MacRostie Winery Estate House — Attraction in Healdsburg

The winery is beautiful, the wine good, I'm not sure how good honestly, because it was so hard to enjoy due to the experience. We called the day before asking whether we needed a reservation, which we were perfectly happy to do, but it was easier to keep flexible and come without one because we were visiting other wineries prior. I explained my family are members and we wanted to come for a tasting and they said no problem just let them know when we check in. So we did. The hostess seemed very offput by us just showing up despite this. We did not feel welcome at all. We were made to wait about 40 minutes in the sun and if this was all that went wrong, no biggie, but that was the best of it. Our server "Brianna, but you can call her Bree," was uneducated, quoting basic agriculture facts incorrectly such as referring to a section as only 25 acres or so instead of understanding that this refers to a specific area of 640 acres , and unable to deviate from the blurbs she obviously memorized about the pours. I asked her if I could have a taste of a bottle that is on the tasting menu, explaining that I received it as a gift but was unsure if I should open it or hold it. Nope. There was no accommodation offered, only that is part of a specific tasting so no, period, end of topic. No offer to upcharge, no offer to have me buy a glass, just no. And when confronted with the question she just stated all our wines are drinkable now. Not helpful. She did the bare minimum which was made worse by seeing her go head over heels to accommodate the other two tables she was waiting on nearby, sitting with them and chatting and bringing out charts etc. Why? Did she think she wasn't going to get commission or something? I mean she didn't even try and it was hard not to feel personally offended. On top of it, the table next to us had a server, "Season" who was amazing. She joked and played and made everyone feel amazing. She picked up the slack several times when she saw us just sitting there for long periods and honestly was best in biz quality of hospitality. Those people had a completely different experience than us. We probably sat for at least 30 minutes waiting for our server when we were ready to go. My friend had already gone to the bar after a long period of time to ask for another taste of something she was considering purchasing, so it should have been clear we were almost ready, but she decided to sit and chat at a table behind us instead of checking in. We ended up at the bar again when making bottle purchases, making a comment about how we hadn't seen our server in ages. The servers there did ask who it was, but didn't seem concerned about asking us further about our experience or offering any sort of apology or chance to talk to a manager. We left very...

Where do I start? We had just flown in, and MacRostie was our first stop (on our extended weekend celebrating my wife’s 50th). The ladies greeting us were very nice, handed my wife a birthday glass (with a splash of bubbly Rose), and showed us to our table. THAT is where the experience went downhill. We waited 15+ minutes before our server (S’ra) came over. “You must be my 4pm!” (as the clock now reads 4:15pm+), and she pulls a crumpled piece of paper out of her pocket to confirm. Classy. Then she heads off to find wine bottles to pour our first two glasses. Time went by. She placed four bottles on our table - two for my wife’s tasting and two for mine. She then ran off again - not having poured the wine. Another associate came over, grabbed one of the bottles, and confiscated it for her patio tasting group. S’ra came back, wondered where the fourth bottle went, and ran off to find one (before we could even get a chance to tell her that her coworker took it). Chaos. It’s easily 4:30pm now, and we have yet to begin our tasting. When the tasting DID actually start, two pours were given, and then she’d head off to “who knows where” for a LONG time. Sparing additional details, because, well, I don’t want to re-live it, we saw her walking a couple out to their car, hanging all over them, laughing, etc. “Ahhh, got it, FRIENDS of hers came, and THAT’s where she had been - with us as “second fiddle”. Our tasting went well into 5:30pm, with tables around us being sat after us, completed before us, lots of surrounding tables being cleaned up (because it was beyond closing time), etc. So, I went up to the bar to settle any outstanding tab - no one would acknowledge my presence. It was at this time that S’ra got back in from walking her friends out to their car, that she body checked me, and wanted to know what was going on (and if we wanted to revisit anything). Umm, and continue receiving poor treatment? No thank you. I asked her what we owed for the tasting, and she said “Don’t even worry about.” (acting like she’s being nice, and giving us a tasting “on the house”) - only to remember (after we left), that they charged us for the tasting at the time we made the reservation. I’m sorry, but wineries need to understand that the experience is JUST as important as the wine itself. I’m sure S’ra is lovely, but it was definitely an “off moment” for her and the rest of the team. Sad thing is, my wife had been looking forward to this experience for a LONG time (leading up to it), and it completely ruined the afternoon. Great...

I've been to many wineries over the years, and I've never had an experience as awful as this one... For starters, we had a reservation for 3:30pm that we booked a month in advance. When we arrived a few moments early, we were told we would be seated around 3:30 but I think they forgot because we weren't seated until around 3:50pm (normally I would have no issue waiting, but it was 95° outside and there was no shaded accommodation provided, they just told us to stand outside and wait). The wine tasting experience is 90 minutes and they close at 5pm so we were a little worried we wouldn't have time to fully experience the wines.

When we finally got seated, we had to wait an additional 20 minutes before someone came up to ask us how we were doing and start our wine tasting. We received a 20 second brief explanation of the wines and a quick pour and then the server left. We noticed a while into the tasting that we never received the charcuterie board that we pre-paid for, so we mentioned it to the server when they came back to pour our second set of wines (if we didn't mention anything, would they have brought it at all?). We did finally receive the charcuterie board once it was mentioned but it looked like the board was sitting out for days before they served it to us, the vegetables were all dried out (not something you would expect from a small charcuterie board that costs $50). There were also flies all over the place landing on all the food, even though we were seated inside.

After that, it constantly felt like they weren't paying attention since a different server would come up to our table every time (with 20 minute increments in between wine pours/check ins and very quick introductions to the wines). They also came up to us shortly after our last pour and let us know it was 5pm and they were closed, hinting that we should be leaving soon. We were seated late and received our wines with a delay which made us feel rushed.

Overall, this winery seemed like it was very overpriced for the experience they are offering and everything seemed very rushed/everyone was all over the place. If you want cheap quality wines and a rushed experience then this is the place for you! Unfortunately we will not be coming back and would never recommend this establishment to someone who wants a pleasant...