Visit to Chestnut Ridge Winery

While Brilliant Stream tends to focus a lot on our local breweries, we also have some excellent small wineries that make great day trips this summer. One can’t-miss place to visit is Chestnut Ridge Winery in Spencer.

As its name implies, the winery sits atop a hill at the edge of Spencer in Roane County. The business is operated by its owners, Phillip and Teresa Holcomb.

Phillip handles most of the winemaking chores while Teresa does pretty much everything else, including hosting the tasting room. During the COVID pandemic they are keeping the tasting room open for curbside takeout and outdoor sampling (on the deck and in the yard).

Summer months provide the perfect time to visit their lovely outdoor hilltop setting. You can even call ahead, purchase your bottles, and then have your wine delivered to your picnic table or vehicle. For outdoor drinking, they’ll provide a glass. They also provide hand sanitizer dispensers on all the tables. Inside the tasting room, they sell many handcrafted gift items. Some great cast iron teapots too.

They are doing limited sampling outdoors on their deck. See a wine you like on the list, just ask for a free sample. They have four or five deeply shaded picnic tables in a well landscaped yard. Summer flowers and other decorative planting are all around, making this an ideal place to enjoy a little beverage. Bring your own picnic lunch and settle in.

I’ll have to say that one thing wineries do better than our breweries is in decorating their facilities and grounds. They seem to pay more attention to making everything look great.

The Chestnut Ridge Wines

They’ve been in business for the better part of a decade now and have used that time to perfect their wine making. In wine making, possibly more than in brewing, the producer’s experience really helps the quality of the beverage in the bottle.

Chestnut Ridge produces over 30 different wines a year, around 20 of which will likely be available just about anytime you visit. The products run the gamut of dry to sweet. They make solid, traditional variety grape table wines, especially their proprietary blends in both red and white, including:

Chestnut Ridge seems to have found a real sweet spot for making interesting fruit wines and flavored wines. You’ve got to try some of their fun blends like Peach Chardonnay, Blackberry Merlot and Passion (Passion Fruit & Grapefruit). In addition, you will find fruit wines made with apple, pomegranate, strawberry, blackberry, black cherry and more. Some of these wines are seasonal, so expect the menu to change a bit with each visit you make.

I have certainly enjoyed sipping a well-chilled bottle of their Peach Chardonnay at a picnic or just sitting by the river. At $12 for a 750 ml bottle, it is in their more affordable pricing tier along with most of their other fruit wines.

For more formal, wine-with-dinner times, their dry red Blackwater and Shavers Fork proprietary blends have hit the spot of me. Chestnut Ridge dry table wines run from $16 to $28 a bottle.

The Chestnut Ridge Trail

While on your winery visit, include some time for a little hiking. The winery sits at the head of the Chestnut Ridge Trail, which is part of the more extensive Ben’s Run trail system.

The Country Roads Trail

Chestnut Ridge Winery is a founding member of the Country Roads Winery and Distillery Trail, which runs from Parkersburg down to Roane County and includes six wineries and two distilleries. You can find more information on the trail on their website.

Chestnut Ridge Winery
15 Chestnut Ridge
Spencer, WV
(304) 377-5721
Winery Facebook Page

For first-time visitors to the winery, it’s best to use your GPS to navigate the winding streets up to the hilltop. There are no directional signs.