Idiots in Tasting Rooms
I’m way behind on my posting, but we had a dinner party Saturday night and I spent much of the tail end of last week preparing for it. Yes, I’ll have some pictures of the party soon.
Yesterday afternoon, we took a quick trip to the North Fork with some friends who were in town for the weekend. We stopped a couple wineries and it ended up being a beautiful day.
But, I was disturbed at the behavior of one tasting room visitor at Corey Creek Vineyards, which has become a frequent stop for us because of their beautiful back deck overlooking the vines. Nena is really digging their rose right now too, so that helps.
Apparently Corey Creek and Bedell Cellars (they are sister wineries) have changed how their wine clubs work. I’m not in any of their clubs, so I don’t know any details, but there was a guy who came in as we tasted who is clearly not happy. He walked in with five or so friends of his and went out onto the deck. Then he came back in alone and proceeded to badger and bark the tasting room workers about the changes made to the club. I wasn’t eavesdropping too closely, but I heard him throw out phrases like "I’ve bought a lot of wine here over the years" and "You can’t break our contract" and "I won’t buy any more wine here and I’ll make sure my friends don’t either." He was really huffy and eventually he and his friends marched out in single file defiantly. It was quite a pathetic, immature spectacle really.
I’m not saying that he didn’t have the right to be upset. But, to take it out on the people at the tasting room is just ridiculous. One of the pourers is a recent college grad and I think the other is still in college. They aren’t full-time employees. They aren’t the ones who changed the way the wine clubs are set up. If you’re a member of the club, clearly you have the phone number for the winery office. Call the people involved in the actual decision to change the clubs.
In the end, the guy really just made himself look like a bully who eventually pouted and stormed off when he didn’t get his way.
Isn’t wine supposed to be fun? Aren’t we supposed to enjoy ourselves when we visit wineries on beautiful spring days?
Hey, it can be worse: http://www.special-sections.com/sections/883/39a.html
I’m not sure if there is a similar scene on Long Island, but rowdiness can be a problem in the Finger Lakes depending on the holiday, type of crowd, etc. It’s a real shame, becuase the serious wineries suffer.
Only place i’ve ever seen a tasting room get a little rowdy is Pindar, but that’s because it’s so damn big it’s more like a bar.
My wife and I volunteer at a winery in Virginia, and last weekend we had a “party bus” of 20-somethings show up, clearly having (over)tasted at several wineries before us. Many were so inebriated they couldn’t even get off the bus, and those few were refused tasting. One of them then hopped on to winery’s Gator (motorized golf cart type deal) and went on a joy ride across the property, ripping up grass and eventually crashing it into a creek. I was completely amazed - I wouldn’t have expected that sort of behaviour even from a party bus crowd. Needless to say, we’re making some changes to our policies dealing with large groups - mainly, we probably won’t take any buses late in the day again to prevent similar incidents. Crazy, no?
That joy ride sounds hilarious from afar, even if it seemed a bit alarming in person. The only way he could have improved upon it is if he had his boxer shorts on his head and the local judge’s daughter passed out in the back seat-Animal House!
Ah, I miss college…at least we had the self-respect to stay away from places like wineries.
I don’t condone the behavior of the wine club customer, but if I made changes to our club I’d make darn certain I had a plan for dealing with upset customers! And I would make sure my tasting room staff knew what the plan was so they could deal with this situation. Yes, they are just part time staff, but the winery should have empowered them to at least try and make it right. Something like “I’m sorry you are upset Mr. Thompson, but we made the change because of and we’re expecting it will work out better for everyone in the long run. In the meantime, could we offer you and your friends a 33% discount today as a token of our appreciation for your long term support?”
Or something like that. A small price to pay to keep a good customer.
(let’s try that again)
I don’t condone the behavior of the wine club customer, but if I made changes to our club I’d make darn certain I had a plan for dealing with upset customers! And I would make sure my tasting room staff knew what the plan was so they could deal with this situation. Yes, they are just part time staff, but the winery should have empowered them to at least try and make it right. Something like “I’m sorry you are upset Mr. Thompson, but we made the change because of (good reason) and we’re expecting it will work out better for everyone in the long run. In the meantime, could we offer you and your friends a 33% discount today as a token of our appreciation for your long term support?”
Or something like that. A small price to pay to keep a good customer.