Ericka S.
Yelp
This was our second stop on our wine trail vacation and it came highly recommended. We were very excited to try Adelsheim, but unfortunately the overall experience fell flat and the price was crazy for the pour quality. First, because we were excited and because I needed to get tastings scheduled at all the wineries, I kept waiting for them to release their September schedule to make a reservation. It took just a few weeks prior to Sept for them to open up for reservations, but that was ok - I got it booked.
Trying to enter was a disaster because they were harvesting (which is exciting, but please mark HOW to get into the building) and the sign was turned backward at the main entrance making it appear they weren't open. I took a walk and we finally figured it out after a phone call. Upon entering other guests were greeted with a taster of sparkling wine... but not us. We were led outside to a 6 top, despite there being two of us, which made things not-so-intimate. Note the outside isn't handicap accessible and we had a stroller we had to figure out how to carry. If it actually is, we weren't offered an alternative way outside. Indoors looked a bit dated, so it was nice to go outside and see the view.
The tastings were SO SMALL, like less than I would typically take as a sip of wine. I will give it to the staff member, they were consistent in their pours. They would talk about the wine, we would take our sip (clearly our glass was empty before she was done talking) and she would say "enjoy! I'll be back with the next pour!" We laughed after she left at the fact we had nothing to enjoy. After the second time this happened I broke my small sip into two even tinier sips. She queried what we liked best and we explained it was hard to tell because we hardly could taste the wine (couldn't roll it around, take another sip, smell it, pair it with food, etc.).
I was SHOCKED we were charged $90/$45each for that "tasting." In total, the five wines did not even equal a half of a glass. It's offensive to ask a customer pay that - it seriously appeared that we split a tasting (if that's even a thing?). I'm so confused. I've traveled all over wine regions in the USA - this is by far not my first tasting and I am fine paying that if I actually get a real tasting, but this was offensive.