Island Vintners

I enjoyed my experience here. It was a rainy day, so wine tasting seemed like the perfect way to pass the time. It’s intimate, so you can hang out and talk with the people you come with, and if you want to engage in conversation with the wine pourer (not sure what the official title is), you can, but you’re not awkwardly talking to them the entire time.

Island Vintners just recently reopened under new management. I was lucky that their doors reopened just days before my visit to Bainbridge Island. Island Vintners is a partnership between two island wineries, Fletcher Bay and Amelia Wynn. This provides ferry visitors from Seattle, touring downtown Winslow, an opportunity to experience their wines. As I had already visited Fletcher Bay winery, I was looking forward to taste Amelia Wynn’s wines.
The wine bar is small and intimate. The space is dog friendly, as a dog greeted me at the door. There are a variety of different tasting options that you can select from depending on what types of wine and how many you would like to taste.
The highlight here for me was Amelia Wynn’s wine itself. The winery is owned by winemaker Paul Bianchi. He founded the winery in 2008. The winery focuses on Bordeaux, Rhone, and Northern Italian varietal wines. The winery is named after his twin grandchildren. The grapes are sourced from Eastern, WA, and the wine is made at his winery located eight miles from the ferry terminal. To taste wine at the winery you need to make an appointment in advance.
We had the pleasure of meeting Paul, and talking with him about his wine. My friend and I each chose different wines to taste and shared with each other. Everything we tasted was excellent. The wine is well balanced, full of character, and varietal appropriate. I definitely left with several bottles purchased to take home. It’s hard to choose a favorite here. The Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, Vigonier, and Rose were all lovely. The Cepage was also fantastic for the red. Paul Bianchi is definitely making some wine magic.

The atmosphere is charming at this tiny winery and the little lady who served us was really sweet. The wine, however, was not good — I didn’t like a single one out of the eight wines we tried.

Stumbled in here while looking for a Wine Tasting and it was the highlight of our trip to Bainbridge Island! We were here went Sharon, the owner/​server was working and her fun personality made our visit even better! We did wine flights and definitely drank more wine than a typical wine flight would offer. Cute and quaint environment and great wine. Loved it here, and thank you Sharon for being awesome!

We did the 4 flights for $ 10 deal and they were pretty generous with their pours. The place was a little busy when we got there so we didn’t get much attention but there were only 2 people working.

Amazing wine and what a great host! The owner is so sweet and knowledgeable. Her husband is the wine maker and she was a sweetheart. She told us a lot about the wines we were drinking and a flight of 4 is only $ 10!!! Can’t beat it. Really close to the ferry too.

First stop in Bainbridge Island!
Very small cute little winery. It was extremely hot inside. We were fanning ourselves hard!
Flights were 10 $ for 4 tastes. To be quite honest my taste for wine has not matured yet. Although I do like to taste wine here and there my appreciation for it can still grow. I am still trying to train my palette to like red wine. So I can’t really go into detail with the taste of the wines.
They do offer cheese and cracker platters. We were going to try one but it was so incredibly hot in that little place we just had to leave after one flight of wine.
It was pretty busy in there too so it was hard to get her attention. So we decided to move on to the next.

Been to this place a couple times now. Conveniently located on Winslow very close to the Bainbridge Island ferry terminal. The wines are fantastic, especially the Tara Rouge and their Cab Sauv. Go on a Sunday, you’ll meet Sharon who is one of the vintners. She is wonderful, helpful and makes you feel completely welcome! This place has a small town charm with excellent wines from the island. Highly recommend!

What a little gem! The owner (and our server) is full of personality and charm, which is what makes this place so divine! They have a pretty good tasting deal, 4 tastes for $ 10.00, the cheeses are filling and delicious with the tapanade being scrumptious as well.
Ambiance: A little on the romantic and intimate side due to the space, but extremely loud for the same reason. It’s also pretty high in temperature when the place is full but pefection when there are just a few couples, about 5 – 10 people.
Wine: Pretty good assortment for such a small venue and vinyrad selection.
Food: Could be better but for the price and the wine pairing I would probably grab that cheese sampler again.
Service: Here is where it gets tricky; when there are only a few people the host’s are on point, delivering adequate descriptions and timely execution. When more people arrived it began to lack luster, hence the 1– star deduction.
Overall I would recommend thing as a ferry-​paired adventure with an addition of the nearby museum to top it off. I would come here again without hesitation if I was in the area.

Tricked by the high ratings on Unilocal.Went here expecting at least decent wines but what we got was about the equivalent of a 2.99 box wine. It could be that we are just spoiled by the wines from our area and maybe northwest wines are just not that good? or maybe its just the wines from the island that are bad. This tasting room is small and features wines from 3 local wineries. The wines we tasted were pretty horrid but i guess that isnt the tasting rooms fault. though they are choosing to serve terrible wine so therefore the 2 stars. I would avoid wine tasting on bainbridge in general go to bloedel reserve and do a nature walk that is really about all this island has to offer. Unless you have never been wine tasting to other regions I wouldn’t bother doing tastings here. it will be quite disappointing especially if you have any nose for wine.

I’m sorry but after trying wines from both wineries I can’t recommend either. After visiting all the wineries on the island the only one i can confidently recommend is eleven.

I am kicking myself for not remembering the name of our server, nonetheless, she was amazing. She drives a school bus during the week and works at the tasting room on Sundays. Her attitude and service was phenomenal. She knew everything about the wine and was incredibly friendly. I would have stayed all day just to listen to her.

Two vintners are represented here. We tried reds from both. In general, they were underwhelming. We drew diagrams where the X axis is pleasure and the Y axis is time. You could ski down those slopes. Bunny hills, sure – it’s not bad wine. Just wanting complexity and finish. The Cabernet from Fletcher’s Bay was our favorite. If you go, I’m not sure I can recommend a flight for $ 10. Avoid completely on busy holiday weekends – we waited up to 40 minutes between tastes!

You MUST visit Island Vintners if you are going to Seattle. Jump on the ferry and head to Bainbridge for a wonderful, and delicious wine tasting experience. The wine is delicious, Sharon is such a sweetheart and the atmosphere is cozy and comfortable. As an avid wine drinker and lover of wine tasting, this was definitely one of my most favorite places I have ever visited. Thank you Sharon for such a wonderful day!

I could not believe how amazing this place was. My friend and I wondered in off the street (we heard they had cheese plates) on a Tuesday. Sharon, one of the owners, could not have been more gracious and fun, we felt like we were guests in her own home. We of course ordered a cheese plate and did a wine tasting. Great wines, in fact, we both took a bottle to go. We also bought two wheels of this amazing brie, and Sharon even included crackers in our satchel. (I even got a little extra glass of wine because it was my birthday!) Overall, come for the wine, stay to hang with Sharon, she’s the best!

If you’ve got the time, pop in to sample the wines! Worth the sips & conversation!
Bought a bottle of Sharon’s favorite wine! Can’t wait to share it with friends… if it makes it that long…

A much better experience then our first winery. The wines here do taste better than Eleven Winery. We tried coming here when we first got to the island, but it was jammed packed.
We didn’t have time to do a tasting, but instead just drank one full glass. Portions are generous here. Wine prices are decent and they had a 10% or 20% off special. Service was a bit slow but friendly. There were only mother and son working. We just went up to the bar and ordered our glass. The lady (mother) was extremely friendly and gave us generous portions.

Only come to Island Vinters IF:
–You love great company (from your friends and strangers)
–You want to laugh and enjoy the time with everyone around you
–You can appreciate a woman who has a huge heart, lots of passion for what she’s doing and witty comments
–You have an open mind
–You want to try the best mole salami in the world
–You love a great glass of wine made by people who take pride in what they do
–You are ready to get a buzz on (of course)
Sharon suggested the wine tasting ($ 10 pp for 4 heavy pours), cheese sampler ($ 15 with 5 cheeses + crackers) and a salumi plate ($ 10 with 3 types of meats + crackers).
My friends and I had a fantastic day on Bainbridge Island, made significantly better by the wine, cheese, salumi and Sharon at Island Vinters and I highly suggest coming if you have the chance and time!

My friend and I stopped by this place as a part of a birthday celebration. We had spent the day touring Bainbridge and were dressed casually due to the fact that we were riding bikes around the island.
We saw this venue and stopped for a wine tasting. Cute venue, however, my negative rating comes from how we were treated by who I assume was the owner (thin, blonde, in her fifties).
The service was slow, which is surprising due to the fact that there were only about 10 – 12 customers present at the time and it’s not like there was prep work involved with what was being served.
She would come and look at us, then go help another customer. She even walked past us a couple of times when clearing dishes without acknowledging our empty glasses or dishes. We were clearly being ignored.
Maybe because we didn’t look «the part», we weren’t allotted the time or respect of the owner.
Another employee, JJ, who also ended up helping us out that day was attentive, friendly, and helpful with directing us to other spots for sightseeing.
Needless to say, but we will not be returning.

While the wine itself isn’t quite up to my typical four-​star standards, Island Vintners is a sweet little Bainbridge spot to while away some time with a tasting… and a bit of Salumi mole. Mmm, and deserving of an extra star.
Island Vintners represents two wineries, Amelia Lynn and Fletcher Bay, and sourcing is primarily Washington grapes (with some Oregon thrown in for the Pinot Noir, naturally). For $ 8, you get four 1.5 ounce pours of white, red, or your choice of a sampling. We tasted all four whites and four of the five reds for our allotment, and fortified ourselves with a beautiful Salumi sampler (and a bit of Cirrus). The Salumi mole alone is worth a visit here; it can be hard to get at the shop in Seattle, and I can see why. The chocolate and spice is a heady delicious mix of meaty flavor that’s unlike any salumi I’ve ever tried previously. I will be on the hunt from now on!
The space is nicely laid out; you can sit at the tasting bar or at one of the several smaller/​larger tables scattered around the room. If you find a taste you like (our two favorites were the Pinot Grigio and the Cuvée), you can get a glass or a bottle and continue to relax, and if you want some meats and cheeses to go, they can pack those up for you to take to one of the nearby parks. Though this isn’t a wine-​tasting destination per se, it’s worth a visit if, like me, your preferred way to burn some pre-​dinner time is with a decent glass at a friendly small-​town spot.