Barelle Vineyards — Attraction in Fredericksburg

We stayed at the cottages that share the property with this tasting room. When we arrived on Friday night, BV was just getting ready to close, so we asked if we could just try a couple of wines and get a couple of bottles that we could enjoy on the patio (that is shared with the cottages). We didn't want to do a full wine-tasting, just make sure we liked what we were going to buy. We made it clear up front we planned to purchase a few bottles.

The man in the tasting room mentioned that tastings were $5 each but were waived if we purchased the bottle. This was odd, but since we planned to buy a few bottles we figured the policy would not apply and we agreed.

First, we tried a white wine. We liked it well enough and purchased a bottle. We then tried a red and I liked it, but my wife wasn't the biggest fan, so she asked to try one more red. She liked this one better so we decided to buy a bottle of it.

The pours he gave us to taste were miniscule, less than an once. Under normal circumstances I wouldn't have an issue with this, since we weren't trying to do a full tasting flight, just try before we buy. For those of you keeping track at home we tried (3) wines and purchased (2) bottles of those three.

Before I paid, he also tried to get us to purchase the wine glasses for $5 each. I asked if we could just bring the glasses back and leave them by the door when we were finished if he wasn't still there. He seemed annoyed like we were trying to take them, but relented when I reiterated that we were staying the weekend on the property.

I wasn't able to see an itemized receipt until after I paid due to their POS system. When I had it sent to my phone, I saw that he charged us for 3 tastings ($5 each) and only waived two!

I've worked in the wine industry off-and-on for almost a decade, and I've never worked at or been to a winery that charges for individual tastings if you show intent to purchase a bottle or more. I would understand charging for a tasting flight if we decided to taste through 5 or 6 wines and only buy one bottle.

However, charging for microscopic tastings when your customers have said they plan to buy multiple bottles is not a way to get me to come back.

To add insult to injury, I decided to look up the bottle of red wine we purchased since I hadn't heard of it before, and it can be had from the liquor store for half of what we paid for it (They're marking a $20 bottle up to $40!). Similarly, the White wine (which I was somewhat familiar with) was marked up about 20% higher than what the winery charges for it. Restaurant markups at a winery? Strike 2.

I'd recommend skipping this stop on your trip down 290. There's plenty of other wineries that are making better wine and giving better hospitality (and not lying about women's empowerment - don't be fooled, though when you walk in they make the conversation focus about women-owned wineries, the owner of BV is a male, although they do carry women-made wines (at a markup!) in the tasting room).

We will definitely be back to stay at the cottages, but next time will walk over to one of the other two wineries on property, Six-Shooter...

Came here with 7 people for my 30th birthday. We had a reservation and everything. Was excited to support a women-owned business. Walked in and there were probably 6 people in the place so not terribly busy. They showed us to our reserved table and immediately said we’re short on staff and we should just get a glass of wine as they were expecting a big rush soon and didn’t have time to come to the table to do a tasting. The lady was very dismissive. We got 3 glasses of wine, an amber ale, and a beer flight. Honestly none of the wines were finished as they weren’t to our taste. And every single beer was flat, which they acknowledged. I will admit they gave 2 of the 3 beer drinkers a can of beer to compensate but basically they paid for a beer flight and could only drink the can. When we went to pay and leave after maybe 30/40 minutes there, the crowd went from 6 people to a “big rush” of 2 people. We mentioned we were unhappy with our service and the lady just snapped back “Well we usually get good reviews” as if our experience was invalid. I understand being short staffed but the rudeness of the staff was just unacceptable, all they had to do was explain they were understaffed and apologize and say that might take a little longer than normal, but to make it sound like we were the problem. They made us feel like an inconvenience. I will...

My family and I celebrated Christmas in Fredericksburg, TX. Being there my husband, my brother, my sister in law and I decided to spend Christmas Eve doing some fun wine tasting! We went to another winery first but they notified us that they were planning on closing early that day because of Christmas Eve. We were so bummed - but we understand given the holiday. We drove down and saw this beautiful, quaint winery Barelle open while we were driving and so we decided to stop. Thankfully they were open! The gentleman there greeted us and offered excellent customer service while we enjoyed a few glasses of wine/beer! The best part is he let us stay past 5pm (on Christmas EVE!!). Thank YOU so much for making our Fredericksburg Experience the best one yet and for sharing your winery with us on that very special holiday! Great customer service, beautiful place, great memories! 110% recommend...