. My salad was pretty good too. The bruschetta we got as our appetizer was INCREDIBLE, but when I ordered it the next time I went it didn’t taste remotely the same which was disappointing.
The wines are all VERY sweet, which is good for me because I’m no wine connoisseur. But if you’ve got some wine snob friends in town do NOT take them here for a tasting — they’ll never trust your judgment in wine again.
Now for the lunch service — HIRE COMPETENT SERVERS! I had the same smelly (literally, he smelled like BO) server all three times. He wasn’t good with orders, he was slow, he didn’t fill drinks. It was ridiculous. I ordered the pulled pork sandwich the first time which was good, and the second time I went I ordered it again and they made it completely different. It had cheese and pickles and was on rye bread?! Gross. That’s NOT what I ordered.
I plan on buying a few bottles of wine for cute Christmas gifts, because I want to give things that are made locally. But if I come across any other local wineries I’ll definitely give them first pick.

We stopped by River Bend Winery for a tasting as soon as KY law would allow us on a Sunday– 1:00pm. They don’t do food service on Sundays but did have some snacks. We ordered the hummus which had a funny taste and a more solid consistency than we are used to. Among the flight of 10+ wines that we tasted, all but 1 were nauseatingly sweet. I guess that’s because we were in Louisville and not Napa. The best thing about the experience was talking with Nigel the bartender, a charming local whose company made us glad we stopped. in. If you are looking for a relaxing way to spend an afternoon in Louisville, this is your place.

Nice environment, tastefully decorated and comfortable.
The wine, however, was not impressive. I realize that this is a matter of personal taste, so try for yourself. But, I had to ask for a dump bucket (I was given a pint glass instead). All of the wines were very light bodied (~12% abv), and had muted flavors. Their merlot is aged in oak for 4 years, which I am still trying to understand, since it was so light bodied. It tasted woody, as you might suspect.
Also, being interested and knowledgeable about wine in general, we asked our pourer many questions about the sourcing of the grapes, making of the wine, etc., and were disappointed when he couldn’t answer them. He also couldn’t explain how the Cab Franc Rose they offer was made — pretty standard knowledge if you’re into wine.
Will not return.

Cute place, decent wine. We stopped here after our trolley tour, lured in by the energy and live music. Inside they were having a small market, selling handmade wares to raise money for the humane society. We were going to stay for a bite to eat, but the staff was overwhelmed. I think the size of the event caused confusion, as it was difficult to get the one glass of wine we had and virtually impossible to get anyone to even clear off a table, much less attend to our order.
I also fell in love with a local artist’s work who had a showing o fsome of his pieces on the wall. I think we would definitely try this winery again, just maybe not during a weekend charity event.