Caret Cellars

Great tasting host. Good local wine. Had a Taco truck and crafters on site. Rustic drive to get here. Hospitable, leisurely common area.

Enjoyed an excellent wine tasting experience here, given by the owner (who jumped off his tractor to help us!). Excellent wines, beautiful laid-back setting. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to relax with a good glass of wine at a vineyard that doesn't have the snobbery of some in other parts of VA.

We decided to stop here on the way home from MD after stopping at two others nearby. This was by far one of my favorites! We met the winemaker, Floyd, who as amazing! He walked us through each wine and his thought bwgind each one. He was very personable and extremely patoent with any questions we had! We also had the pleasure of meeting both the owners, R.D. and Junghee, both so wonderful as wrll! They spent time speaking with us telling the story about the winery and their wines. The wines themselves were fantastic, our favorites being the sangiovese. Do not let he tasting room (which is also their production room!) fool you! They are adding on to the building now, and we cannot wait to see where they go from here!

I came here once. It is a small winery that has just expanded to include a tasting room. We had the tasting and they had live music and there a food truck setting up outside. It was a very cute place and beautifully done. I thought the wine was just ok.

Open only since Sep 2015, Caret shows promise. Their wines have plenty of variety and were generally good. They were a vineyard for 9 years before transitioning to a winery; since grapes are the most important element of good wine, this is good news. Apparently the owner decided if his grapes were good enough to win awards for other people, then they were good enough for him to make his own wine!Tastings are conducted in a small building, which is really more of a repurposed storage room. Plans are in the works for a much larger space, but presumably that won't be ready for several years. Still, they work with what they have, and my server was happy to supply me with napkins and whatnot so I could have a picnic on the tables outside.Wines in the VA Neck are generally reasonably priced (at least for someone used to northern VA), but Caret's wines were a steal! All but one were under $20.As for my tasting:Whites/Rose: Just three for this visit, but that's ok! The Chardonnay had just a hint of butter. But the White Merlot (yes you read that right - WHITE Merlot) was nice and quite unexpected. Very light and hint of peach. In fact, this was my first White Merlot ever. The Rose was described as "Italian Ice without the ice", which I can totally see, and had a raspberry flavor. Reds: My tasting was red heavy; pretty much everything was light or (at best) medium bodied.The Rivah Red was basically adult Kool-Aid; 95% Chambourcin. The Sangiovese was very light colored and bodied pizza wine; my pourer educated me on this grape and actually it's naturally light bodied but some places amp the color with other varietals. The "Super Tuscan" (Italian and French varietal blend) Sangiovese was my favorite; slightly more bold on the palate but still lighter than I'm accustomed to. The very light Merlot rounded out the tasting.

It's an amazing place to go to! Great wines and great people working here. The wine tasting was so much fun would definitely recommend it to everyone!

I've been to Caret all summer. It was a great gem! Love the wine ---literally my favorite wine ever. The owners are amazing---so warm and beautiful.

My husband and I stopped by this little winery on a whim on our way home from a weekend getaway. We had low expectations because I hadn't done any research before stopping, but we left SO impressed.The owner himself guided our tasting and he couldn't have been more accommodating and engaging, happily answering all of our questions! He was very knowledgeable regarding the wines (and wine in general), which (surprisingly) you don't always see in winery owners. You can tell he takes a very active role at the winery. All of the wines in the tasting were very impressive. The oaked reserve Chardonnay, White Merlot and Sangiovese all stood out (and the Sangiovese held its own against all of the Chiantis we tasted in Tuscany just last month!). We took glasses of our favorite wines outside and sat at a table, enjoying the beautiful view. A staff member (I believe the owner's wife) brought out some crackers, bread and cheese - what a sweet gesture! We will definitely be back when in the area next time!

Such an amazing place to visit, R.D., was very knowledgeable and honest. Love hearing his stories and practices in the industry. Very reasonable prices and awesome ambiance. Can't wait to get the opportunity to volunteer for him.

Winemaker is from Washington state. Grapes are Virginian and most are grown on site. Grab a bottle of the Chambourcin and the Tannat!