When they discovered I write about wine, other visitors at a recent St. Augustine convention asked me if I’d visited the local San Sebastian winery. In fact, the wines were given so many compliments that I put the winery on my list as I walked through the historic downtown district.

Sure enough, there it was, not far from the restaurants and bed-and-breakfast inns that help make St. Augustine a great place to spend a long weekend.

Florida wineries are known primarily for wine made from muscadine grapes, and that normally means sweet wines abound. Those, along with Florida’s fruit-based wines, are not my usual glass o’ wine, but dry vino-drinking acquaintances insisted I should try San Sebastian. I’ve rarely turned down a chance to try any wine – otherwise, how can you learn anything new?

We sat through an introductory video about the winery and where the grapes come from, the history of San Sebastian (started in 1996), and the various wines produced, including red, white, dessert, sparkling, port and sherry.

Then the tasting tour started, with about 10 different wines along the way. Tasters wind through part of the winery’s production area, where glass walls show big tanks and cask-filled rooms. Winery employees are on hand at each station to answer questions, and there was a steady stream of visitors that afternoon. A wine bar, called The Cellar Upstairs, with live jazz and blues music, is a favorite local haunt on the roof of the winery, complete with a beautiful water view.

Most of San Sebastian’s wines don’t have vintages connected with them; they are a mixture of grapes from different sources both inside and outside Florida (one of the wines, I was told, included 10 percent syrah grapes from California). The winery owns vineyards in Tallahassee and Clermont. It also owns the large Lakeridge Winery in Clermont, and that’s the company headquarters.

While quite a few of the wines have a sweeter side to them (of course, the port and cream sherry would, and those are very nice wines), San Sebastian does produce both drier white and red wines.

I particularly liked the 2010 Blanc du Bois, the only vintage-labeled wine. This had a nice, light apple nose with a light, tangy taste of apples and a little minerality. It would be terrific with fish, and that’s what I’m planning to pair with the bottle I bought. The Stover reserve white wine is also nice and dry, a medium-bodied wine that’s a favorite with customers.

On the red side, the Castillo red is a medium-bodied, off-dry wine, with some light cherry on the nose, and raspberries on taste, as well as a bit of spice. I liked the Port quite a bit: very sweet, and the fruity side of this wine makes it perfect for dessert pairings.

Since 1996, the wines have been given a number of awards in contests around the country. For more information, see www.sansebastianwinery.com.