giessinger winery

Just out for a drive in the Santa Paula / Fillmore area, and while exploring the Fillmore & Western Rail Yard we stumbled on Giessinger Winery. With comfortable tables and a nice garden we enjoyed a bottle of wine. Nice Things are Where You Find Them.

The wines are unbelievably tasty especially their 60 years old vine Petite Sirah grown in Monterey. The Cabernet Franc is to die for. Don't forget the 1999 Sirah Port.I read the previous review. The Chardonnay was stored in stainless steel not plastic as I was given a tour. The building is very beautiful. Check for yourself. I definetly recommend this winery. Thanks a bunch for showing a good time.

There's not a lot of wine tasting in Fillmore. So when an Amazon Local deal came along it sounded like something worth a try. I should have known what to expect when I asked if the chardonnay was from oak or steel barrels, and the answer was "plastic."The tasting room is in something like a converted warehouse, with posters on the wall and wines stacked up for sale. There's not a lot of ambience, but it's not bad.The advertised tastings are of 8 wines. With our coupon, which was advertised as tasting for two plus a complimentary bottle, we received 4 tastings: one red, one white, and two dessert. The bartender poured our wines without a word about the winery, the grapes, where they were grown, what to expect, none of what you anticipate from a tasting room. The plastic-barreled Chard tasted little like what you'd expect from a Chardonnay. The merlot wasn't bad. The peach dessert wine was very sweet. The port was OK, and the chocolate/strawberry/vanilla concoction was awful. Maybe you'll like that if you don't actually like wine.The merlot and port save this from being a one-star experience.The offered complimentary bottles of wine were presented to us as a choice between "a red and a white" (no mention of varietal.) We selected the red and opted to purchase a bottle of Viognier that they had displayed on sale, which we were informed was the white they were offering. Unusually, neither wine offered was part of the tasting. The Viognier was absolutely undrinkable. When we looked at the bottle we saw that an "unfiltered" sticker had been slapped on it - this after we had been told that it was the same as what was being offered as a complimentary bottle, which had no such sticker. We can only be left with the impression that this winery used a local deal to bring people in, collect a little money, and dump off some really bad wine. Not recommended.