Grandfather Vineyard & Winery — Attraction in Banner Elk

I am not normally one to write reviews, but my most recent experience at the Winery has left me appalled with the quality of the customer service this establishment ( and one employee in particular) displayed. As someone who has worked in the customer service industry for years, I think this needs to be shared in order to hopefully ensure that this employee can learn and grow in their customer service abilities. Over the weekend, a group of us came to the Winery to celebrate a 23rd birthday and from the moment we arrived we were met with resistance from a lady with red hair working the register, who claimed to be the manager. She tried telling most of us our IDs were fake, and demanded to see birth certificates. Most of us didn't have a birth certificate on hand, so we asked if we could call the police department to have our IDs validated. She said she would do it, and then returned and told us the police department didn't answer so we were out of luck. We called the police department on our own, and they informed us they never received a call from her ( as she had claimed ), but they would be happy to validate our IDs. We went back up to talk to her, explained what they said, gave her the phone number and asked her to call again. When she returned after having our IDs validated all that was said was " what do you want". I absolutely understand the severity of needing to be 100% certain while serving alcohol, and I understand that we looked young and could be underage. But, when you are trained to be able to spot a fake ID ( as she stated they had been trained by ALE), you should also be able to differentiate a real ID. She was not able to do that, and that was not our fault. It was not our fault that she couldn't distinguish that information, and left us waiting for over an hour. Due to this, we asked if there was any sort of discount or anything, because it was her mistake, not ours. Her response was " I cannot offer you a discount, I actually do not even have to serve you under NC law so you are lucky I am even doing that because I have the authority to pick who to serve". This comment was out of line. No one was drunk, no one looked or was acting obliterated. No one was causing a scene or appeared to be out of the ordinary in any way shape or form. Bar tenders have the right to deny service to anyone they suspect could be too intoxicated, but when there are no signs of ANY sort of intoxication, picking and choosing who you deny service to is just discrimination. She didn't offer so much as an " I am sorry", which we really would have appreciated. We understand she was trying to do her job, but being blatantly mean just because we are young, is not okay under any circumstance. It didn't end here. Later on, we were stopped by two other groups who had informed us that the employees were talking badly of us to OTHER customers, and very loudly behind the counter. The group told us they wanted to say something because they saw were were not out of line, we were minding our business, and they felt as if it were completely unprofessional to have overheard that. It was unprofessional, and incredibly upsetting to hear. We did go inside and ask to talk to management about it, and the same lady reluctantly spoke to us and claimed it was lies and that never occurred. But, the fact that two different groups had approached us with the same story led us to not believe she was not being honest with us. With all of this said, I want to give this manager grace because she could have been having a bad day, and it unfortunately was portrayed towards her customers. But, in the customer service industry, you cannot speak to anyone in the manner she was speaking to us, and there should be no circumstance that accounts for employees of a business to be talking about customers to, or anywhere near other customers. It is no way to act in a professional setting. Her behavior and the way she communicated that day was unacceptable, and they just lost a bunch of customers over something that could have been avoided with a...

We visited this winery for our honeymoon in April/Early May and it was the perfect time! When we pulled up, they were pretty busy. Luckily, we found a parking spot close to the storefront. They do have overflow parking but we did not want to walk super far. When we went inside, we noticed that they have pre-set flight menus based on dryness, sweetness, red, whites, and bubbles. This was a little irritating at first, because I wanted to customize my flight, but they had small flyers that gave all the details of each wine, price per bottle, pairings, etc. so it was perfectly streamlined! We got more info that way than we would have by customizing a flight. We also did a boar's head cheese and meat tray. This felt a little too laid back because they gave it to us still in the plastic package and gave us styrofoam plates with it, but we decided it was part of the laidback mountain vibes. It was delicious, and honestly the crackers they serve with it were some of the best part! As we walked outside, there was a live band. There was plenty of seating and I loved that it was so spread out! You could sit right by the band, or nearer the vineyard, or all the way out by the creek. Overall, we had a really good time here and really hope to come back! Just plan to relax and enjoy yourself and leave pretentiousness...

Big and beautiful winery with an excellent vibe and lots of wine to choose from. We went with a group of friends and everyone got a different flight, so we were able to taste a lot. Sadly, there are wines that are not in the flights and the flights are premade...no customization allowed. My favorite wine was not on the flight, but the cashier let me have a small taste. I like dry reds, and the boulder red was the best one.

Staff is very knowledgeable and friendly. I never felt rushed when it was my turn to order and I had questions about the wine.

Bottles are reasonably priced at around $25. They also have sparkling wine and really good sangria. Wish they offered the option to get the sangria in a carafe.

They sell snacks and cheese board ingredients, but you can also bring your own food. They also have food trucks and live music.

There is a beautiful creek to wade around in. Great for kids.

Pet friendly.

No indoor bathrooms, only porta potties... Which kind of kills the ambience.

Everything is outdoors, but there is plenty of shade to sit under... Sadly that is not the case for waiting in line.

Wish they...