Frankenmuth built its name on chicken dinners and Christmas lights, but plan a Frankenmuth wine tasting here, and you’ll find Little Bavaria has quietly become one of the better wine stops in mid-Michigan. Between an award-winning tasting room, a wine bar locals frequent, and an experience you won’t find anywhere else in the state, a day built around wine holds its own.
A wine tasting is just one of the best things to do in Frankenmuth. Walk the Bavarian storefronts, grab a seat on a riverside brewery patio, and take a voyage down the Cass River, and you’ve had a full day before dinner. Add in the festivals built around German heritage, classic cars, and the holidays, and it’s easy to see why people keep coming back all year.
However you spend the day, skip staying in Frankenmuth itself if you want the evening to feel like a getaway. Our Bed and Breakfast sits about 25 minutes away in Bay City, inside a restored 1886 Queen Anne mansion with six guest rooms, an on-site spa, and the kind of quiet you won’t find in a town that pulls in three million visitors a year. Spend the afternoon tasting your way through Frankenmuth, return to Historic Webster House for a relaxing evening. Book your stay now!
Where to Go for a Frankenmuth Wine Tasting
Start at St. Julian Winery, Frankenmuth’s headline stop and Michigan’s oldest, largest, and most-awarded winery. The Frankenmuth wine tasting room pours a wide range of wines made from Michigan-grown grapes, plus the winery’s well-known Solera Cream Sherry, crafted using the traditional method of continuous blending.
At St. Julian, ask for a flight instead of a single pour. It’s the easiest way to taste the range between their dry reds and the sweeter fruit wines Michigan wineries are known for, and the staff walks you through it without any pretense. If your schedule allows, plan your Frankenmuth wine tasting for a weekday, as weekends get busy enough that the tasting bar can be a wait. If you’d rather split the day between beer and wine, our Frankenmuth Brewery and St. Julian Winery tastings guide lays out how to fit both in without rushing either.
For a slower pace, Prost! Wine Bar & Charcuterie downtown trades the winery-tour format for something closer to a proper wine bar. The list here runs deeper than you’d expect from a small-town spot, and it pairs well with their charcuterie boards, especially the German Heritage board, leaning into the Bavarian theme. If you’re on a romantic getaway, this might be the better option for a Frankenmuth wine tasting. Sit and enjoy food, drink, and each other’s company. Sit and enjoy food, drink, and each other’s company, then round out the evening at one of the best restaurants in Frankenmuth.
If you only have room for one thing that’s genuinely unique to a Frankenmuth wine tasting, make it the wine and chocolate cruise through Frankenmuth FunShips. This narrated boat tour on the Cass River with tastings built into the itinerary, similar in spirit to the Bavarian Belle Riverboat but built specifically around wine. Seats fill up faster than the tasting rooms do, especially in fall when the surrounding foliage is ablaze in color.
Time your visit right, and you can also catch Frankenmuth Wein & Stein, a summer evening of sampling wine, beer, spirits, and hors d’oeuvres at different establishments around town. If you are a fan of beer, the Frankenmuth Brewery, the state’s oldest brewery, offers a diverse selection of craft beer and excellent pub grub.
If you’re short on time, do St. Julian first, Prost! for lunch or an early dinner, and save the FunShips cruise for late afternoon to enjoy the golden hour on the river.
Our Frankenmuth Bed and Breakfast
Frankenmuth is built for day trips, not romantic overnight stays, which is exactly why pairing it with Bay City works so well. We offer an adults-only Bed and Breakfast about 25 minutes south, set in a meticulously restored Queen Anne mansion built in 1886.
Each of the six guest rooms carries its own character, and several come with jacuzzi tubs, dry saunas, or skylights that make the room itself part of the getaway instead of just a place to sleep. After a day of Frankenmuth wine tastings, that’s the kind of quiet you actually want.
At our Frankenmuth Bed and Breakfast, guests can reserve a private spa room with an oversized whirlpool for two, a dry cedar sauna, and a built-in wine refrigerator, so they can finish the day with the bottle they picked up at St. Julian.
Breakfast is a gourmet feast with dishes like a Lobster and Brie Omelet or Apple Pie French Toast that make the morning after just as worth the trip. If a Frankenmuth wine tasting is the reason for the trip, our Bed and Breakfast is the reason to stay the night. Check availability and reserve your room now.