I gotta get on my soapbox and share the pet peeve I have about winery experiences, which is one of my main focuses of this blog. When you visit the wine country, it’s often more to many people than just the juice in the bottle. And to that end, many wineries have chosen very picturesque locations, built wonderful stacked stone buildings and underground cellars and painstakingly manicured landscaping. But all that crap is for naught, if your tasting room personnel is not capable of making a connection with the customer. As a matter of fact, it seems very easy to turn them off and potentially lose a customer forever.
This happened to us today when we visited Ferrari-Carano. I mean this is a beautiful place with spectacular tasting rooms. Yes, I used that term in a plural sense. The main tasting room when you first enter the building is for their “classic” everyday wines, but if you want the reserve tasting for wines that you can’t get anywhere else, you get to go downstairs to a very sweetly decorated room with granite, stone and wood furniture, etc… So, naturally, that’s where we went. Unfortunately, we knew right away it was going to be a dry, trying interaction.
We could see there was a second and available host behind the bar, yet when we approached the counter we were not greeted. It was actually very awkward that we made eye contact with him as we approached, yet we were left to stand there for several minutes. It even made us think that maybe he was training or the “bus boy” who wasn’t allowed the pour yet. He eventually did come up and greet us and we began to taste. The overall experience was one of him telling us what we should know as it was obvious he was an expert in wine. As we do not consider ourselves experts learning from someone with higher skills in wine is generally not a problem for us. However, it is my opinion that wineries should be “engaging” their prospects and visitors as participants, not as noobs to be talked down to. It really left us in a position of feeling very uncomfortable and wanting to speed up the tasting to get out as soon as possible. Even when I offered that Cadillac was an area included in the Sauternes-making areas of France, I was challenged, only then to be vindicated by Google when he searched it on the computer.
The main point I am making for the wineries out there, is that it is fine to have wine experts in your operation, but the primary job description for these folks should be customer relations and the ability to bring visitors into the world of wine, specifically your particular world, of course. To give this guy the benefit of the doubt, he just may be somewhat of an introvert or may only have been hired because of his wine expertise. It’s the winery’s job to make sure these folks are properly trained in the art of people skills and building long-lasting relationships between the winery and the customer.
We had some very positive experiences on our first day in Sonoma as well and I’ll be sure to talk about them too!
Don’t trust us? Check out these mixed reviews at TripAdvisor.
Really bummed you had a bad experience at FC, but hope you’ll give us another chance. I’d like to think your experience was the exception, not the norm. We’re a lot more fun than that, I promise, and I invite you to visit us again…please! Hope we can make a plan to make it up to you. cheryl@fcwinery.com
I know what you’re talking about Ed…on a recent visit to Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars, I ended up answering more of the questions from our group than our tour guide did. But the topper was when he made it known that a bottle of Artemis was the key to his getting laid on a date the previous night. Oh, and about the only thing he knew for sure about the wine was the price per bottle!
Ed, I totally agree with you on Ferrari-Carano. We went there after visiting a bunch of places on Dry Creek Rd. that were nothing more than warehouses full of nice people and good wine. Don’t get me wrong: the grounds at FC are BEAUTIFUL and worth seeing, but in the end, it’s all about the wine and the people. The rest is just pomp & circumstance. If I wanted that, I’d go to Napa.
However, our “server” (?) in the reserve wine room was very nice, but not very interesting or engaging.
Cheryl, I must commend you for your quick response to this post. Either you got a tip off (maybe the pinback?) or you are very good at scouring the interweb to see what folks are saying about your brand, which is the right thing to do. I am one to give folks a benefit of the doubt and certainly no one is perfect. People are people… but as with any business 1st impressions are everything and this just happens to be a thing for me as I look to the wine country for the complete experience… unfortunately, FC was the first I hit in Sonoma that didn’t meet my expectations. It’s really just about raising awareness so that those of us who love wine and visiting your businesses can get the greatest experience possible.
Jack and Joe thanks for the comments… we look to help by sharing what we look for in the complete winery experience.
I agree that the welcoming attitude of everyone at the winery is extremely important. My business is to recommend wineries in Sonoma/Napa counties. I only recommend wineries after at least 3 visits (which lasts 2-3 hours each), but if the first visit is bad, I don’t have time to go back. I can’t recommend a winery for its beauty only, I’m trying to bring people to wineries where they will leave with wonderful memories and lots of wine.
Hey Ed, we appreciate your honesty, and really do strive to make everyone’s experience here at FC a good one, and unfortunately this didn’t happen in your case. I agree that first impressions are everything — I’m a consumer too — and it can kill the whole experince if you get off on the wrong foot. I mean it when I say I hope you will come back and give us another chance. Please look me up when you do: cheryl@fcwinery.com.