barrel head winery

Barrel Head Winery is not a fancy place -- but what great wines and even a sparkling white that rivals other champagne-like wines! Very knowledgeable host, and the wines are low enough in sulfates that even I can drink them. Award-winning wines (dry and not) at reasonable prices. Must go!

This little vineyard was a fantastic find. While visiting Galena, my sisters and mom and I wanted to visit a winery, and happened to make the most excellent choice! This is just a small estate winery, which is relatively new. The owner took us on a very interesting personal tour. He was very personable, informative, humble, and passionate. He gave us free samples of lots of wine, and told us the stories behind each. The wine was just incredible! It's hard to believe a small new winery could produce such amazing wines. And he uses all his own grapes. I'm not good at describing wine, but he has amazing dry red wines (my favorite). He has won numerous prestigious awards - well deserved. This was the best part of our whole trip.

John & Karen have taken on a business that is taking off-they'll need wall stretchers soon.Wines were all well-crafted and several were medal winners. They need some highway and road signs, if government allows them.

What Barrel Head lacks in aesthetics, they more than make up for in quality of wine and dedication of the wine makers.There is no grand tasting room with oak bar and huge gift shop. On the flip side, there's also no hourly employees working the tasting bar that lack knowledge and enthusiasm. What you have here is a small bar and tasting area right where the wine maker makes the wine. There's a crusher, a wine press, fermentation tanks, aging tanks, bottling equipment and racks and racks of oak barrels with wine aging and maturing as you enjoy your way through their fairly extensive wine list.We were lucky enough to visit on a day when the owners were there racking a batch of St Croix. Being a hobby wine maker myself, I got to talking to the owner and he was more than happy to sit and talk wine when he was done filling a few oak barrels. He even let us try a bit of the St Croix from the barrel before he sealed it up. It's apparent that he's passionate about his craft and willing to indulge in conversation about wine and wine making. I learned a few things during our visit.Besides the owners themselves being friendly and inviting, the gentleman working the tasting bar was also extremely entertaining. Not only was he very knowledgeable about all the wines and their grape varietals, he also told some great stories. We walked in while another group was half way through their tasting and somehow he managed to pull us all together like we were one big group. We never had to wait to be served. He handled this one big combined group better than I've seen other pourers at other wineries handle just 2 people. That's a skill you can't learn.If you love great wine, great company and your not on a tight time table, you could easily spend a few hours here. The owners have a special knack for making you feel like you're old friends getting together for a few drinks.We will definitely visit here again. This was easily one of my favorite tasting experiences by far, can't wait to get back here!