Holmberg Orchards

Went for wine tasting, they only give you one ounce pours, and not the usual three –four ounce that I am used too, but the cost for the wine tastings make up for the little serving. We were in and out in 20– 30 mins, so really didn’t feel like we got the full wine tasting experience as you would get if you go to the vineyards in North Fork.

This is a charming little orchard to spend an afternoon apple picking at. There are many apple varieties and they are easy to get to and to navigate. There is a big tractor pulling a hayride that you can ride around to get a good look at the property. There are also pumpkin, squash, and more for sale, and in the summer they do various fruits.
They make wine here as well (mostly fruit wines), and a wine tasting room sits on property and is open certain times throughout the year. There is a little shack that sells cider donuts in the fall, and a little store down the road that sells many of the products produced by this orchard.

Holmberg Orchards is a fall tradition for my family.
There’s more to do than just pick apples with the kids. There’s wine/​cider tastings. Pumpkins! A corn maze. Kettle corn, cider donuts. Lots to do & see. Sometimes they have food trucks.
It’s fun (but not necessary) to take the tractor ride up the hill to pick apples. They’re organized by rows & the trees aren’t so high that little ones can’t pick without help. The walk up/​down isn’t that long either. You are provided bags as you walk in.
I don’t remember the corn maze last year but it costs $ 5 to go in. You can pay with credit/​debit which is helpful. Nothing is terribly expensive but there’s plenty to purchase & it’s easy to rack up a big bill with lots of purchases.
There’s also a small but well stocked shop they run down the bottom of the hill by the entrance. You can purchase wine/​cider here along with fruits & pumpkins. They also have cooked goods including their apple crisp! If you don’t feel like picking your own or just need to pop in quick I’d recommend it.
My only real complaint other than the tight parking lot (& port-​potties) is the wine/​cider tasting set-​up. My server was very stingy with pours while the other one wasn’t when my wife did hers. It’s laid out easily but can get backed up. Still the wine/​ciders are pretty good & we always leave with a bottle.

I had a wonderful afternoon sampling the quality wines and hard ciders Holmberg Orchards has to offer, and I hope to come back again for apples, farmers’ market treats, and ciders this fall. I would make the trip out here simply for the wine and cider, but I like that Holmberg Orchards is also one-​stop shopping with fruit picking and a little market.
In terms of wines and hard ciders, I tried a full flight for $ 14 (includes a glass to take home), and I liked everything I tried. I went home with a bottle of the heirloom apple wine (I thought it had a nice oaky flavor), the bubbly blanc (refreshing champagne-​style), and the perry (pear wine). I held back on the apple cranberry wine, but I want to come back to get it for Thanksgiving gatherings.
The staff was very friendly and extremely accommodating when my tasting went longer than tasting room hours. We were able to enjoy our wines and hard ciders with nice views of the orchards, and it made a great day trip.

Holmberg was larger than we anticipated. Orchard was accessible and plenty of apples and pears. The wine tasting was a good time. Suggest packing some cheese and snacks grabbing some wine and making an afternoon of it hanging at the picnic tables. Whoa, forgot those cider donuts, make sure you get’em hot cause they are awesome. Overall a very nice place and family atmosphere.

The kids (we went with another family with 2 other kiddos) loved picking the apples. They also loved riding in the little wagons. I was surprised at how big the orchard was, since you cant really see it from the road. It was pretty beautiful! I never knew we could spend so much on apples haha. And it wasnt really because of the price… we just picked about 30lbs!
Time to make cobbler and pie! My husband and I loved their little store. We picked up some cider, hard cider, preserves for ourselves, and honey sticks for our daughter. And 2 potted mums. Oh, and some cider doughnuts. My husband told me when we got home that cider flavored things, to him, are like pumpkin spice flavored things to a ‘basic white girl’ haha. He is a clown. We will definitely be going back, but preferably on a cooler day!

We love fresh fruits and veggies, and even more love small batch wines and beers. Awesomely, Holmberg Orchards has both! We’d drive by randomly, and remark to each other that we should stop by and get fresh produce from their little farm market by the road, or do wine tasting, but it never really worked out. Finally we put it on the schedule with some friends, and made a day of it.
First, we borrowed a branded pail from a friend, which gave us a discount on all our purchases. We then marched up the hill at the top parking area, and set to each section. Our initial picking started in the peach orchard, which was full of gorgeous, giant fruits, each rosy, soft, and beautiful. We filled our pail almost all the way, and then realized we had many more fruits to still explore. Our next focus were the luscious nectarines, small but juicy, and the pears, on very tall trees with soft brown and green mottled skins.
After that we hopped on the tour buggy, and took it up to the apple orchard and corn maze, where we picked our share of fujis, on interesting trellises like grape vines. We then headed to the shack, weighed and purchased our hefty portion of fruits, and made headway to the wine tasting building. There, we did the full tasting ($ 14) which includes everything they have to sample, which was marvelous. The wines were made from grapes, apples, pears, and other fruits, and ranged from flat to sparkling, and from dry to a very sweet. We purchased a bottle of the Macintosh and the Cortland, both sparkling and apple based, and a bottle of the Heirloom Apple, a still, but the most wine-​like of them all.
At the end of the hilltop adventure, we went down the hill to the farm market to see what the options were there. We were excited to see we could buy the wines there, as well as the fruits, veggies grown onsite, many various baked goods, and craft snacks and other artisan food items. We purchased some small batch siracha pickles, an italian herb rustic bread made onsite, and a delightful sage cheddar.
We ended up after all our very fun picking with over 30 pounds of fruits, enough to last us all summer and far into fall. Prices are not as good as say, buying peaches from Shoprite, but getting to pick them ourselves gave us a sense of ownership on each and every fruit. It also was a wonderful incentive to try new recipes, and to seek out innovative ways to use our produce. This was a great way to do our own farm-​to-​table experience, and to cook together for ourselves and gift goodies to friends. I would heartily encourage people to go here, to continue keeping this amazing business up and running for the next generations-​fun for the whole family!

I love the Apple wine and the Cider here. In fact always stop by when around the area to buy half a case to a case at a time. However the tastings leave much to be desired. Yes we are familiar with the wine, but not everyone is. The guy today was very nice but didn’t really tell us anything at all about the wine. To be fair he was very busy juggling all these people at once. You should staff two people on Saturday because the experience is seriously lacking.

Apples, pears, peaches for the picking!
We really had a bunch of fun at Holmberg Orchards! The kids loved being able to pick their own apples, even if most of them were from the ground haha. The kids also loved the little tractor ride up the hill, it’s much better than walking up that hill.
The only real con to this place is that the orchard is situated on a hill, so walking is kind of awkward and after a little while kind of becomes uncomfortable. The incline also makes it somewhat difficult to push a stroller of any type, I had my little one in a stroller with larger jogging wheels and it was still hard to push it around on the incline. If you are planning to bring a stroller a jogging one is a good idea, a baby carrier is probably a better idea.
Overall a really great place to go apple picking.

I stop here at least once a week for in season fruits and vegetables but also for their incredible quiche. I particularly like the crab quiche. Their pies are outstanding and the apple crisp is as good as it gets. Being able to buy just one or two of their cookies keeps me honest. Nice staff!

Great place to go apple and pumpkin picking!!! Apples were delicious! We took a hayride to the Mutsu apples which are just like golden delicious and they were soooo good :)

Best local fruit in SE CT. Friendly and competent staff. Varietal hard ciders are wonderful. Worth a few visits. Saturday and Sunday wine and cider tastings in the orchard.

This stop is a little different than other wineries on the CT trail as they mostly make fruit wines and ciders using the fruit grown on site. There were two regular white wines made with NY grapes, but I wasn’t a fan of either. The fruit wines (peach, apple, cranberry, pear) were all very nice but I didn’t love anything enough to want to buy a bottle. I thought the 3 hard ciders were the real stars of the show, and had a hard time deciding which one I wanted to buy. Typically, I’m not a huge fan of hard ciders but these are fantastic.
This was a quick stop for us, as we just did a quick tasting and went along our way. I didn’t see anywhere to sit outside, and my boyfriend said he saw a sign that said the wines had to be drunk inside the tasting room. And speaking of «drunk», they don’t want you to be, as I saw a sign that said you can drink a limit of 2 glasses.
If you’re vineyard hopping in the area, it’s definitely worth a visit.

I merely went for bye wine tasting, and didn’t get to explore the actual market. The wine leaves you wanting in my opinion. Mind you, I am a wine drinker so I’m becoming a bit picky as time goes on. They were all rather sweet for me and reminded me more of ciders. I will not be returning for wine but I am going back for the markers soon.

I had an incredible time here. Brian in the tasting room was very friendly and knowledgable. When asked questions he had no problem answering questions about the history of the orchard and the family who owns it. I was very surprised he wasn’t a member of the family!
Being a cider fan, I was pleasantly surprised by the number of ciders available and bought a bottle of cortland cider to bring home. The wines and ciders are very affordable and the tasting was a great value. You even get a tasting glass to take home! It’s not far from Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun so it’s a perfect weekend outing.

pop-​up farmers market today. thought i would do a tasting of their wines and ciders but it was too packed to enjoy, but the farmers market was nice — lots of great local produce and products. will definitely be back to holmberg to do a proper tasting though. they have a vineyard/​tasting room up the hill and down on the road there is a nice farm store that sells the wines and ciders (and vegetables and plants and baked goods etc as well). cool to see the orchard just blooming and the pear brandy bottles on the trees.

We are from Texas, and come in October for the the changing of the trees. We decided to do a number of the wine tastings. By far this was the best tasting wines. We liked the Apple Cranberry Wine and the Vidal Blanc was very good. The only problem we had was they do not ship to Texas. :(
Very big place and is good for the family, fun things to do with the kids. Apple, Pears, and Pumkins all to pick.
Love it they just need to ship…

Rushed wine tasting without any crackers/​cheese between sips, which were thrown at you in a rushed and disinterested fashion. «Great with Thanksgiving» was used as a descriptor for three wines. True, it’s not a vineyard, but a little effort goes a long way. Nasty port-​a-​potties. Customer service was average in general.
On the plus side, the kids loved picking apples and berries and the view was great. The little shop at the bottom of the hill (separate parking) was full of delicious things.

We stopped in for a wine tasting late in the day in early summer and were pleasantly surprised by the prices, variety, and quality of the wines and ciders.
Since the «pick your own» hadn’t open yet, it was very quiet and pretty up on the hill. The tasting bar is small, but the server was very friendly. For $ 7, we tasted 5 wines and 3 hard ciders and got to keep the glass, a good deal compared to some of the other stops on the trail.
Favorites were the Bartlett pear wine and the McIntosh hard cider… we each took a bottle of the cider home. The apple wines were good too.
Afterward, we stopped at the small farm market down the hill and bought some yummy peanut butter cookies and some fresh local produce to bring home. Overall, a very nice experience.

Had a great time here!
Specs– Big facility with MANY different types of apples to pick. There were also pears to pick. There’s a pumpkin patch, decorative gourds and indian corn, apple cider, and a tasting room for their wine (apple, pear, and berry wines) and hard cider. During other months they have other fruits to pick like raspberries and such. I have only been this year for the fall fruits though. All the apples we have had and the pears are beautiful and tasty. We loved the wine and cider at the tasting, so we bought some of each. Every staff member we met was friendly and knowledgeable. They provide bags for the picking and wagons to help with all the heavy produce. There’s also tractors that provide rides, but we didn’t do that.
The only negative things I think I could say about this place are that the tasting felt a little rushed (but it was also a busy day), the pumpkins in the patch were all the same (they were all very pretty but I like to get «frankinpumpkin» style that are green/​bumpy/​etc), and the trees were a bit picked over (but I know many of the orchards in the area had problems this year because of the COLD spring we had this year that killed much of the trees). Oh, and they don’t allow dogs, but this is a common policy and very understandable.
Overall, very positive experience and I will be back next year!