When someone types 'winery near me' in Miami, Google sends them to overpriced South Beach wine bars or suggests they book a flight to California. But forty minutes south of downtown, past the sprawl and the strip malls, the Redland agricultural district quietly produces some of the strangest, most surprisingly good wines you'll taste anywhere. Not from grapes—Florida's humidity laughs at Cabernet—but from mangoes, lychees, passion fruit, and carambola. Schnebly Redland's Winery has been fermenting tropical fruit since 2005, and they've converted enough skeptics that their tasting room stays packed on weekends.
Karpo knows the opening hours change seasonally at Knaus Berry Farm and can reroute your whole day if Robert Is Here is closed. Ask before you drive down.
Why Schnebly Redland's Winery works
The drive down Krome Avenue doesn't look promising—nurseries, U-pick fields, and hand-painted signs advertising avocados. Then you pull into Schnebly's parking lot and see the two-story Mediterranean-style building with a waterfall cascading into a lagoon. Inside, the tasting room feels more like a tropical resort bar than a Napa wannabe, which is exactly right. You're not here for oaky Chardonnay. You're here for Mango wine that tastes like biting into a ripe Keitt at the peak of summer, or Passion Fruit wine so tart and floral it resets your palate between bites of cheese.
Order the standard tasting flight—six two-ounce pours for around twenty dollars. The Lychee wine is the one that converts people: delicate, slightly sweet, with none of the cloying syrup you'd expect. The Guava wine drinks dry and pairs absurdly well with salty snacks. If you want something closer to traditional wine structure, try the Blanc du Bois, made from a hybrid grape that actually survives South Florida's climate. The brewery operation upstairs makes solid craft beer if someone in your group refuses to entertain fruit wine. Weekends see long waits after 1pm; arrive by 11:30am or come on a weekday afternoon when locals who work nights claim the bar stools.
Knaus Berry Farm is the real reason locals make the drive
If you time this trip right—mid-November through mid-April, when Knaus Berry Farm is actually open—you stop here first, ideally before 9am. The farm is run by a Mennonite family who've been baking cinnamon rolls in the same outdoor kitchen since 1956. The line snakes through the gravel parking lot by 10am on Saturdays, full of Miami families who've been making this pilgrimage for decades. The cinnamon rolls come in boxes of six or twelve, still warm, heavy with butter and cinnamon sugar, no icing, just a sweet glaze that soaks into the dough. They're nothing like the gloppy mall versions. These taste like someone's grandmother made them, because essentially someone's grandmother did.
Besides cinnamon rolls, grab a strawberry milkshake made with berries from the fields out back, thick enough to require a spoon. The farm stand sells vegetables, jams, and pies, but the cinnamon rolls are why cars start lining up before the gates open. Pro move: if you arrive late and the rolls are sold out, the sticky buns are nearly as good and always the last to go. Cash or check only—there's an ATM inside if you forget. Knaus closes for the entire summer, so don't attempt this trip between May and October unless you enjoy crushing disappointment.
Robert Is Here: the produce stand with peacocks
Robert Is Here looks like a roadside fruit stand because that's what it started as in 1960, when six-year-old Robert sat out front selling cucumbers. It's since grown into a sprawling operation selling every tropical fruit you've heard of and dozens you haven't—sapodilla, mamey, sugar apple, jackfruit the size of a toddler. The milkshakes are mandatory: thick blends of fresh fruit with no ice, no filler, just pure mango or key lime or soursop. The key lime shake tastes like the Platonic ideal of key lime pie, tart and creamy and gone too fast.
Walk past the fruit displays to the back patio where peacocks roam free and a small petting zoo entertains kids while parents recover from their sugar high. Robert himself, now in his seventies, still shows up most days to oversee operations. The store sells exotic fruit plants if you want to try growing your own starfruit tree, and the hot sauce selection runs deep. This is also where you stock up on fresh avocados, finger limes, and whatever's in season. Go on a weekday if you can—weekends bring tour buses full of European tourists who've somehow discovered this place. It stays open year-round, unlike Knaus, so it's a reliable anchor for the trip.
How to structure the day
Start at Knaus Berry Farm when they open, usually around 8am, grab your cinnamon rolls, and eat at least two in the car because willpower is a myth. Drive ten minutes south to Robert Is Here for a milkshake and fruit haul. By 11am or noon, you're at Schnebly's for wine tasting and lunch—they have a full restaurant menu with stone-fired pizzas and sandwiches that soak up the alcohol better than cheese cubes. If you want the full experience, book the brewery and winery combo tour on weekends; it's an extra hour but you see the fermentation tanks and barrel room, and the guide usually sneaks you tastes not on the regular menu.
The whole loop is about thirty miles from downtown Miami, all the way down US-1 or the Turnpike to Homestead. You're in agricultural land, so gas stations get sparse—fill up before you leave civilization. Bring cash for Knaus and small bills for Robert's if you're buying fruit by the pound. Schnebly's takes cards. If you're ambitious, Coral Castle is fifteen minutes away, a bizarre coral rock structure built by a Latvian immigrant who claimed to understand the secrets of the pyramids. It's weird enough to justify the detour if you finish your wine tasting early and want to extend the strangeness.
What to expect from tropical fruit wine
If you walk into Schnebly's expecting wine to taste like wine, you'll be confused. This is fruit fermented with wine yeast, aged in stainless steel or oak, bottled at wine ABV, but it doesn't pretend to be Pinot Noir. The best tropical fruit wines balance sweetness with acidity—the good ones finish dry or off-dry, not syrupy. Schnebly's has won actual awards at international wine competitions, which says more about the quality than any amount of Florida boosterism. The Carambola Blush is a favorite: made from star fruit, it's crisp and slightly tart, drinks like a rosé, pairs with seafood. The Avocado Honey wine sounds like a dare but tastes like a dessert wine with nutty, floral notes.
You can buy bottles to take home—most run fifteen to twenty-five dollars, cheaper than comparable wines in Wynwood bottle shops. The tasting room staff is happy to guide you toward drier or sweeter options depending on your tolerance for fruit-forward flavors. If you're still skeptical, order a glass of the Blanc du Bois and ease into the weirder stuff. Or commit fully and start with the Passion Fruit, which announces itself like a wake-up call. Either way, you're drinking something you can't find anywhere else, made from fruit grown within a few miles of where you're sitting.
Practical notes
Knaus Berry Farm is only open mid-November through mid-April, typically closed Sundays. Arrive before 9am on weekends to avoid hour-long waits for cinnamon rolls. Robert Is Here opens around 8am daily year-round; check their social media for rare closure days during hurricane season. Schnebly Redland's Winery opens at 11am weekdays, 10am weekends. Reservations aren't required for tastings but help on Saturday afternoons. The drive from Brickell takes 45-50 minutes without traffic; plan for over an hour if leaving after 4pm on a weekday. Designated driver rules apply—Schnebly's does not offer Uber codes. Bring sunscreen, cash for Knaus and fruit stands, and lower expectations for cell service once you're deep in the Redland. This is agricultural Florida, not South Beach. Dress for heat and mud if it rained recently.
Tags: #miamiwinery #redlandwinery #schneblywinery #knausberryfarm #robertishere #homesteadflorida #miamidaytrip #tropicalwine #floridalocal #southfloridafood #cinnamonrolls #winetasting #miamihiddengems #agriculturaltourism #southdadecounty
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Ask Karpo first
Karpo keeps the seasonal schedules straight so you don't drive an hour for cinnamon rolls in July when Knaus is closed. Ask which fruit wines are pouring this month at Schnebly's, whether Robert Is Here has finger limes in stock, and how bad traffic looks on the Turnpike before you commit to the drive. Miami's best day trips require more planning than a Wynwood gallery crawl, and Karpo handles the logistics while you handle the eating.
