Check out the video of our time at James Arthur Vineyards

James Arthur Vineyards (JAV) was the second winery to open in Nebraska and it’s currently the largest. There are 20 acres of vineyards and 12,000 grapevines. JAV is part of Nebraska’s Passport program and also Lincoln’s Passport program. We decided to get some new stamps for our passports and also taste some wine.

The Vineyard is located in Raymond, Nebraska, not far from Lincoln. After work on a Friday we headed out to Raymond. We met up with Owner and Winemaker Jim Ballard who gave us a tour around the facility. In 1992 Jim’s father in law, James Arthur Jeffers, bought the land and it was Jim’s idea to grow some grapes.

Photo: James Arthur Vineyards in Raymond, Nebraska

Photos below: The beautiful building that looks like a house has the tasting room, retail space and production facilities inside. There is a wrap-around deck and patio connected to the building.

The deck is a nice feature for guests to enjoy in nice weather and during the summer they have live bands. We walked around the deck and enjoyed different areas of waterfalls and little ponds, right next to tables and chairs.

Notice that I’m already enjoying the wine, we really enjoyed everything we tasted. They were all very different than each other so you’ll definitely find something that you like here. Tim and I prefer drier wines so we tried the Nebraska Red, 2010 Horizon, and 2010 Game Bird White. The last two were actually in the semi-dry category, but we still loved them.

Photo: During the tasting, Tasting Room Manager Laura Suellwold told us all about the different wines and determined which ones we would like best. You can see some of our tasting with Laura in the video at the top.

The inside of the tasting room and retail space is so comfortable and we just love hanging out here. There are two different areas with fireplaces to sit around, comfy chairs, and regular tables and chairs.

We sat at a table because we ordered a snack basket. It came with french bread, UNL Dairy Store cheese and summer sausage from Shuster’s Meats.

Photo: Enjoying bread, sausage and cheese with our wine.

We enjoyed our night and left after relaxing for a couple of hours. This will be a great spot to hang out during the fall and winter too. They are open year round and they have all sorts of special events throughout the year listed on their website.