Sadly, people of color should not bother trying to sign up for a membership here. We had a horrible experience, and the owner basically told us she didn't care, and we aren't wanted, despite multiple offers to speak with her personally and explain what happened.
Here is the full experience:
We were members before, and had canceled in the past. We were in town and wanted to visit again, and given it had been 5 years since we were members, we were ready to sign up again.
Before arriving to the tasting room, we called twice, to inform the tasting room attendants that we were past members who had canceled (more later on why this is important), and asked specifically if we would be able to sign up again today. We were told we absolutely could.
Upon arriving at the tasting room, we were early, and I went in to chat with the male tasting attendant (we unfortunately didn't get his name, but he was fantastic!). He told us again that if we signed up as members today, our tasting fees would be waived. Great, all sounds good. We proceeded to have a great tasting experience.
Then things turned, and the Cartograph team showed their true colors. Upon finishing our tasting, I told the gentleman that we loved everything about the experience and wanted to sign up. This is where their policies started to change to try any means to get us to not sign up.
First, the gentleman tells us there is now a waitlist to join. Ok, where was that when we asked 3 times before? He says we would be admitted from the waitlist in 2-3 weeks and then our tasting fees would be refunded at that time. Ok, that's not what we were told, but it sounds reasonable enough - we were ok with it.
Then the other tasting room manager, who is a woman, came over and inserted herself in our conversation for no reason at all. Her story just kept changing and changing - first she said the gentleman was wrong, and we cannot sign up because there is a supply demand issue because of the ongoing fires in Napa (years ago by the way). And they would review our membership request in a few weeks, but the tastings would not be waived, even if we are accepted. I told her quite nicely, that the gentleman promised us that we could sign up today. She said too bad, you can't. She proceeded to go overboard and loudly start telling the entire tasting room that we had canceled our membership in the past, implying we were freeloaders who just came in for free tastings and then canceled. I have never been so insulted in my life - this tasting room manager on a power trip decided to make it her life's mission to put me and my family down for no apparent reason. We paid our tasting fees and left, furious, with our entire Thanksgiving vacation ruined. The male tasting room attendant who was so incredible, was red in the face, and embarrassed for us, and apologized under his breath to us.
We thought, lets reach out to the owners, who will certainly see that this incident was inappropriate and rectify it. This was the most shocking part. We sent the owners a detailed summary of what happened, and offered no less than 3 times, to speak to them so they can get our perspective and hear what happened from us. We got a short response from the owner who said she would look into it, and a few days later, a ridiculous email saying she talked to her team who told a different story of what happened (oh, what a shocker). Then the most shocking part, she closes her email by saying she doesn't want us as members. The reason, we had canceled our membership in the past so we are not welcome. Upon asking her why the policy keeps changing for us and evolving to find new ways to block us from joining, no response.
The sad part is, if that policy was posted anywhere (in the tasting room, on their website) or communicated to us in advance, we absolutely would have understood. We simply would not have come in - we have no interest being where we are not welcome. Unfortunately, there is only one conclusion I can arrive to after this experience - we are people of color, and the policy kept getting more and more creative to find new ways for us to not join. We are not welcome at Cartograph, and we clearly were made to feel biased against because of the color of our skin, and insulted in front of our family and others in the tasting room.
Cartograph's wines are wonderful, but I would not recommend anyone visit a place that treats people of color unfairly and with such disrespect. read more