Virginia Beach's Mermaid Pouring Surprises Ashore
· Virginia Beach · Winery/Restaurant · Visit Website ↗
Reviewed October 20, 2026 · How we review
RagingWine reviewed Mermaid Winery’s wine list and gave it The Wild Card — RagingWine’s Vibe-Check rating. How RagingWine reviews wine lists →
Wingman Metrics
Walking into a winery in Virginia Beach, you might brace for a tourist-trap wine list — cheap local labels dressed up with beach-themed names and not much else. Mermaid Winery partially confirms that instinct, then quietly defies it. Their own house wines anchor the list, but a genuinely curious supporting cast of international bottles keeps things interesting.
The list runs 66 labels with a heavy house-wine focus — Mermaid's own Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, and the blended Siren's White form the backbone. But the real story is in the flanking selections: a Paul Anheuser Blanc de Noir from Germany's Nahe region, a Vinum Cellars Chenin Blanc from California, a Quinta De Raza Vinho Verde from Portugal, and a Villa Wolf Gewurztraminer from Pfalz. That's a genuinely eclectic range of grapes and regions for a beach-town winery. The sparkling section deserves a nod too — three Proseccos plus an L. Mawby Sex Brut Rosé from Michigan, which is not something you see every day. Red wine depth is where the list thins out, with the New World section leaning harder on house labels.
Fifty-three by-the-glass options is a staggeringly high number for any restaurant, and almost every bottle on the list appears to be available by the glass — which is genuinely rare and appreciated. Prices run $9–$17/glass, and the house pours start at $9/glass, keeping the floor accessible. The breadth means you can do a serious globe-trotting glass-by-glass crawl without ever ordering a bottle.
The Bottom Line
Mermaid Winery earns its Wild Card badge: it's a Virginia Beach winery with a beach-tourist home base that manages to slip in a Nahe Blanc de Noir, a Vinho Verde, and a Michigan Brut Rosé without making a big deal about it. Pricing is fair across the board, the by-the-glass program is genuinely one of the most accessible we've seen in terms of sheer volume, and the house wines keep the floor affordable. If you're in Virginia Beach and want something more interesting than the hotel minibar, this is worth the stop.
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