Cornell Wine Co. — Attraction in California

As someone who does a decent amount of wine tasting, I'm a bit embarrassed that I was completely unaware of this location until very recently and just visited for the first time yesterday! It is important to say that the name is a bit misleading as this isn't a Winery at all, but a wine store. That said, it is a glorious location that is a must-visit for any fan of wine!

The location is BEAUTIFUL! It's literally in the woods of the Santa Monica Mountains in Malibu in a rustic building that looks like an old church. Turns out that it was a storage facility built by the Runyon family (yes, the same family who donated the land for Runyon Canyon Park). Regardless of the truth, it has the feel of a beautiful old church or building with some type of wondrous past. It is beautiful and rustic inside. This is a PERFECT place for a romantic date. My only large complain about this place is that they close at 7pm! It is SO beautiful here after dark and it's the type of place you'd love to hang out, relax and sip wine well into the evening. Apparently they've run into some type of legal issues that makes them close at 7pm that they're working to fix, but it sounded like it wouldn't be resolved anytime soon.

Anyways, onto the wine! We did a tasting of 4 wines and they were FANTASTIC! I've done tasting up and down the Pacific coast, and rarely do you get such a high percentage of wins! I'm much more of a big, bold reds guy... but they're Madam Preston Viognier Blend was really a delicious white and only $20 for the bottle. The star of the evening though was The Malibu Vineyard Pinot Noir that I still can't get out of my mind. From the first whiff I took I knew it was something special, and then the taste absolutely lived up. It is so unique!!! It is literally the best Pinot Noir I've ever had not made in Oregon, and this could stand right next to many Oregon Pinots. While we're definitely budget wine drinkers in the sense that we LOVE wine and wine tasting, but can't afford to enjoy it as much as we'd like... we are rarely interested in wine clubs... but this wine was so good that it built an instant trust in their taste that I would seriously have considered joining their wine club. Alas... they don't have a wine club here. Oh well. However, since they don't have a wine club, their bottle prices are actually very reasonable. So it's a great place to buy bottles.

It should be noted that there is a $10 corkage fee here, which I think is kind of lame for a wine store who's trying to get you to buy their wine... however they give generous pours by the glass... so enjoy their wine by the glass and take home who you love. Also... apparently it is legal to drink in National Parks... who knew??? That means the park right across the street you can drink in! So you can buy a bottle and take it across the street and enjoy a picnic in the park!

This is also right next door to The Old Place Restaurant which looks amazing and smells even better (we walked in to check it out, but you need to make reservations many times three weeks out). I can't wait to try it out!!! Apparently they have a $20 corkage fee, but if you bring a bottle from Cornell, they reduce that to $10.

End verdict... I LOVE this place!!! You HAVE to visit and make sure you try that 2012 Malibu Vineyard...

My partner and I wanted to bring our friends who were visiting from Boston to a place in the mountains to taste some wine and have a nice time. We found this place while researching and saw a flyer on their website saying that tonight was Cumbia Night--you pay $10 for entrance into the space to listen to the music and get a tamale. It was advertised as beginning at 5 pm. We arrived about half an hour prior, got our wristbands, and waited for the music to begin. The property and space was beautiful and we were looking forward to the event.

Around 5:30, we asked a staff member when the food and music would start and were told five minutes. We asked at least one more time and were brushed off. By 6 pm, we were invited to the self serve food area to get the tamales. As my friends were serving themselves, an older woman behind us in line started very loudly and presumptuously saying that only one tamale per person was allowed. Of course, she was not an employee, but she and some other patrons made me and my group of friends (all non-white) feel quite unwelcome. Quite a few stares were sent our way as we were just trying to enjoy the space like everyone else.

At this point it was more than an hour after the music that we paid extra to listen to was scheduled to start. The room we paid for "access" to, including seating, was packed and not enjoyable to be in, so we went to eat our somewhat sad tamales outside with a bottle of wine.

At 6:45, the band started playing. We were kind of turned off from the whole thing by then, but tried to stop by the room to try to enjoy the "cumbia". No shade to the musicians, but the music they played was by no means cumbia. I would say they played a mix of reggae-lite and soft rock. Nothing wrong with that, just not what we paid for. Even if we had wanted to dance, there simply would not have been enough room to do so comfortably.

We ended up leaving around 7, pretty disappointed with the experience. Had I known what this "event" would actually be, I would have brought my friends somewhere else. We talked about it and all felt a little bit scammed. If they were going to charge money for guests to sit in a tiny room, listen to music, and eat a tamale, they really should have ensured it started on time--not two hours after the time that was advertised. It's a shame that we had a bad experience, because the space was lovely and staff was...

Unfortunately, my expectations were set a little too high and I expected better.

First and foremost, the wines that were recommended were just ok but nothing special. The staff never seemed asked the right questions to build the proper recommendations and felt very disengaged. The staff was nice but we needed the proper service and attention to detail we though Cornwell Winery would provide. I thought the venue itself was pretty nice with a great layout and plenty of friendly smiles. We added a large meat and cheese platter for our reservation which to accommodate our party. Unfortunately, it was very lackluster for our party size. Don't get me wrong it was good but I just could not explain to my friends and family how playing $12 per person for this platter was a good idea. Please note, the whole table is charge of the platter whether you eat or not and sadly my party could barely enjoy a nimble. Yes, will all eat lunch 2 hours prior so just a heads up.

Service was a little slow but that was expected for a busy Saturday afternoon. Sadly the staff seemed clueless on recommendations and was unable to even pronounce some of the names of the wines they were recommending. That was a little weird and laughable.

Also, just a friendly heads up. The cell service is poor in and around the establishment so you will need to walk around and search for signal to make or receive a call (I have Sprint and Verzion and a friend as Tmobile, all low to no signal).

All in all, the Cornell Winery is an cool winery, it's just not anything special and may not be worth the drive if you are coming from far away. BUT if you are local and like great ambience and descent wine I recommend stopping by. I did have a couple other hang ups but not worth mentioning.

Thank you for...