j. maki winery

Some of the most consistently very good to excellent wines can be found here – not a bad wine in the bunch. I always find an adequate wine in the wineries I visit to buy a bottle to support small independent wineries, but at J. Maki there are so many good wines, I need to hold myself back from buying so much. This is certainly not a place for the sweet wine drinkers, but then those folks have plenty of choices in most of the wineries in the State. I’m prone to saying that PA has a handful of excellent wineries, but I need to keep visiting PA wineries searching for another two wineries to join Waltz, Penns Woods and J. Maki to complete my handful. If only we could have our cold salmon picnic lunch in the vineyard to accompany a bottle of J. Maki’s excellent wines.

We were the only people there and felt like a huge interruption. While the wine was good, not sure it justified $30 per tasting. Fortunately we bought some so we avoided that fee. Overall strange vibe, but we did like the wine.

Wildly interesting stories from our host and sophisticated wines made this a very worthwhile stop. Some of the best dessert wines I've ever tasted.Bought all I could afford and wanted more.

Visiting with family, my husband and I visited the winery. Yes, the grounds are beautiful, but that is where it ends. The owner was rude and had no style and understanding of a good tasting experience. Now about the cost- cut me a break- $30.00 and he was less than upfront about the terms from the get go. Not to mention, the wine was horrible!

Overpriced and $30 tastings? We been to so many terrific wineries including the Fingerlakes and have NEVER had such a bad experience. We felt very unwelcome.

Overpriced and extremely rude are the words I would use to describe J. Maki winery, particularly the owners. I travelled with my Aunt and Uncle who are both older, but very experienced with wine, and my mother. Unfortunately our trip ended with the owner yelling profanities at us, when we decided we did not want to taste the wine for $30 per person ($120 total). J. Maki is by far the worst winery we have ever been to, and it's a shame they are a part of the Brandywine Wine Trail, which is otherwise delightful. My recommendation is to save the gas, time and money, and go to Black Walnut Winery, or travel another 40 minutes to the Bucks County Wine Trail and try Crossing Vineyards, which is beautiful and delightful, with more awards than J. Maki. Our family enjoys touring wineries and travels to Napa Valley every two years, and has travelled to Canada for the Ice Wine on more than one occassion. My husband and I have travelled to the finger lakes region in New York as well. Upon entering, the grounds are beautiful and that's about all it has going for it. We entered the dark and cold tasting room and the woman behind the counter, gave us a curt welcome. My elderly Aunt asked to use the restroom before tasting. The rest of us approached the tasting table and started to review the menu. They boast wining an award for champagne from about 7 or 8 years ago. Upon review, we noticed that a tasting is $30 per person, but is waived if you purchase a bottle. The cheapest bottle is a chardonnay at $29, and prices then jump to about $45-$50 per bottle, then $70 to $100+. Not knowing anything about the wine, we didn't want to spend $120 for the tasting and went to leave. When my elderly Aunt exited the restroom a man (who claimed to be the world reknowned wine maker) started screaming down that my elderly Aunt was a "Leech" and that she used the bathroom and had to buy a bottle of wine, and that "she dirtied the bathroom" (which was not very clean to begin with)and never had an intention of buying wine, and did she think it was just a public restroom. (Note here, the winery is about 10 miles off of the Highway, and we passed an entire town of restaurants, shopping districts, etc....why would we need to travel a dirt road for a restroom) It was so alarming. We had every intention of tasting and buying, but it was so overpriced and the owners were so rude, they said "you're not supposed to just taste the wine, you're supposed to buy it." Well, what if I don't enjoy the wine? I will not list the profanities here, but I wish I had done an online search and had seen other reviews of the winery, all just as terrible.I sincerely hope other people don't visit here, it is a horrible example of all excellent wineries blossoming in Pennsylvania. There are other wineries nearby, with more awards than J Maki, and kind staff that truly embody the wine tasting experience, and want to share the knowledge of the process.

We love wine ...just not many from Pennsylvania, where we live. However, we decided to stop into J. Maki for a couple reasons. One, we had tasted their ICE wine before and liked it. Two, it was on our way home from a weekend trip. Prior we had read both positive and negative reviews on Trip Advisor including one that mentioned the owners as unfriendly and the tasting as a rip-off. I am happy to report that we found the owner and his wife to be very engaging and friendly and the tasting in line with most. The owner was doing the tasting and he talked openly about the winery, the grapes and some of the stories behind the scene. The tasting of nine wines, whites, reds, champagne and ICE was just fine. Upon pouring our taste of champagne he did not like the lack of carbonation and opened a fresh bottle. We also got an extra taste of an off the board Petit Verdot. Tasting was free as long as we bought two bottles...which honestly is expected when you go to any small winery that expects to stay in business! We enjoyed the visit very much and encourage others to try it for themselves. Plan on spending a minimum of $65 and enjoy the time at J. Maki Winery

We were coming back from NYC, saw the signs, and decided to stop and see what ice wine was all about. Having read all the other reviews since that time let me add my two cents worth. Yes, it's a beautiful place, although it did need some yard work. Our server wasn't rude, but she was a bit cool and distant at first. Later on she become much friendlier. If you don't buy any wine you had to pay for the tasting, but it was not unreasonable. The wine is pricey, but delicious. We really did enjoy the ice wine and bought several bottles. It really isn't tourist friendly, perhaps they have too many nasty tourists stop by, who knows. On the other hand, they seem to do what they do with excellence and some experience. So if trying a new wine is important to you, then give the place a try.

J. Maki Winery is located on a beautiful, winding country road. The wine tasting room is in a restored barn and the barn is gorgeous and impressive. You can view the grape vines from the tasting room. Although I find the wine a bit pricy, it is handcrafted and good quality. The service can be a little cool, not as warm and welcoming as most other area wineries. Stop by for a tasting, but realize that they do not allow picnicking on the grounds.

The wine is very good for Pennsylvania wine. There is where the positive ends. A beautiful property with a sign at the entrance that amounts to "if your not buying don't bother stopping". The owner was extremely pompous until he realized my husbands extensive wine knowledge and accreditation. We purchased the obligatory 2 bottles to avoid the ridiculous tasting fee. Too bad because the place is beautiful and the wine pretty good. We came away feeling cheated.

My husband and I were in town visiting family and we love trying out new wineries so we saw J. Maki online and decided to check it out. When we got there the person that greeted us seemed somewhat irritated because we couldn't clearly find which part was the tasting room (not clearly marked.) Once inside we took note of all the awards and asked for a tasting. After they poured us the wine we noticed that it was written on a small chalkboard that it was $30 per person for a tasting unless you buy a bottle! So we tasted all the wines and really didn't care for any of them so ended up buying 2 bottles of their cheapest wine which was $30 each!! No thanks- I can think of a million better things to do with $60 in the middle of PA- it's not like we were in Napa or anything! I would like to note that none of the pricing info was on their website- I felt like we were lured into a trap being that we drove 40 min to get to this place. Seriously- save your $! Wine is gross and overpriced/ service is terrible!

Spent some time here last summer and it was definitely worth the drive. The grounds of the winery are beautiful and very relaxing. There are some local parks in the area where you can take a picnic lunch, pick up a bottle from J. Maki and make a whole afternoon of it.The wine is great but the champagne is even better!If you are anywhere in the area, definitely stop by and try it out, you will not be disappointed.

J Maki winery makes amazing sophisticated and very European style wine right in beautiful Chester county. The wine makers do everything by hand and the care and craft shows in the wine. Their sparkling wine won first place at a blind tasting in France! The wine makers themselves are gracious hosts and a pleasure to talk to. I go back to buy wine as often as I can. Their VSP, Pinot noir and sparkling wines are my favorites.

My husband and I were spending a relaxing day in Elverson area and stopped in a Make Winery and very pleasantly surprised. We bought some of their excellent ice wine and loved their Chardonnay, as well. Worth the stop...

This is a terrible place.We did a tour of local wineries (on our own) for my birthday. This was by far the worst of all.They has a sign that said $15 tasting. We thought we were signing up for that, but we were definately wrong.The woman who gave us our tasting was downright rude. It seemed as though she could barely stomach us. The tasting was quick with little explaination. And when I say tasting, I mean tasting. There was a splash of wine of each. That's it. We were informed that those with an experienced pallet do not need any more than a splash.At the end of the tasting, when it was time to settle up, it ended up being $35 a person for 7 splashes of wine. She informed us though that we were "obligated" to purchase a bottle per person. We ended up spending $80 on 2 bottles of wine that I would be embarressed to give to anyone as a gift.The only positive note was the decor. It was a beautiful building.This was an awful experience and I highly recommened you check out one of the other great wineries in the area.