Grape Creek on Main - Tasting Room — Attraction in Fredericksburg

A male friend and I stopped by on 5/25/24 (Memorial Day Weekend). 2 stars only because the wine is great. 0 stars for the decorum of the person conducting the tasting.

My first ever experience with Grape Creek was actually back in November 2021, at their tasting room in Georgetown. I went with two friends as we were in town for a wedding. That tasting was a lovely experience with a gentleman who was so warm, patient with my lack of knowledge about wine, and he didn't shove a sales pitch down our throats. He treated all three of us as equals, rather than based on how much money he thought we made. I was already sold on their wines from that experience. He even helped me find a red wine that I love -- and I don't like red wine!

So when my friend and I were in Fredericksburg over the holiday weekend, I suggested we pop in for another tasting. Unfortunately the woman tending to us this time around was super pushy. The entire experience from start to finish was much less about helping us identify wines we like or broadening our palettes, and much more about getting us to sign up for a wine club or go to their restaurant. She asked my male friend what he does for work -- didn't ask me. He is an attorney. From that point on she assumed he would be the better person to try and sell to. He ended up buying nothing because he was so turned off by the pushiness.

The pours also seemed stingy. Each pour filled maybe a 10th of the glass? She asked plenty of questions about our preferences, but didn't really collaborate on letting us pick what we wanted to taste from the menu provided. Instead of offering options or suggestions based on what we usually enjoy and then letting us choose, she just poured whatever wines she wanted. The wines she chose admittedly were nice, but a little more collaboration would have gone a long way. Maybe we were supposed to be more proactive in asking to try specific wines.

When she asked my pal what he thinks after each taste: he'd describe what he's detecting, and she's respond with something like "well what you're actually tasting is _." Sorry we don't know all the sommelier terminology. Guess his palate isn't refined enough to know what he's tasting??

At one point she stepped away in the middle of the tasting for a few minutes, without letting us know where she's going. A brief "excuse me for just a moment" would have been nice....

I did find a couple of other wines I liked, but her explanation of the memberships was convoluted and unclear. Despite all of this, I still signed up for their 3 bottle mixed shipment membership because I really love the product. Come to find out, you don't get to choose which wines they send you. After spending $60 for the both of us to taste wines, and after spending time explaining to this pushy wine professional what my preferences are, I don't even get to choose which wines get shipped to me? They could send me a bitter red when I strongly dislike bitter reds?? Ugh.

I bought a bottle of the red I know I love at member price right before leaving. Might cancel the membership I signed up for.

If you want a warm, pressure-free, friendly tasting experience -- skip this location. I hope that nice gentleman at the Georgetown tasting room is still there and getting...

We walked in for a tasting yesterday, expecting a casual easy tastings and resting after a long drive down. It was 30$ per person for the tasting and I picked sparkling wine because I was parched. We went up to the tasting room after purchasing two tickets. And this old lady was free so we went up to start the tasting. And she goes “did you purchase the tasting?” And we said yes we are here for sparkling tasting. And she didn’t believe us and went to the purchasing booth to make sure we had the tickets! First of all that was pretty offensive, but whatever she is just doing her job. But then she goes on with the tasting with the tiniest pour for both of us for all four sparkling. Literally I had more bubbles than actual wine itself.

I asked her where the wine is from and she goes it’s from all over. I’m like what?? How come you don’t know exactly where all of them are from? That’s the most basic knowledge you need to have at a wine tasting. So I was shocked at how unqualified this person was to introduce any wine. Then she goes on to say we have six wine clubs. It is free to join and you can cancel any time etc all that sales jargon. I have never in my life had wine membership sales shoved down my throat so much as I was finishing one lick of a tasting she poured me. She was so pushy that I was so uncomfortable the whole time she was staring at us. You don’t even know which region these all come from and you’re trying to sell me these? Oh man! Let me finish my drop of tasting you poured me after paying 60 bucks!! I could’ve gotten a bottle somewhere else and had a way better time. Even though the sparkling wines were actually pretty descent as far as I can tell with very small pour. I have really no way of telling because I didn’t get enough to taste anyways.

Please! Just avoid the old lady if you go to this tasting room, unless you want cheap pour and bad sales pitch the entire time you’re standing there. I regret spending money...

Um...snooty much?

Came here with a friend who was a member. She warned us they have a snooty reputation, but I was surprised by just how true that ended up being.

The tasting room itself is very nice. We were at the standing only tasting bar which is where we met our snooty mcsnooty sommelier. For $25, we got to try three wines of our choice. If our friend told us we also got a wine glass, I missed that and mcsnooty didn’t tell us either. So surprised we got such a tiny amount for more than the price of one glass of wine, we were rudely told that we got more than most since she let one of us try a fourth wine. Okay wow. Sorry.

Then another man came up (this one very friendly and welcoming) as we were getting ready to leave, and asked us if we got our glasses. Our glasses? No sir, mcsnooty didn’t tell us about those. We told him how unhappy we were with her. She just really wasn’t friendly. We likely would have had a much better experience if we’d had this guy do our tasting.

The wines themselves were okay, but I wasn’t moved to buy any. I will say that I am a person heavily influenced by outside factors like atmosphere and staff friendliness. But mcsnooty did not inspire my love of the wine or want to buy any.

If/when I return to FBG, I may try the actual winery, but only if we had the time. It wouldn’t...