frogtown cellars

This is one of two premier wineries in the Helen, GA area. The grounds are very pretty with waterfalls and fish. The tasting bar and restaurant are just gorgeous. As other reviewers have mentioned, they do tend to be a bit snobbish here. The wine is very good if you can afford to taste and buy it. Wine tastings are a whooping $15 for six one ounce tastes for their dry wines and $10 for six for their sweet offerings. On top of that, the tastings are in flights. You don't get to pick and choose. It's no wonder that tasting fees are not shown are their website. It would scare a lot of people away. Dry wine prices range from $19 to a whopping $38 per bottle. Sweet wine runs $15 - 20. A very nice place with very good wine, but if you go be prepared to open you wallet.

The building and grounds are beautiful, but the people are not friendly or accommodating. The place is spacious, but most of it is designated for tables to dine in. Very little space is designated for tasting. So if you cannot shove your way up to the bar you don't get to taste. You have to either eat lunch or order wine by the glass or bottle. This is not the winery experience I have had at numerous other wineries. This was more like a restaurant experience. I arrived with 8 other ladies on a Saturday. It was extremely crowded at the bar and we were told that they do not do tastings for "large" parties on the weekend. It is a good thing we left the other 10+ ladies back at the lodge. They acted as if the were put out that we came and brought so many with us. I wold have thought they would have welcomed a party of women ready to purchase. So instead of tasting and buying bottles of wine we sat on the deck and a few of us ordered a glass. Then we left and went down the hill to 3 Sisters where we were welcomed and we all purchased several bottles. Maybe on a less busy day these people would be less rude. But I would just drive on by and go to 3 Sisters.

Frogtown is in a pretty area, the building is lovely, but the overall experience wasn't our style. We chose the red flight of 7 wines at $16 per person (I might be wrong about the details, but I'm close). There were a couple of reds that were interesting to me, but the bottle prices are out of our range! I found the atmosphere to be more professional than personal, and we like to get some sense of a personal connection. We didn't have a bad experience. Things just didn't "click" for us, so we'll be able to skip this one on future visits to the area.

As a budding oenologist, I was discovering the wines in the emerging Georgia Wine Trail. The folks at the winery were rude, gave me the impression that I was challenging them when I was asking about their wines. I haven't been back since. Not only the worst of Dahlonega wineries as another reviewer offered, the worst I have ever been to.

The best red wines I have ever tasted on the East Coast. I have been to Napa, Sonoma, Santa Barbara/Santa Ynez, Washington State, the Finger Lakes and most of the east coast states. The growing season is generally shorter for reds on the east coast. Frogtown has planted Touriga, Tannat as well as Cab. Sauv., Merlot, Cab. Franc and Petit Verdot. Their Touriga and Tannat are excellent and they have also blended them to make several different Red Blends - something for everybody. While they fall just slightly short of Napa, Sonoma and Washington, they are exceptional for the east coast. The down side is that they are becoming over-priced, in my opinion. The facility is elegant and the owners are very customer friendly. They have a wine club where you become a citizen for free and enjoy free tastings while accepting quarterly shipments of 3 bottles - choosing between red only, white only or a mix of both. They also do barrel tastings and set special dinners.

The drive to the winery was lovely, and the view from it was very special, However, the service and the white wines were poor. We went as a family the Monday before Christmas for a light lunch. I had used their website and sent a message asking if we needed reservations. I never got an email response. We phoned the day before and were told they would be open for lunch and tastings. When we got there, it looked closed. There was one woman behind the bar who told us they didn't serve lunch, but we could do a wine tasting. It was freezing cold inside and we stood at the bar and tasted their white flight and ate goldfish crackers. The last 3 wines on the flight were undrinkable - sweet and cloyingly bad. Near the end of our visit another woman whom I suspect was the owner arrived. She was busy getting packages ready to ship out. She never acknowledged us or talked to us even though she was standing right next to us. The bartender kind of whispered, "well, if you really want a sandwich I could ask her" but by that time we were through. We were very disappointed especially since we had friends who love the place.

This is probably our third favorite winery of the area after tiger and wolf mountain. The tasting area had a bit of s bar feel and there were a lot of sweet wines,which are not our favorite, but we tasted a few decent drier ones.

Jordan was our tasting guru. We enjoyed the visit and the wine. This was not our first choice winery, but in hindsight, we are very happy with this winery. Great venue and really top notch tasting. Jordan knows her wine and is very wine savvy. Awesome.Cheers, ya'll

We (five friends) thoroughly enjoyed our wine tasting. It's fun to drive through the vineyards on the way to Frogtown. The hostess who led our tasting, Brooke, was delightful, knowledgeable and very informative. My husband and I are members and get free tastings. Our non-member friends were just as pleased with the experience.

A group of girlfriends and I celebrated my birthday there. Although this was not my first choice I was really happy the way it turned out. The red wine was descent. I was not a fan of their white wine so I don't recommend it. The winery is cozy and is pet friendly. We also had brunch but it was not all that.....overall, It's a great place to hang out and try the wine, enjoy the view and after several glasses of wine then you can try their food.

Very rude staff. Weird smell. Wine leaves a lot to be desired. Scenery is still beautiful, but the worst of the Dalonega wineries.

Some of my sorority sisters went to this establishment on Oct. 25 having made a reservation and were told they didn't have a reservation. The rep at Frogtown didn't even check to see if they had one. They weren't allowed to sit at the bar and they didn't want them using the bathroom. Instead they were taken outside in a non-dining area in the hot sun next to a dog. A man at Frogtown even had the audacity to walk up to one of the ladies and offer her a job as a server. All the women in the group are college educated with some making well over 6 figures. Their appearance should have indicated they weren't there to fill out a job application. Appalling! Don't go if you are African American or any other ethnicity. These people don't want us there.

Whereas the wine is good and the scenery is beautiful, the owner has no grasp of customer service it would appear. Jordan and her hubby are great, but most of the wait staff (especially the older lady who seems to be in charge) share the owner's attitude of "we're doing you a favor by serving you". There is this awesome covered porch with tables, but you have to get up and go inside to order... they will then bring your stuff outside, but then you have to go inside to pay. For a $15 sandwich, I think I should be able to keep my seat, don't you? That is hardly a cafeteria price for a sandwich. The owner needs to staff better and act like a full service restaurant for those kind of prices. I also think it is AWFUL that you can pay with a credit card but have to tip in cash. That's just a lazy owner who cares more about himself than his staff. So what happens if a patron doesn't have cash of them??? Their waiter or waitress doesn't get a tip. A hard working waitress shouldn't get stiffed on a tip because the owner doesn't feel like being bothered with the accounting work of it all. What an awful business decision! Another awful business decision is to keep an annoying, barking, mean spirited dog named Sadie and allow her to bother the customers and then tell your customers they can no longer bring their dogs to this formerly "dog friendly" place because Sadie got into it with another dog. Whatever Sadie got I'm sure she brought on herself as I have seen her many times come up to sweet dogs laying under the tables and start barking for no reason. It's time for Sadie to find a new home so the other nice doggies can come back. Being dog friendly was one of the main reasons we went to Frogtown.You aren't the only nice winery with a great view in the area, Craig....you better up your game or those nice folks at The Cottage are going to be getting all your customers and you'll end up like Blackstock down the street.

My husband and I enjoyed the views and the wines here. In fact, the 2011 Inclination was probably the best wine I have tasted anywhere and we have done wine tastings in many CA, S. Dakota, Georgia, SC, NC, and VA. wineries.

I am never coming here again! We were advised "they do not have reservations on Saturday....they cannot accommodate our large party of 20 (black women)..." yet there were many empty tables.... Then a party of 20 (white men/women) came and walked straight into the place and were seated immediately? ??? I am sitting here on the porch in the hot sun, as we were directed to go, smh... i am shocked and appalled