Mendelbaum Cellars — Attraction in Fredericksburg

Review

I’m not typically one to leave a review and typically a glass half full person, however I feel like it’s important that the public is aware of my experience prior to arrival (to determine if they will be welcomed by service or not based on their skin tone). I am a Latino/white. Base on my investigation of the previous reviews of this winery, this is seems to be a trend.

For my birthday I decided to do a Texas Winos tour (with a group of 10) and this winery was stop #2 with Italian food. I was very excited because who doesn’t love wine and food!

Red flag 1: Upon arrival it was clear that the server was overwhelmed, which is understandable and we’re were patient. However it was pointed out by someone in my group that we were not served any wine to try while the other tables were already on their 2nd trying. Keep in mind we’re all on the same big Texas wino tour and entered in at the same time. Then when the server was proposing wine tasting options to my table and pouring one of the two to try (sweet or dry), the OWNER grabbed one of the bottles out of the servers hand mid-pour to serve it to the table next to us (white). The servers face and our tables face we’re both completely astonished. She couldn’t believe what just happened herself and neither could we. The service was so delayed for our table that I took it upon myself to buy a bottle of wine to keep the wine party going since the establishment clearly did not want to serve us timely. I will admit the wine was delicious, however I would later regret buying this bottle as this would mean I supported a blatantly racist establishment that did not want my table (latino) or the table next to us (black) there.

Red flag 2: As mentioned before the table next to us was black and were also celebrating a birthday! They were not loud or drawing any attention, just talking and sipping wine. Unfortunately her birthday lunch would also be staled by the OWNER telling her and her group to “sit down and be quiet” (something along those lines). The same astonished looks we had when the OWNER took the wine bottle from our server was exemplified by her birthday table.

Conclusion: As mentioned, I am not one to leave a review, however I would not suggest anyone support this establishment with their time or money.

I also hope the TEXAS WINOS reconsiders their business relationship/association with this establishment. Although my group is very optimistic and didn’t want to let this experience ruin the rest of our wine tour day, it was obvious that both my group and the other birthday girls group had their vibes off for the rest...

Extremely disappointing experience!! Cannot communicate how disappointing - we made an pre-paid online tasting reservation the week before we arrived. Arrived a few minutes before our reservation Appt to an empty parking lot with “open” signs on the door. We waited approximately 20 minutes while knocking on all the doors which were locked. A vehicle pulled up with a woman and man in the car, we approached the vehicle and got waved away rather rudely. After another 10 minutes or so, the vehicle started to drive away but stopped and a the man rolled his window down to which we asked if they worked here or knew anything about why it was closed as we had a paid reservation Appt. The woman and man addressed us and said they didn’t work there, were only there to do maintenance and that it was closed. Then drove away. We called a number of times and left messages and emailed forwarding our reservation confirmation email. The next day we were driving by and noticed cars in the parking lot so stopped and found a tour van there waiting for their tasting. The van driver said the manager of the vineyard was on her way. My husband and I were shocked when the same lady we had spoken to the day before drove up. She is the manager! The one who lied to us and said she didn’t work there the day before. When she saw us I know she recognized us. I had to interrupt her from beginning her tour to which she said she was swamped and will get us a refund. My husband and I are still in shock at the unprofessionalism. I can understand the possibility that we were there for a difficult moment in time but please don’t lie to us as we were there at our reservation time and tell us you don’t work here when we were customers who had paid in advance. What makes it especially sad is that we were looking forward to this particular visit. Hoping we get our refund as we haven’t had any luck contacting anyone via...

Visited this winery on a wine tour. The winery had some tables setup for our group to be seated for our tasting experience and lunch. Unfortunately some of the other guests on our tour were treated awful in front of the entire group by the supposed owner Fernando. The ladies ask a question and he immediately replied with a catty remark telling them they needed to sit at the 2 designated tables and that they didn’t need to sit together because “this isn’t high school”. The entire tour group witnessed this, to which he then proceeded to say “the door works both ways…”. We hadn’t been here more than 10 mins. The vibe change. The tour went from fun and lively to quiet and cautious. He later also made a few rude comments to some of us while the food was being handed out and someone asked a question about what they ordered for lunch. None of which warranted a rude response to simple questions. It was an easy decision to not buy any products from this guy even despite his poor attempt to salvage potential business from this group of 28. There’s more but the bottom line is that he was rude and while I’d like to say his product spoke for itself, it doesn’t. Will never...