Marcy J.
Yelp
A nice looking property, yes. However, the staff was not particularly welcoming in our experience. The vibe was a little "off." I don't want to leave a "negative" review, but I can't rave about our visit either. Based on my San Diego friend's and my online research about wine tasting with a fairly large group, this seemed like the perfect place to have an outdoor picnic lunch. And we liked that we could bring our own food.
This was the second winery we visited on a Sunday in early January when we were lucky enough to have sunny weather. We were a group of 10--nine women and one man--who arrived in a Platypus tour vehicle. I am a local who has worked in wine hospitality but everyone else in my group had traveled various distances from out of the area for THIS--Truett Hurst-- as part of our day of wine tasting.
Over lengthy texts, my San Diego friend and I carefully planned the day and in retrospect I feel like it was a mistake to book an at-table tasting with lunch at this winery. To be fair, in hindsight, maybe that's a mistake at any winery...perhaps when in Wine Country, it's best to simply have glass or bottle service with a picnic lunch at whatever winery--with wine that you know and like--rather than trying to evaluate sips of unfamiliar wines with your lunch.
In the end, it seems as though this winery was happy to sell a pre-booked experience and unhappy to deliver it once we arrived. The pours were stingy and while our server (older white guy) wasn't blatantly rude, he was somewhat standoffish. Perhaps he (wrongly) assumed we wouldn't buy any bottles let alone join their club so he didn't feel like making the cordial sales effort that is expected in a tasting experience?
Again, to be fair, we had just come from an elevated cellar experience at Dry Creek Vineyards where two people in the group DID become members and my friend and I and others in the group did purchase some bottles to go. People in this group WERE interested in having wines to take home with them--if they could get a proper taste of said wines. However, the service here left a "bad taste" with what little I tasted of their wine and slightly put a damper on our fun day. I'm glad it wasn't anyone's birthday or other special occasion we were trying to celebrate. Still, at least one woman in our group made one TH bottle purchase.
We weren't "drunk" or necessarily even "buzzed" from our previous tasting, however by the time we got to TH for our picnic tasting, we were quite peckish and once seated at the long table for 10, our attention was divided between getting the food on the table and hearing about the first wine being poured. Maybe our server was holding the fact that we had just come from another tasting against us, which might account for the skimpy, passive aggressive pours.
If they were going to seemingly have a problem with us being there, why were they so happy to charge my friend's credit card and make the reservation? I mean, come on...Yes, people typically visit more than one winery in a day but one previous wine tasting does not an inebriated group make. We were enjoying ourselves, or at least trying to, as wine tasting is supposed to be an enjoyable event, not a somber one. If wine hosts find an upbeat and cheerful but hungry group a nuisance, why allow picnics with tastings or groups of 10? No, we weren't silent robots but we weren't overly loud and/or disrespectful of the property either.
As the rest of my group was getting back to our minibus in the parking lot, my friend went into the tasting room to talk to a woman claiming to be the owner about how she didn't get her last pour. During our tasting, my friend had gotten up from the table to look around the beautiful grounds a little, but even so, other wine hosts at other wineries will still give your (in this case prepaid) pour. TH should keep in mind that winery guests don't see winery grounds every day like winery staff does so of course they will likely want to look around at least a little.
The woman my friend talked to in the tasting room was unapologetic and dismissive to my friend who had paid hundreds of dollars for our group experience and told her she could "leave now." That was unfortunate, seemed unfair and made my friend and I wish TH hadn't even taken our reservation. The owner's attitude certainly lowered the morale of a person on vacation trying to do something enjoyable with friends and family, which is never the goal when you're out wine tasting. The man who served us could have sold more wine to our group had he decided we were worth the effort and thus been less aloof. Maybe with a smaller group that hadn't just been to another winery and also wasn't having a picnic lunch, our experience at TH would have been more positive.
To be fair...