Schramsberg Vineyards — Attraction in Calistoga

The winery was beautiful, the wine tasted great, and the front staff and tour guide were all really lovely. However, my experience with their customer service left me with a sour taste in my mouth. I don't normally write reviews, good or bad, but this is the one exception. If you are a quote "family winery" and take pride in the product you make, then I would expect that extends to treating your customers with pride, dignity and respect.

I did a wine tasting and tour of the winery with my mom and grandmother who were visiting from Chicago. Although the wines are expensive, I decided to order a 6-pack of assorted wines to be shipped to my mom's home in the Midwest. I thought it was worth the hefty price tag so my mom had the opportunity to indulge in these wines herself and share her great experience by gifting the wines to her close friends. We were told the delivery would be easy and speedy. However, what my mom received instead was a box soaked with wine, with the most expensive bottle broken at the neck, the rest of the bottles soaked and their labels ruined, and the box itself seemingly taped up in an attempt to fix it. We were obviously devastated - it would be an embarrassment to gift these bottles to anyone.

I contacted the winery about the delivery and well, their response made it quite clear to me how much I was valued as a customer. I was told that this was quite the "rare occurrence" and my 3 options were to 1) send the wine back and get a new set, 2) keep the current wine and buy more for a whole 30% discount, or 3) return everything and get a full refund. If this is such a rare occurrence, then I expect the winery to take full responsibility for the faulty and honestly embarrassing delivery and go out of their way to compensate the customer. Instead, what I got was "too bad for you, we're actually going to spend even more money to make sure we salvage the remaining wine, and oh, would you like to buy more?" As a winery who boasted about the thousands of bottles of wine they make every year and serving an array of presidents, I really didn't expect them to be saving pennies on customers. The least I would expect in a scenario like this is a "we're so sorry, wine's on us, and here's further options."

As much as I was ready to boast about this place and bring other family members and friends back for a visit, I would recommend you save your time and money and go elsewhere, where a "family" winery may actually still have some genuine family beliefs and much more respect for their customers than this place.

TLDR; if you want to feel dehumanized, then this...

This was my 2nd visit to Schramsberg and I hate to admit that I was disappointed. Our first visit a few years ago was 5 stars. I learned so much about the process of making sparkling wines, we tasted in the caves, nothing was rushed, and everything was amazing. Fast forward to a few days ago when I took my four friends as part of our girls trip to Napa. I've been to the valley at least 8 times, so I planned the itinerary. Schramsberg was at the top of my list. Sadly, it fell flat. We arrived about a minute or two past our 2:30 appointment, and a few of us asked to go to the restrooms while the other members of our party were asked to begin paying for the tastings. The tour guide was standing inside with two other people and made the comment, "Well you girls better hurry up because we are already 10 minutes behind schedule." This was false. It was also pretty inappropriate to call a group of women "girls" while implying we were going to take too long using the restroom. I completely understand the importance of being on time, but we were not late. In fact, after quickly using the restrooms, we ended up waiting for another group of 3 that were on our tour who did arrive at least 10 minutes late and nothing was said to them. This started our tour with a bad taste in our mouths. I was so looking forward to sharing with my friends this great experience and I feel like we were very rushed in the caves and it was not at all like I remembered. I even asked questions trying to get him to explain more about the uniqueness of Schramsberg, like the tiny bubbles as I remembered, and he responded, "It's just the champagne method." We then did the tasting up in a room, and I again felt like we were not given the service I remembered receiving before. Not a lot of explanation on the different wines. Everyone in our group felt the same, and sadly, for $90/person, we were just disappointed. The worst part is I have a reservation there for my return trip in a few weeks with my in-laws to celebrate my mother in law's 70th birthday. I was so looking forward to both her and my sister in law falling in love with the experience because they both love bubbles so much, and now I'm wondering if I should cancel...we had a much better experience at Mumm, which I thought was sub-par to Schramsberg before. There we were given personalized attention and felt like our visit mattered.

The two stars are for the beautiful grounds and the red wines...

I had a very disappointing experience at this vineyard. Prior to my visit, I informed the vineyard that I would be bringing my certified service dog. They asked about the tasks my dog performs, and I provided a detailed response. They did not raise any concerns at that time. However, when I arrived with my dog, the staff at the front desk told me that my dog was not a service dog because of its fur. My dog, being in an unfamiliar environment, initially made a few low murmurs but was completely quiet and well-behaved after adjusting to the surroundings.

The staff claimed, “The service dog has different fur than your dog,” which left me in complete shock. This was the first time I had ever been told that a certified service dog could be refused entry based on its appearance. The only time my dog barked was when the tour guide, without my consent, attempted to pet her. It is common knowledge that service animals should not be petted by others, and this should have been part of the staff's training.

This incident highlights not just an issue for individuals who rely on service animals but also reflects poorly on the management and staff training at this vineyard. The manager’s argument that a service dog’s legitimacy can be determined by the length or type of its fur is absurd and demonstrates a significant lack of understanding and education among the staff.

I am deeply disappointed in the way this vineyard handles such matters, and it speaks volumes about their lack of care for customers and their rigid, uninformed perceptions of...