Cliff Lede Vineyards

I was a club member for several years, and have been to the winery upwards of 15 times. The quality has, unfortunately, declined fairly dramatically in recent years. The customer service has gotten shoddy, particularly on the Wine Club side, and the quality of the wines is really hit and miss. The winery grounds and tasting room are quite lovely, but for the money, and frankly, the time, go somewhere else; you’ll thank me later.
Particularly, if you’re a wine enthusiast, there are much better experiences where you’ll be treated better and the wine club doesn’t try to shovel off excess inventory on people that are their largest supporters.

Friendly staff. Nice tasting room. Enjoyed their wines.

This place is fabulous. Beautiful building tucked up against the hills in the Stag’s Leap district. The tasting flight was informative and fun, and the wines are superb — very premium stuff. Definitely worth a visit, at $ 30 a flight of 5.

Had heard a lot of good things about cliff lede — they were all true!
The folks behind the counter for your wine tastings are amazing — super friendly and very knowledgeable.
The Cabernet is fantastic but i was very surprised by their Sauvignon blanc as well as their Pinot Gris …
The setting is also very comfortable and intimate. Highly recommended

I have a serious soft spot for Cliff Lede. The people are always extremely nice and we never have had to have an appointment. The 2012 and 2013 wines that are coming out of their cellars are AMAZING. Amazing enough that we bought 5 cases of wine…
The grounds are beautiful and the hearts on the patio make a perfect picture background. Highly recommend this to anyone who wants some yummy wine and good conversation with the hosts :)

Eff you Clif Lede. I had friends come in from Texas who specifically wanted to visit your winery. I stepped up 6 inches on a rock walk to take a picture of them sitting outside and we all got «cut off». Seriously?! I spoke with the old balls pourer behind the counter and he said yes, I cut you all off. It’s too bad I will now spread the word that no one should waste their time at this winery based on terrible customer service and respect. Your wine isn’t even worth it. Too many other amazing wineries around. Don’t waste your time on these old balls.

Lede wines are hit or miss. I personally like their high fidelity, poetry, and Stags leap cabs. Of course they are the more expensive ones… go figure.
What is nice about the tasting facility is that the price is pretty reasonable (30 dollars for roughly 2 oz pours of six of their current wines), the grounds are really lovely (plenty of places to sit and chill and taste their wines), and the help is very friendly (very approachable, without attitude)
Tasting fee is waived if you make a purchase of their wines.
If you like reds… this is a good place.

Very cool place. All rock all the time. Music was terrific. The vines are all names after legendary rock songs. Oh. And the wine was really good too! Very nice terrace with a beautiful view of the vineyards.

We had 12pm reservations because we were told we HAD to since we had a party of 9. We got sat in the back patio and literally waited 30 MINUTES before anyone even came over to us. And that was only because one of the guys in our group had to go inside and find out what was going on. These ladies that walked in and grabbed an empty table even got served before us!
There was only 1 guy on the patio working tables, but uh, whats the point of a reservation if you’re not going to prepare for it?! Because of this, we were LATE to our next winery reservation and had to call and change the time from 1pm to 1:30pm. The whole disorganization was a little ridiculous in my opinion, especially if we were paying $ 40/​person for the tasting.
Recommended Wine (s): 2012 Fel Pinot Noir; Savory Vineyard, Anderson Valley

I have had many tasting experiences since moving to Napa Valley that range from good to great! This tour rates right up there as one of the best and that is even before tasting the wine. Cliff Lede is located off Yountville Crossing near Silverado Trail and the views are just stunning. There are also several different tours available. The bar and veranda tastings are open to the public and do not require an appointment. The Backstage Lounge features a cool Grateful Dead art exhibit and can be reserved for groups and private tastings. And a tour of the Estate can also be reserved. There is a private patio with a fountain and seating for the wine club members that is very lively on the weekends. Cliff Lede also has the Poetry Inn — a tiny, intimate boutique hotel on the east side of Silverado Trail that provides a gorgeous view of the Valley. The 2014 Cliff Lede Sauvignon Blanc is vegan as is all three of their sister property FEL’s wines — Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Gris. We tasted all except the Chardonnay and loved them — the Pinot Noir with its aromatic blend of cherry and pomegranate was one of my favorites! The tour of the winery with it’s stainless steel tanks, bustling crew, and high tech equipment was fascinating. I especially loved the huge portrait of Grace Kelly that hung above the tanks and the dueling rabbits’ sculpture! And to top it off, Cliff Lede named each of his grape blocks after his favorite songs. And when we returned from the tour to enjoy the tastings we were serenaded by 70s rock. It was a nice surprise and really added to the enjoyment factor of our experience! This was a perfect start to wonderful day!

Ive been here twice, the place is beautiful and quite large. No appointments are necessary and the tasting fee is $ 30. I believe if you buy a certain number of bottles you can get the tasting fee waved but I’m not sure how many. You taste quite a few wines ranging in price and flavors. I want to say maybe 6 wines. The bar counter can get quite crowded so we would get our pour then go find someplace else on the property to enjoy it. I thought the wine was just okay, some of the bottles seemed overly expensive to me. I feel like there were many other better wines out there for much less. If you are in need of a place to stop without reservations this isn’t the worst place you can go. Just know it can get crowded. It does seem like the staff tries their best and are very friendly. There were some reserved seats out back, I think it would be nice to have a picnic or do a seated tasting here.

On our Napa Valley day trip on a Saturday around noon, we decided to pull over at this winery after coming from a nearby winery. We entered to find out there was no space for any wine tasting for the rest if the day so we decided to just go to the bar and order a wine that’s popular to this winery.
Took a while till the bartender came our way as he was helping other people at the bar. As he finally got our attention, we asked what his recommendation was on a sweet wine and he offered us the Cliff Lede Sauvignon Blanc. We tasted and it was alright, wasn’t the most memorable but we manage to finish a glass while we walked the grounds to take pictures. There’s a cool double hearted sculpture to take a picture with. Beautiful outdoor seating area as well.
When we first got our glass of wine, we asked the bartender how much is a glass compared to the wine bottle and he stated it was $ 12 a glass or $ 26 a bottle. So we asked is it okay to get the bottle and he said Yes and he’ll just keep the bottle there as we finish the first glass he poured us and told us to come back when we’re done so he could pour the rest of the bottle. Makes sense right to get more of our money’s worth to get maybe about 4 glasses of wine if we got the bottle than to just charge us by the glass. We made sure of it before we ventured off to the grounds and he assured us that he got the bottle of us on reserved.
So then we came back and asked if we can get our check and what do you know he charged us by the glass which came out to be over $ 50 rather than what the cost of the bottle as stated on the menu. So we told him about it of what he had told us and he misinformed us that he cou, don’t charge the bottle because he was serving it to us. So it’s different if you buy the bottle out and when you’re stayin in to actually drink the wine.
We said we didn’t want the 2^nd round of wine anymore because of the misleading information he provided to us. It was fine with us that we didn’t get to drink the rest of the wine as it wasn’t the greatest anyways but to be misinformed about it is something that needs to be addressed correctly about how the policy works around here with customers who inquire about it. Not sure if I’ll be back with the service and first impression we received here. Other than that, it has it’s ups to its beautiful winery estate.

An absolute blast!!! THIS is how to do a winery…
The patio is amazing, the tasting room inside is incredibly beautiful, but the backstage area has got to be the coolest place out here.
Todd in the backstage area was a total riot, great stories from Boston, awesome personality, and the vibe back there is great.
The quality of the wines are greaty, Poetry every day of the week, and the rock and roll theme is right up my alley.

Clif has a beautiful outdoor seating area, unlike a lot of wineries. Very relaxed setting with good music in the background representing the rock theme throughout the winery. Although the wine was just ok to me, I would recommend it. Located very close to Yountville.

This was a very spacious winery. There was lots of room to roam about the grounds. The winery has outdoor bench seating. They also have a couple of tables/​lounges that you can taste at for an extra $ 10. Most of them are reserved, but we were lucky to find one that was available. If you call ahead you can order food too. Their wine club area is fabulous. They have lounge furniture in their roped off garden. You can walk right up to the grapes. Everything is very accessible.
Since we were sitting at an outside table our tasting was done very leisurely. They understand that you want to take your time so no one was rushing us. We really enjoyed their reds and whites. This was a great spot!

Really enjoyed this experience. We were a private group of 16 for tour, tasting and dinner and every bit of it was amazing. Tom was so knowledgable, informative and engaging. He paired the wines we had w our meal beautifully. A great way to celebrate a $ 100m round of funding raised! Congratulations BMO! :)

beautiful winery with great views of the mountains, vineyards, and art sculptures. Staff was friendly and knowledgeable. Got great tips on others wineries we had on our agenda. Gave us a two for one tasting coupon for one of the wineries we had on our list.
pics on instagram @ amanda. n_

Completed a tour, with wine and food pairing at the end with Tom on Saturday!
He was AWESOME. His knowledge and sense of humor made for a stellar time. While touring the vineyards of cliff lede, I learned a lot of interesting things I had never known before.
1. its ok to pair salt and vinegar chips with champagne … if you can’t afford caviar or oysters.
2. I learned the need for the TYPE of wine glasses/​flutes… Went home and purchased the vinum extreme pinot noir glasses. :-) Thank you tom.
3. Love how the wines and vineyards are named from classic rock songs.
4. The difference of old school vines verses new school.
I can go on and on but I will stop. Lets just say this was the most scenic insightful and informative tours/​tastings I have ever done. I will definitely be back.
My favorite which is not available on the tasting menu of course is the songbook So delicious. I can’t want for my april shipment. :-) I will coming back not having shipped for sure! :-) thank you again.

Located about five minutes from Yountville city center, Cliff Lede Vineyards is a great wine tasting experience. Definitely make sure you get the backstage pass tasting. It’s a lot more private and laid back in my opinion since the tasting experience takes place in a separate building that’s more secluded.
We had a whole living room area to ourselves which was really nice and allowed us to focus on all the amazing rock artwork on the wall and wines. The whites are great — especially the Cabernet Sauvignon and the Chardonnay. The reds are mostly blends.
Definitely recommend Cliff Lede. The pours are generous with a great selection of wines to try.

On a quest to visit great, smaller wineries in Napa, we stopped at Cliff Lede Vineyards for a tasting. No need for an appointment. Just stroll on in!
This place plays some fun, classic rock music, and they also have some classic rock memorabilia displayed. I love the rocker theme, but I didn’t really see that carried throughout the building. It was actually kind of a nice, classy place that just happened to play cool music and have a few rocker items displayed. So the mix of class and rocker made for some confusing décor. Nice outdoor seating if you have a group. Cute heart sculpture in the middle of the patio. All of the elements that help make this a great place, yet for me, it fell a little short.
First, it took forever to get our pours at the bar. Once we finally did get our pours, we thought «well this wine is nice», but I did not like any of the wines enough to buy a bottle.
Overall, this place was nice with so-​so service, but just not memorable for me. Cliff Lede has some wonderful reviews from other visitors, so check this place out for yourself! Maybe you will have a different experience.