D'Ellena Winery is located at the historic J Filippi Winery, preserving the wine history of the…read moreCucamonga Valley. I really wanted to love this place, especially because they are saving a historic winery, one of the very few left in the Cucamonga Valley. Unfortunately I did not have a good experience.
My husband and I were the first ones to arrive on the second Sunday after the winery opened to the public. Devon poured for us was not very knowledgeable about wine, but she had great attitude and to me that goes a long way. She greeted us with a smile and we felt welcomed and a little excited. I would give this business a one star if it wasn't for her.
They were pouring the wines from their winemaker produced under his personal label. They also talked about building a patio and replanting the estate vineyard. Unfortunately it doesn't sound like they are interested in planting any of the historic varietals of the area, such as Zinfandel, Alicante Bouschet, Palomino or Chenin Blanc.
The tasting menu included several flights, each one with three pours. We ordered the Cucamonga Valley Flight and the Santa Barbara Valley Flight so we could try most of of their wines.
I am very familiar with the wine history of the region and although I have tasted many old vine Zinfandels from the area, on this occasion I was very excited about the old vine Palomino from the historic Lopez Vineyard in the Cucamonga Valley. The other two wines in the flight were two Old Vine ZInfandels also from Lopez Vineyard. One of them was a Late Harvest. The second flight included a Roussanne from Stolpman in Los Olivos, a Chapel Pinot Noir from Santa Rita Hill and a Valley View Syrah from Los Olivos.
We started our tasting with the whites. Not particularly our style, but there was nothing wrong with them. Then, we proceeded with the Pinot Noir and it was absolutely horrible. We were sure the wine was corked, but decided to wait until the couple standing next to us would try their Pinot Noir to get their opinion. They agreed with us, so we informed Devon that the wine had gone bad, so she promptly opened a new bottle and pour again. This time the wine tasted like wine and was completely different than the first pour we received.
After this I tried the dry Old Vine Zin. This one I believed had been tainted with Volatile Acidity, a wine defect that happens when the wine is exposed to a lot of oxygen and makes the wine taste very acidic, similarly to vinegar. So, I expressed how sorry I was for complaining again, but explained that the zinfandel was also bad. This time Devon did not make a decision on her own and instead called in Maria, the "Somm", who proceeded to tell me that I did not know what Zinfandel taste like and that there was nothing wrong with the wine and that I just never tried this style of winemaking. I find it very interesting that Maria came to this conclusion without knowing me, what I know or my experience in wine. I wonder...
I tried to explain to her that I know very well what zinfandel taste like with or without oak, jammy and concentrated or with minimal intervention; but she just would not listed. I asked if they taste each bottle before they start pouring it, -which is standard practice in all wineries, to which she responded "of course". But if that is true, and we were the first customers that day, how come the Pinot Noir was bad? Yet another unanswered question...
At this point I was appalled by the lack of customer service, arrogance and condescendence of this person towards me. And honestly, I did not want her agree with me. I just wanted her to taste it herself and give me the benefit of the doubt. If she would have tasted the same bottle and then told me that is the way the wine is supposed to taste like, fine. I would have been okay with it. The part that made me the most upset is that she would not taste it and simply continued to tell me I was wrong.
That is terrible customer service from Maria and the D'Ellena Winery and with that attitude, and with two bad wines out of six pours, I don't see this business ever surviving, regardless of whatever improvements they make to the property.
