Taylors Wines — Attraction in Auburn

There is no doubt that Taylor’s make exceptional wines. It therefore comes as a grave disappointment that their tasting room has pivoted to the ‘set wine flight’ or ‘tasting experience’ model, at a fee that is NOT redeemable on purchase.

While they do retain a limited range of wines available as a complimentary tasting (6-wines, generally lower end), they present a basic cross section of varieties. Adequate for any beginner not accustomed to their base range of wines on offer.

The flight model on offer are cellar-curated selections, which rail-road you into tasting 4-5 wines, which were generally single varieties (eg. all Shiraz, or all Cab Sav). In a winery with a double-sided A-4 of wine varieties on offer, being limited to one variety to taste seems a bit short-sighted, and also prevents you from exploring their range at your own pace/taste preferences.

Whilst it (sadly) seems that tasting flights are here to stay, there are better ways to do this. Competitor examples include allowing you a selection of 5-7 wines from their range.

The real breaking point for me however is the lack of tasting fee refund on wine purchase (minimum spend or otherwise) - this deters visitors from buying wine at the cellar door - why would I buy wine here, with the $10+ premium added to my purchase when I can attend a large-volume retailer for same/cheaper prices?

Taylor’s does offer a free online membership with discounted rates. This is free and you can sign up at the cellar door to receive these discounts.

Sorry Taylor’s - I will not entertain returning until the current tasting model is severely modified AND you start offering redeemable...

Let me add to the plethora of disappointing reviews following my cellar door experience. Taylors can now claim to be the Qantas of the wine industry, selling award winning wine that it does not have. While Qantas is facing millions in fines from an ACCC prosecution, it will be interesting to see if Taylors ends up also being investigated, for its unconscionable conduct, misleading and deceptive behaviour. So, 7 weeks after deceptively taking my money (thousands $$) at cellar door, I finally got a partial refund for my order for the “ghost wine” that never existed, then after holding my money for all that time they finally released the remainder of my wine they were holding hostage. During the farce they emailed me saying they’d call, they never did. I called them, they said they’d call me back (four times), they never did. They said they’d refund me for the “ghost wine” but wouldn’t disclose how much they’d refund, they tried to get me to buy a lesser wine in an effort to keep my money (this is called a “bait and switch” tactic used by dodgey operators when they are prosecuted) but I wasn’t buying, so after almost two months, this sorry saga is over and just like Qantas, all Taylor’s would offer is a disingenuous apology for the inconvenience. Hours wasted trying to find out the status of my order, then hours wasted chasing my money, then hours wasted chasing my wine and all they offered was a “sorry these things happen”. Do you know what also happens, once very loyal customers write reviews and once very loyal customers buy their wine elsewhere....

So we've been big Taylor's fans for a while. The Estate Shiraz is our Friday night go to. The quality and price is almost impossible to match. How spoilt we are, living in South Australia having the best wine regions and producers in our back yards and Taylor's rates among the very best. We arrived and we were immediately greeted by a lovely lady at the cellar door that was accommodating and helpful. We decided to have the full tasting experience with a delicious local produce platter to go with it. It was superb, perfect even. The wine was equally good. Having the full experience we got to try the very best they have to offer. I highly recommend it, you won't be disappointed. Taylor's whilst being famous for their reds are doing amazing things with white too. Try the St Andrews Chardonnay, it's amazing. If I could give it 6...