Clearwater Winery Tasting: Three Wines, Meat, Cheese, and a Glass
Book a 60-minute appointment at Aspirations Winery in Clearwater for a tasting flight of any three of more than 35 house wines, plus meat, cheese, and a souvenir glass. Guests must be 21 or older.
Aspirations Winery is candid about how it looks from the road. The winery puts its own location as an industrial park, last unit on the left hand side facing the road. That is where the wine is made, and where the hour you book takes place.
Robin and Bill Linville started the winery in October 2010 and settled it in Clearwater in December 2011. Bill had spent seven years in banking and served in the Navy’s Presidential Honor Guard; Robin is a graphic artist. The reason they went into wine at all was a headache. Bill suspected a sulfite allergy, went looking for low-sulfite wine, and decided to make it himself.
The tour and tasting runs sixty minutes and is sold by appointment. Bookable start times are 1, 3, 5 and 7 in the afternoon and evening from Wednesday through Saturday. Sunday has only two, at 1 and 3, and Monday and Tuesday are not on the calendar at all.
The Tour and Wine Tasting Experience at Aspirations WinerySixty minutes in Clearwater. Guided production-room tour, a flight of any three house wines, a meat and cheese plate, and a souvenir glass for every guest. USD 25 per person, ages 21 and over.www.viator.comThe Tanks Are in the Next Room, Not on a Hillside
There is no vineyard here, and the winery says so plainly. Asked whether grapes grow on site, the official answer is that this is a micro-winery and every wine is made on the premises from juice bought on the open market.
That is what the hour is actually about. The guided part of the visit walks you into the production room, past the stainless tanks, and through what happens between fermentation and the label going on the bottle. If you arrive picturing rows of vines, the picture is wrong; if you arrive curious about how a small urban winery runs, this is the room.
The house list is wider than the room suggests. Alongside dry reds and whites there are fruit-infused bottlings, specialty sangrias and dessert wines, all made low in sulfites because that was the founding idea.
Three Pours You Choose Yourself
The flight is three wines, and you pick all three. The winery counts more than thirty-five wines on its own list, so the choosing takes a minute.
Each guest gets a plate of meat and cheese with crackers and nuts, and each guest keeps a souvenir glass etched with the winery’s name and the words Clearwater, Florida.
After the hour, the room keeps going. Additional flights, wine by the glass, local craft beers, hard cider, spiked seltzers, sangria on tap, prosecco and charcuterie are all available, and all of them cost extra on top of what you booked. Gratuities are not included in the ticket either.
Booked Ahead, or Walked In
These are two different visits, and the winery treats them differently.
The tour and tasting is by appointment. That is the thing this page links to, and it is why the calendar only offers a handful of start times.
Walking in is a separate matter. The winery's own answer to whether you need a reservation to visit is no: during tasting room hours you can come in for samples, flights by the glass, beer, cocktails and food without booking anything. What a walk-in does not include is the guided production-room tour, the plate or the glass. Those come with the booked hour.
Getting In, and Who Gets In
Everyone on the booking is an adult. The reservation form sells a single ticket type, ages 21 to 99, and the winery’s minimum drinking age is 21. Strollers are allowed inside and service animals are welcome, but the ticket itself has no child or youth price.
Parking is free, which matters in an industrial park where the alternative is guessing. The building is step-free: the tour description lists the venue as wheelchair accessible across all areas and surfaces, and the tasting asks nothing of your fitness. Guiding is in English.
Thirty travellers is the largest single booking the form accepts, so a birthday group or a club outing fits in one reservation.
The tour ends where it started, at the same door on US Highway 19. The glass in your hand is already yours to keep, and the list you just tasted from runs past thirty-five wines, so most people stay for one more pour before they go.