Bear Pond Winery

My boyfriend and I stopped in on Valentine’s Day during a bone-​chilling cold weekend trip to Cooperstown. We planned a weekend of wine tasting and beer sampling. This was our first stop, and it definitely set us off to a great start!
Upon walking in, we were warmly greeted by the staff and they walked us through the sampling process. They handed us a laminated piece of paper where we were able to mark off six of the wines that we wanted to try. Each one was listed from dry to sweet and included a short description of the flavor profiles. We decided to share a wine sample tower that included a double pour of the wines we selected, as well as three choices of snacks to go along with it. We chose the sharp cheese, dark chocolate truffles, and bread and olive oil. My favorite was the cheese, and it paired very nicely with the wines we chose.
Before leaving, we picked up two bottles of the Riesling, as well as a locally made hot sauce (which is fantastic) and BBQ sauce (haven’t tried it yet but I have high hopes!)
If we ever visit the area again, a repeat visit to Bear Pond will be high on our list!

Delightful place… I stumbled into the place as we drove up to visit my in-​laws. We didn’t do the wine tasting or the food, but I am very happy with my purchase. The staff where welcoming, informative and pleasant. I did return before leaving and bought several bottles of wine for my family. We will return.

We popped in for a wine tasting and I ended up leaving with two bottles of good stuff. They are not generous with their tastings but you do get a decent number to try. Their Christmas wine was awesome. They had a nice selection as well.

This was a lovely last stop on our tour of the Cooperstown region! Had a wonderful time chatting with the ladies in the tasting room. The tasting was very reasonably priced and you got to choose six options.
A word of warning… the horseradish pickles need to be NIBBLED. seriously. they are delicious, but oh my heavens… dont just pop those things back without trying it first. haha, my hair almost caught on fire ;)

i’m not big on wine but i always enjoy coming here. the people here are always friendly and they have a lot of different wines to choose from for your sampling. they also have some great cheeses here as well, and last time i was here they had a few things related to local oneonta/​cooperstown area history. i remember leaving wishing i had more money to spend on certain items, but i can’t remember now what those items were, so i guess i’ll just have to make another trip up here soon to see if i can refresh my memory!

If you do the Cooperstown Brew Tour, this location is the further from them all.
We tried the wine tasting, which alone is $ 3. When you pair it with foods, it becomes $ 15. For the tiny morsels you get, I feel this was not worth it. That’s a loss of a star. With the wine and the minuscule food we had to stay for lunch (since it affected us pretty badly).
Enter my dining companions two horrible deep fried masterpieces — chicken tenders and sauce, and cheesey bacon tater-​tots … and then my dish — the tomato caperese. It was beautiful, with healthy young halved tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, and a great pesto and balsamic reduction I can’t wrap my mind around.
Purchased two wines that I liked, including Dirt Cheap.
My opinion, skip the pairings, buy some chocolate elsewhere, and have some wine and caprese.

I can’t express how much I loved this little gem. At first glance I was a little nervous, it’s kind of small however– as soon as we walked in we were greeted with huge smiles and we were walked through the tasting options. We chose to do the «flight» which includes 6 wines of your choice to taste along with 3 appetizer plates. We had so much fun! The wine was outstanding and so was the food. The friendly people really made it a great time. We contemplated doing a second round of wine and would have if we weren’t already tipsy. Lightweights I know! At the end, we were buying bottles to take home with us and we’re trying to figure out if we had a corkscrew at the summer house. A sweet worker even have is a little one free of charge! Can’t beat that hospitality!
Check this place out. Well worth the stop. We can’t wait to go back next time we are in the area.

Young crew were totally helpful at serving us tastings. We learned a lot (and bought a lot) because there were so many tasty wines that we were excited to bing home.

Cute wine stop along the beverage tour; small tasting room with selling area for their wines and local cheeses. My friends and I were starving and we are huge cheese ppl so we tried the dill and garlic palatine. SO GOOD. Also bought the tomato basil garlic cheddar which was like pizza minus the dough.
Most of the whites are pretty sweet which I enjoy, didnt get any reds bc I wasnt in the mood. For $ 2 – 3 extra you can add on the iced wine and its ohhhhh soo good. The price for the bottle will choke you tho.
It was raining and gross out but otherwise they have a cute outdoor area and a neighboring chicken coop you can buy $ 1 feed bags. Fun little extra

I came in here this week to try some of their wines as I had driven past the building multiple times over the past year. The staff are very kind and very enthusiastic and the tasting area was very clean (the building here is really just a shop and tasting room). For $ 3 you get to taste 6 of their wines and it’s definitely worth it. I really enjoyed the Cardiff wine (in their historical series) and it was quite good. The others that I tried were merely okay and I wouldn’t consider buying them. Like many upstate NY wineries, their whites seemed to be better than their reds.
It’s an overall nice place to stop in and taste a few wines and the people are very friendly and enthusiastic.

I’m particular about how my food tastes, but surprisingly laid-​back when it comes to understandable kitchen mishaps. So when I realized there were fruit flies in the wine I was drinking, I shrugged it off (but was a little mystified when the girl who was helping me turned to the other lady to ask whether she should toss the rest of the bottle. Which they agreed to do, as it was almost empty anyway. So my question is – if it hadn’t been almost empty, would this have been open to debate?). But then I noticed that one of their wine options was Red Cat. And that, I just can’t forgive.
At Bear Pond, you can sample their own wine as well as several other brands. 6 taste tests (measured by a shot counter) for $ 3. Most of them are on the oh-​so-​sweet side; the peach dessert wines was delicious. Fun if you’re looking to pass some time (and not shy of fruit flies), but definitely not something to go out of your way for.

Cute winery… great staff and some tasty wines. You definitely should make a stop in Cooperstown.

This place makes me happy. It’s not the best winery, but they are fun. There are good wines and lots of fun local fare.
Stop by and enjoy

Not much to look at from the outside, but the staff was friendly and the wine was good. We got to taste 6 wines for $ 3, that was a good deal. And the prices were great For bottles as well. The dogs were cute and friendly, but not appropriate where food and drinks are sold.

This place is fun. Erin and Danielle are a hoot. They know their wine… an contrast to other posts, there are plenty of local wines. We loved the Dirt Cheap and Rrr Riesling. Yummy.
Don’t forget to say hi to Wilma and Mandy. They’re pretty «ruff» around the edges.

Basically, this is a fun experience if you are in the area. The woman doing the wine tastings was energetic and fun. The wine was not impressive at all. I think we tried 6, and only one was moderately enjoyable. The grapes are not grown on site. We visit northern Michigan yearly (Traverse City) and I have visited Napa twice and France once for tastings. This is not anywhere near what you find in those places as far as quality.
If you are in the area and have the time, make the stop. However, do not drive out of your way to visit.

Bring your open mind and leave your expectations and assumptions behind. This isn’t a place for a sense of entitlement, pretentiousness, or snobbery. Remember where you are. A short drive outside Cooperstown, NY — Not the Napa Valley and not the Finger Lakes, although many of the wines tasted and sold here are from the Finger Lakes Region. (By paying attention to the kind and knowledgeable staff, I learned this information and much more.) Other local products are sold here — cheese, honey, delicious maple syrup (I’m a sucker for the sweet stuff), and if you are so inclined to make your own home brew, this is the place for supplies.
This is a quaint, locally owned and operated small business staffed by sincere, helpful and outgoing people. I chatted a bit with one of the owners (Michael), and she made me feel like I belonged there — like I was from the area and had came back living away for years — The sweetheart who did our tasting was extremely knowledgeable about the wines she poured and about the local area as well.
The winery is exceptionally clean (check out the finely decorated bathroom if the need arises!), well stocked and fairly priced. We ended up buying a bottle of Silver Tip Merlot (my fiancé’s fav!), a bottle of Bruiser (Blackberries and blueberries — sweet) and one for the spring time, their newest — Eva Coo — great story behind this one.

Not bad at all. They were the nicest here but they don’t really seem to make a lot of their wines. They had a good selection to choose from and ID’d what they didn’t make. We did not like the Holiday Bear (recommended by some other tasters) but the red’s and whites were fine. They had a big selection of sweet wines which were a mixed bag. It is more like a store than a winery but most of the ones in this area are.

I am a BIG fan of the wines from Bear Pond. This location is primarily only a shop to sell the wines. There is no winery tour or grapes on trees to view so please do not stop here expecting that.
What you can expect is a shop with cheese curds, wines, crackers and other items.
You may do a wine tasting — 6 wines for $ 3.00 per person. So worth it. My favorites are the Holiday Bear (great for cooking especially in meat sauces), Riesling, Doobie Blues, Neuschwanstein Blush, and Dirt Cheap Wine (great for sangria’s). Whenever I am in the Cooperstown area, I always stop in to see what is available. I always do a wine tasting again because they always have a new wine or two on their menu.
This is located close to I-​88.
Check out their website. They do ship the wines, however, there are a few states they are not allowed to ship to such as Pennsylvania and Massachusetts.
I will be back!

The wine is regrettably bad, and one particularly strange experience confirmed that I will never return.
Over the summer I was a semi-​regular customer there for the sandwiches (the reason for two stars instead of one) not the wine. I once brought a few of their wines home to my friends and we weren’t happy. They were syrupy sweet and the champagne tasted like a bad chardonnay.
I was recently subjected to an embarrassing and unusual circumstance at this establishment. I was in my car, parked in their lot, reading a book for approximately 5 minutes. A woman, presumably the owner, blocked my car from behind with her truck, got out, and proceeded to question me through my window. I won’t divulge details, but essentially she accused me of stalking one of the employees. The evidence of my stalking was the fact that on this particular occasion I was sitting in my car in their parking lot around the time that the business was closing for the night. According to her, this is suspicious because it allows me to follow the employee home. She told me that this particular employee was her daughter.
Now, I understand that mothers have a protective instinct, and it is true that I didn’t realize that they were closing. Perhaps this family went through a terrible ordeal that began with a similar circumstance – a customer parked in their parking lot, reading a book. But the way I was talked to was completely awkward, unwarranted, and dare I say, very paranoid. Every time I’ve visited Bear Pond, I’ve been nothing but friendly and cordial. And I remained so, even during this woman’s accusations. But I felt very disrespected, and I plan not to return.