When I turned 21 and was very excited to try wine, I came to Chateau Thomas to try some. I was not treated well by the staff and didn't return for some time. I have since gone to many other wineries and returned as well and would rate Chateau Thomas somewhere in the middle. I have enjoyed their Abe Martin wine series but $5 for tastings and only selling used corks is just bad business. Only go if you're in the area, nothing to drive out of your way for.
Review Source:I have visited many a winery, this is just barely worth doing a review. The location is great, the size of the place is suitable, but $5 for a tasting? And sad tasting quantity. I've had free tastings with double the amount to truly get the flavor, not a drop that barely covers the tongue that you get here.
And I'll admit, I prefer my wines a bit sweeter, but these were just acidic. Not very fruity or complex. It was easy to choose a wine since there was only one we liked, the AB. The rest just weren't anything to write home about. The staff seemed more annoyed that they had to work on a slow night. It just wasn't doing it for me. I've had better wines from other area wineries, and that includes ones that charge for tastings who obviously want you to know what you are buying.
So if you like checking out local wineries, you might find something here, but nothing spectacular.
Not the greatest ambience compared to Napa, but decent for Indiana. Â I continue to come back here for their great dry reds. I think their prices are reasonable and they get most of their grapes from California. Pair those two things with a 15% club member discount and I'm a very happy wine-o! Â My free membership also provides me and a few friends with free tastings from a larger nicer glass too!
Review Source:I've been to most of the wineries in Indiana & a significant number of wineries in California & the Pacific Northwest. Â Chateau Thomas is easily my least favorite winery that I have been to.
Positives: it is located close to Indianapolis, they do occasionally have good music groups perform, occasionally they have interesting fairs/festivals/farmers markets, there are ample motel rooms within walking distance
Negatives: pompous or unfriendly staff (hello, your winery is next to a Harley dealership & a Cracker Barrel in suburban Indiana...it's not Napa), and like most Indiana wines they tend to be EXTREMELY sweet, but most Indiana wineries are at least trying to create dryer wines (not just labeling semi-sweet wines as "dry" like Chateau Thomas does).
At most wineries the people conducting sampling will chat with you friendly, tell you about the wine, where the grapes are grown, etc...but I have never had this experience at Chateau Thomas. You are lucky if a server will even crack a smile or make eye contact with you. Â It is not the fun, jovial experience that you expect with most wine-tasting rooms, so I can't recommend it.
In a world of Indiana Sweet wines, I am a dry wine drinker.
That's not to say I don't enjoy a good semi-dry or slightly-sweet wine at times. Â But for my palate, dry's where it's at.
Jon C. had found Chateau Thomas Winery online and noted they had a nice selection of dry wines. Â So off we headed on my birthday to enjoy it! =)
The setting of the Plainfield tasting area does leave a bit to be desired - it's convenient to the highway but tucked into a lot of hotels and chain restaurants. Â I knew this going into it, but since I have vivid memories of 'drive through wineries' in Michigan, that always sits on me a little funny.
When I'm evaluating wines, I like the setting to be a little less.. 'in the middle of their gift shop'. Â This was.. in the middle of their gift shop.
But, I didn't judge the wines by that, and I'm pleased I didn't. Â
The 5 sample 'choose your own flight' is $5, which I consider reasonable considering the foot-traffic that doesn't purchase that they must get. Â We sampled some Pinot Noirs (2), Viognier, Mourvedre, Primativo and Sangiovese. Â
The newest Pinot Noir wasn't quite quaffable, but the other selections we had were good. Â We came away with two bottles.
The flightmaster was good, but as Jon C. said, she'd given the talk so many times that I wanted to find a way to very kindly let her know that it was OK, she didn't have to give it again - we just wanted to try the wines to find out what bottles we wanted to purchase. =) Â The hospitality otherwise could not have possibly been friendlier!
Our selections were around $25 a bottle, which for us is a bit spendy for an 'unrated' wine (we're new to wines, so we try to stay with rated ones or specially recommended ones so we can use that to train our palates a bit).
It seems the wine world - and Indiana wines especially - have gone to mainly sweet or semi-sweet wines. Â That's a shame, because the dryer side of the spectrum is what I (and Lizz!) prefer.
So, while browsing the websites of pretty much every. single. Indiana. winery for wine lists, I was happy to come upon Chateau Thomas and their extensive list of wines, including many, many dry varieties.
So on the occasion of Lizz's birthday, we headed to Chateau Thomas and were not disappointed. Â
The tasting room and gift shop is very nicely decorated, and the gift shop itself sells a wide variety of hand crafted foods and such - including many local options.
They offer a tasting at $5 for 5 choices - which is nice, as they don't "force" a certain selection. Â We opted for 5 of the dry ones and liked nearly all of them. Â The 2009 PNoir needs a little more time. ;) Â The '08 Pinot was wonderful as were the rest, including a very nice Viognier. Â
The only reason I'm going with 4 instead of 5 stars is that the tasting room employee, while extremely nice and knowledgeable and friendly and wonderful in every other way seemed a little too "scripted." Â You could definitely tell she'd given the same "speech" hundreds or thousands of times prior, especially at the beginning. Â And while I totally understand that IS exactly the case - the "best" employees hide that as best they can and make it seem like it's the first time.
A small thing, but it was noticeable. Â Though as I said, she was nice, friendly, knowledgeable, and wonderful and NOT at all rude or off-putting. Â I just feel she could work on her delivery a bit.
We'll likely be back for more bottles of their wonderful Indiana wine!
I'm a member of their wine club, which is generally about $45 per quarter and I get 3 bottles of wine. Chateau Thomas's wine list is so extensive now that being a member of their club is about the only way I'd make my way through everything. I also get free tasting, which is nice, because otherwise they charge $5 for 5 samples. That irks me, because usually when I sample wine at a winery I almost always buy a bottle as a courtesy. I feel like the cost of providing samples should be built in. Anyway.
They have music and other events throughout the year. The winery is easy to get to and the people who work there really seem to enjoy wine. One of my favorites is the muscat canelli -- it has a little bit of carbonation and that makes it fun to drink in the summer.
We came here looking to purchase wine for our wedding reception. They have a nice gift shop area full of wine snobbery stuff. I love wine, so dont get me wrong, I just dont get into it like some people do. Anyway, we went through two rounds of tastings ($5 = 5 selections to sample) which was kinda cheap, but would have been better if the first round was free. Out of the ten wines we sampled, we settled on two out of the THREE we liked. They have a big selection so maybe we just tryed the wrong ones; however, there were a couple of wines we sampled that were supposed to be award winning and didnt really care too much for them. The Dry Riesling, Classic Merlot, and Cabernet Syrah were all good in my book.
Review Source:If you've ever been to Oliver Winery near Bloomington, then don't bother with Chateau Thomas.
The atmosphere in the place is nice enough, and the gift shop has lots of interesting stuff to look at (nothing I'd really consider buying). Â You have to pay if you want to taste any wines (unless they think you're going to spend decent money). Â The people behind the counter were nice enough to customers, but they didn't seem to like each other much, which made for an uncomfortable moment.
I bought six bottles, but two had cork taint and were undrinkable. Â Most of the wines are more expensive than what you'll find at a Trader Joes or World Market, but are not nearly as nice. Â The classic cabernet is particularly disappointing.
Overall, if you're looking for "the winery experience", then this is better than a grocery store. Â But not much.
The great thing about Chateau Thomas Winery is that you can taste most of the wines before you buy them. Â The staff there all seem like they went to Wine college as they are extremely knowledgeable about what kinds of wines you'd like after telling them what you have a taste for.
I typically like sweeter wines, but I'm open for anything good and I was pleased to discover some new, more bitter reds that I ended up enjoying. Â You can find a lot of the wines in the local liquor and grocery stores if you you don't need the full on winery experience.
If you do go, you'll find the tasting room is very open and inviting and like most wineries, they have a very homey, rustic appeal. Â The place is actually really big and has all kinds of different rooms for you to wonder around in and take a stroll as you peruse the extensive wine selection. Â
The place is a nice 20-30 minute hike from Metro Indy, but really easy to get to as it is right off of I-70. Â With that being said, they do have a location in Fishers, so it's convenient for the north siders.
Went to visit while down that way for a wedding. My friend wanted to skip the winery but i refused. I told him if i go to Indy I must stop and get a few bottles of my wine. 6 bottles and a box later we are on our way back to Chicago! I have finished off 2 of those delicious bottles already and plan to take 1 or 2 with me on a trip later next month. Best wines ever!
Review Source:I'd been wanting to check out Chateau Thomas for a couple years, and when I found out that this weekend they were having their Grape Harvest Festival, it gave me the extra boost I needed to use the gas to drive out to Plainfield. It's not that far of a drive, and the gas was worth it! A couple girlfriends and I went and had a great time.
When we pulled up, I was a bit thrown off guard - the winery is smack in the middle of a commercial development with hotels, Steak & Shake and Subway. This is, in my opinion, the biggest detractor to the winery. I thought it would be in a different setting, away from other businesses. Call me crazy, but I thought it might actually be in a vineyard! I was wrong, but don't let that stop you from going.
They make the wine on-site and have some great selections. We went for the 2006 Dry Riesling, which I highly recommend! I'm a fan of sweet wines, so I also tried the Sweet Aubergine because it is their best seller. Only go for it if you really like sweet wines - it was way to sweet for me! I also took home a bottle of Muscat Canelli - it's light and fruity, with just enough bubbles. They also have a great variety of cheeses, spreads, meats and crackers to accompany your wine (sadly, no baguettes or other breads).
If you are in Indy and debating taking the drive out to Chateau Thomas, do it - Plainfield isn't too far away and the wine is well worth it!
I came about my knowledge of Dr. Thomas' winery via a school project. The place is pretty awesome. Now as a young and eager wine enthusiast to-be, I have to say that as far as picking a great Cabernet, or Syrah for your dinner party, you should only come here if you like the novelty of using Indiana wines (although the quality of his wine's are leaps and bounds over that of the other Indiana winery's and I've tried most of them, more on this later).
As far as the wines here go, it's a lot of specialty sort of stuff, flavored wines, peach, strawberry and the like. But there is a selection of classic varietals that is the best in the state, and as far as being labeled Indiana wine, it doesn't get much better than this place. Why is that? Well the governing agency of wine production in the U.S.A. (BATF) says that for a wine to carry the label that it was produced, in oh, lets say, Indiana, only 75% of the grapes actually have to be from Indiana, and Dr. Thomas uses this little caveat and bring in as much grape-age from the Left coast as he can, I'd imagine he uses Sonoma County grapes, as I'd expect they blend better with the Indiana versions, but this is purely speculative.
The Wine shop is great, and they will hook you up with some samples of their huge list of available wines, there is a limit, but I forget what it is. They have everything you could need to have a party with wine, or a picnic with wine, or to do really anything with wine you could want, in accordance with good taste anyway. They also have most of their wines available year round.
So if you are looking for some great Indiana wine, check out Dr. Thomas' vineyard in Plainfield. But if you're looking for awesome wine to impress folks, stick with Kahn's.
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