261 places · 1 regions
Florida is a drinking destination rather than a growing one. What you'll find here is overwhelmingly wine bars rather than cellar doors — rooms to spend an evening in, not vineyards to drive between.
Treat it as three hubs rather than one region. Miami to Tampa is about 280 miles, Miami to Orlando about 235, Tampa to Orlando about 85 — so pick a city first, then the room. The scenes are neighbourhood-driven: Brickell, Wynwood and Coral Gables in Miami; Ybor City and downtown St. Pete around Tampa Bay; Mills 50 and Winter Park in Orlando.
The season runs opposite to most of the wine world. November to April is when the bars are busy; summer is hot, humid and wet, and traffic slows. Most rooms open late afternoon, from around 4pm, which suits the climate.
What Florida does grow is genuinely unusual. Muscadine — Vitis rotundifolia, native to the American Southeast — shrugs off the Pierce's Disease and fungal rot that kill European vines here, and turns up as everything from sweet table wine to dry reds, port-style dessert wines and sparkling. Lakeridge near Clermont and San Sebastian in St. Augustine are the names to know, working with Noble, Carlos and Welder. Further south around Homestead and along the Gulf Coast, fruit wineries work with citrus, mango, key lime and passionfruit.
