candia vineyards

Despite its unassuming location and small production, Candia is a very important winery for the NH and indeed New England wine scene, and owner-winemaker Bob Dabrowski is ridiculously modest in all this. A proud promoter of hybrids, both "old" such as the nearly extinct Moore's Diamond, and the new, like La Crescent, he offers a fascinating range of wines; which as most visitors seem to know, includes his astonishing Black Ice dessert wine. Bob has also authored a wonderful definitive book about NH wineries and the wine scene here, which you can purchase from him.

The story behind Candia's Vault Reserve label is the owner bought a vault and installed it at his business. The sales and tasting room is the owner's house basement, where there is some production equipment and the vault, where the wines are stored. There are a few of each style - white, red, and dessert - for sample and purchase. Prices range from approximately $15/bottle for the whites and reds to $30/bottle for the dessert wines. There is no bathroom available and no attraction, necessarily, to this vineyard. Your visit will presumably consist of sampling a few wines and chatting in the owner's basement. I wish that with his proclaimed 30+ years of winemaking, there was more appeal to his business and establishment. Call before you visit to make sure he is available.

Our visit to Candia Vineyards was a disappointment, to say the least. The wine was very good, but from the moment that we arrived for our appointment, we felt completely unwelcome and were treated like an annoyance. We had questions about the process (being novice wine tasters) and felt looked down upon and like Bob couldn't wait until we were gone. I would not recommend his "tour", which is nothing more than a tasting where he does not want to educate you at all and feels unjustly superior to his guests. Bob, you need to work on your interpersonal skills if you want to build business and respect.

Wow, what a difference going to this winery. We called with a difficult schedule request, and they accommodated us when most of the other wineries were closed, or wouldn’t, and we were pleasantly surprised that the winemaker personally poured the wine. A nice touch, and we found out that that it’s company policy for the same special service! So nice to talk to professional at a tasting, it was really fantastic. The wines were pretty remarkable too, the only place we found on our trip that guaranteed us 100% grapes wines. The range was unusually deep too, from very dry to a little sweet, very sweet. We didn’t even think this kind of quality was possible in New England!

This wine was very flavorful, but owner was a wine know-it-all snob.Quite an attitude for someone trying to appeal to customers.