Copain Wines — Attraction in California

Beautiful property, and beautiful wines when presented well. Unfortunately, our host Juan had no interest in the quality of our experience from the moment we arrived. Eventually he warmed up to us, but it took me having to confront him because he was so rude and passive to our group, and only poured our group the bottom of open bottles from the previous day. Not only that, he poured them all at once, spouted basic information as fast as he could, and just walked back inside. He may as well have had the wines poured for us and never introduced himself. That honestly would have made for a better first impression and experience. When you prepay $75 per person a month in advance, you would hope to have wines presented to you that weren’t showing oxidation from being open from the day prior. His response was their wines are “old world” and show better the 2nd day. Really!?…I have been in the wine industry for 23 years and Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs like Copain, want to express bright fruit character, not dull and oxidized character. It was just all part of the dismissiveness of our group. There’s being proud of your product, and being rude and presumptuous, assuming we wouldn’t notice poorly presented wines. We were the only group at the winery and were treated as if we were an inconvenience to our host. When we arrived for our tasting, I went to check in with Juan, his response was, “we don’t open for 10 more minutes”. Way to welcome your group that’s just a few minutes early to respect your time. The wines we purchased and had that night at dinner were spectacular, and I can assure you tasted 100% better when enjoyed after popping the cork! I did email Juan to thank him for his time that day, but in reality his lack of enthusiasm for the wines and lack of hospitality ruined my experience. I had high hopes and was completely...

This is a mixed review. Esposa and I came with 2 other couples. This was our first of three wineries as part of an Eastside Meets Westside experience, which included lunch and three library tastings at $200/person.

STAFF: 5 stars. Talk about nice, positive, and energetic. Yup, these are the guys. They look like GQ magazine cover models, but are so approachable and down to earth. They made us at home. Our host took us to a private tasting room. He was unpretentious and guided us through several wines, then served us lunch. Although he mentioned it, there was zero, no pressure to purchase wine or join their club. High five!

FACILITY: 5 stars. Wow. Talk about a great view and a beautiful building. This is it. Weather allowed for outdoor seating, which appeared quite busy. Our tasting room felt warm and cozy like we were staying in a casita with family.

FOOD: 5 stars. Made off-site, the food was excellent. Unfortunately, we had just eaten breakfast at our B&B, so were unable to finish it. No problem. Our host graciously packed a nice to-go bag.

WINE: 2 stars. This is the real reason we came. Of the 10 wineries esposa visited, this was the only one where nobody found the wines worthy of purchasing. We all enjoyed the welcoming Pinot Grigio the most. The single-vineyard wines were (in our opinion) overly simplistic and lacking in depth. The wines were enjoyable but not noteworthy. We felt very badly that we did not purchase. Alas, back to the staff, there was no pressure.

CONCLUSION: We had a blast and really enjoyed the...

I'm sure these folks mean well, but they aren't the best neighbors and they don't welcome their local community when operating outside of their own bubble.

If you're a tourist or local, your option here is to do a tasting. Their events are not open to the public regardless of their advertising -- don't trust it. You must be a member or you will be turned away.

If these wines are important to you, join as a member long before you ever intend to visit and best of luck to you beyond that. We were not able to enroll as members, purchase qualifying cases or tickets to events despite phone/email. It's confusing at best.

It is unclear to me how early or established a member needs to be in order to attend events. Keep this in mind if visiting from outside of the area.

Perhaps this review will lend more cred than shade -- these folks don't want their neighbors, industry coworkers (zero history or beef) or folks they don't already have a member relationship with at their gigs.

It is misplaced Napa energy at best, and that is unfair to Napa.

I usually write...