Brandy G.
Yelp
*IF YOU'RE READING THIS & ARE CURRENTLY AT AUGUSTA VIN WITH A SERVER NAMED ADAM - JUST GET UP AND LEAVE NOW.*
Now, for everyone else reading this review, please settle-in for the unfortunate tale of how Adam, a server for Augusta Vin, single-handedly ruined the bachelorette festivities of a dear friend of mine this past Saturday. (Don't worry though because the story has a happy ending - the amazing team at the female-run Barelle Vineyards redeemed the day for us)
For added context - There were 6 women in my party. Of those 6, only the bride-to-be had ever visited Augusta Vin. Of the wineries on our agenda that day, Augusta Vin was her one personally requested stop. For everyone else, this was our first, and I'm pretty positive, last time visiting.
We arrived shortly after 1 pm and entered the main public building for non-members. We arrived at a busy time for the winery, as there was a short line at the door just to be seated. However, as our table did not want to do a guided tasting, the two friendly hostesses at the front were able to immediately seat us on the back patio.
Upon being sat, we were almost immediately greeted by a female server with bottled waters that she dropped off at the table. Quick clarifying note here - she did not ASK if we wanted the waters - she literally said "Here are some waters for you guys." She also brought more bottles than our group needed. We did not realize until we received the check that there is a $1 charge for each bottle. So just an FYI for when you're visiting.
After this female server dropped off the bottled waters, we were not acknowledged for about 20 minutes-to the point we were literally starting to think that if you sat on the patio you had to go inside and order from the bar. A member of our party was on the way to the bar in fact when our server, the infamous Adam, finally made his introduction.
The first words out of Adam's mouth in his greeting to us was that the team was short staffed & had run out of basically all food except charcuterie. This was fine, because we already knew we just wanted bottles. We informed Adam we definitely wanted a bottle of the Albariño but were stuck between two Rosés and wanted to sample each in order to make a decision. With this update, Adam wasn't seen again for about another 10-15 minutes. When he did arrive again, he had the bottle we ordered and the 2 Rosés to try. Once we settled on the Rosé, Adam poured 4 out of the 6 of us a glass of the Albariño (which WAS delicous btw) - the bride specifically opted out and told him she would wait for the Rose. He said he would be "right back" with a bucket of ice for the Albariño and with the bottle of Rosé.
That "right back" turned into 31 minutes.
At around the 25 minute mark, we flagged down a passing hostesses to ask her for our check. By this point we'd been there for over an hour with 2 in our party (most importantly the bride to be herself) having no wine to drink and the rest of us drinking warm Albariño since Adam never showed back up with an ice bucket.
It was about 5 minutes after we flagged the hostess down to ask for our check that Adam finally showed back up like no time had passed, ready to yank the cork out of the Rosé. A member of our party politely, but firmly, stated we were no longer interested in the Rosé at this point and simply wanted the check for the one bottle as we had an Uber on the way with an ETA of 10 minutes. Adam said Ok and turned heel & in typical Adam fashion was not seen again. As our Uber was arriving, we left the patio & began walking up front to 1) flag the Uber down to let them know where our group was & 2) attempt to pay at the hostess stand.
While our group was walking across the indoor dining area towards the front/hostess area, Adam spotted us while he waiting on a table seated indoors. He proceeded to yell across the room at us like we were a bunch of wine thieves, "You need to check out with me for that Albariño." I informed him we'd be waiting, per usual for him, at the front.
During the checkout process with my friend who was paying he had a very condescending attitude and attempted to charge us for the Rosé at first! He even made a comment about knowing he wasn't getting a tip.
I recognize the vineyard was busy this day. It was a beautiful September Saturday after all. I'm sure Adam was probably working more tables than he should have. However, we watched EVERY SINGLE TABLE around us on the patio, including another bachelorette party that had 15 attendees, receive consistent service throughout the hour & a half we were there. We couldn't even get the bottle we ordered or an ice bucket.
*Apparently you're also supposed to receive complimentary chocolate cake when you're there, which we saw everyone around us receive but obviously we did not*
This put a huge damper on the bachelorette festivities, but fortunately Fredericksburg is full of other amazing vineyards (like Barelle) even if Augusta Vin isn't one.