I hate to undercut a small business, but there are just way too many red flags for me to stay silent.
It's a cute winery. Nice scenery & decor. But how it actually functions as a winery is confusing to me. I've been a few times (last summer) and each time the employees gave me different answers to how their wine is made and where their products come from. One employee told me that their grapes are grown on the property, one said their vines weren't mature yet, and another (the owner?) told me their vines had been destroyed by weather. One employee said their wine was actually produced by Tughill Winery, another was more discrete and said they rented space from Tughill and used their own wine maker (she didn't know his name), and one employee even told me that their wine was made in a building at the other end of their property. However I was later told that building was just where they stored their wine. Call me crazy, but if you have that many answers to simple questions there's something strange going on.
You'll get conflicting answers if you ask about the actual wines too. For instance, one of their wines that was on sale a lot last summer was a sweet white. The first time we tried it the employee stated that the reason you can smell and taste pineapple and banana in the wine is because they actually add those juices to the wine. The second time I was there, my friend tried it and was questioning the flavor. This time, a different employee told us that those notes were actually from the tropical flavors of the grape varietal used (makes more sense). Can you imagine if someone has an allergy to pineapple or banana and the employees don't actually know what they're serving? A legitimate winery would take more pride in their products and train their employees better.
Another thing that bothered me as a red wine drinker is their Pinot Noir. They serve it at room temp--their tasting room isn't air conditioned, so that meant like 85F every time. As opposed to the 55-65F that's recommended for red wine (Pinot is typically served around 55F). The owner can't know much about wine or s/he would know that extreme temps, extreme temp fluctuations, and sunlight (there are windows everywhere in their tasting room) oxidizes wine, causing it to go bad quickly. This would explain why the Pinot tasted different and had a different color all three times I went last summer. I'd be careful buying whole bottles from them, as the bottles are stored on shelves in direct sunlight in their non-temperature controlled tasting room.
I've always had great customer service. Even if the information the employees give out is conflicting, they were still very accommodating. I will say though, my group was made uncomfortable on two occasions. Once an employee was talking really poorly about the neighbors. The gist was that the winery has been in an ongoing dispute with its community. Whatever the reason, we felt it to be in bad taste and didn't enjoy the negative nature of the conversation. On a different occasion, an older woman (the owner?) was sitting behind the bar, drinking, and wouldn't stop talking--to us, to the employee serving us, maybe to herself. We tried to be respectful, but it just got out of hand. We couldn't talk to each other without her chiming in and turning our attention back to her elaborate stories. And she had the poor girl who was serving us, running all over doing things for her, interrupting her as she was doing our tasting. So uncomfortable. I suggested we move outside, but my friend was so annoyed that we just left and haven't returned.
Also, check the expiration date on any food purchased. Our last visit, we bought a bag of chips and a pkg of cookies. The chips were months beyond their date and the cookies were so stale we had to throw them away. How is that OK?
Cool setting, and I truly think the employees are trying their best, despite poor management and business practices. But as someone who values the true art of wine making, it's so hard for me to justify supporting this kind of winery. read more