Winery of Hot Springs — Attraction in Hot Springs

This has been our favorite Winery for years and have traveled to Hot Springs a few occasions especially for this winery. We walked in today and the lady behind the bar was very off putting. First off, she looked at us like we were interrupting her and asked, “what do you need?”. I was confused by the question and replied that we were here for wine. We stood by the bar waiting our turn and the ladies that were currently getting a tasting and they were sweet - spoke to us and invited us to join them. Lady behind the bar proceeds to jump down MY throat saying she will wait on us after this party because “that’s how we do things here”. I had not even asked for a tasting and actually already knew which wines we wanted to purchase! We walked further down the bar and I quietly asked my husband if he understood why she was being so ugly to us? Had I said something offensive? Or maybe merely walking through the door was the offense? She then leaves the party she was giving tastings to and walked over to us to ASK me what I said!!! This woman is insanely confrontational. I left to go wait in the car and my husband returned inside to get my fav wines. He asked her what the problem had been and she said to him that she apologized “if she came off wrong”. Which is fine. We all have bad days. But it still left a stain on our evening. We still love the wine from here so y’all should definitely try it. Just enter with caution on the customer...

This business is just another tourist attraction, and a deceptive one at that. The sign advertises "Arkansas Wines", and as a supporter of Arkansas wineries, I'm familiar with the five or so in Northwest Arkansas (Atlus), so I asked what wineries the wines featured at this store came from. The answers were evasive, at best. They claim that the wines come from their winery in the Altus area and are shipped to Hot Springs, but wouldn't give specifics. Why not just answer the question? I suspect that the wines are actually relabeled from some other source, and they're just more of a retailer, if anything.

For $3, you taste 10 wines, most of which were overly sweet with no memorable or redeeming qualities, other than slapping a name on them that might convince a tourist to buy it as a keepsake of being in Arkansas, because nearly all have localized names, including the rather derogatory "Slick Willy's Grape Wine". A standard 750 ml bottle will run you nearly $12.99 -- which is more expensive than most of the much better wines that are sold by the main Arkansas wineries, such as Post and Wiedekehr. The person who handled our tasting was uninformed and made mistakes in the names of the wines.

Make no mistake -- this isn't a tourist attraction, as it's billed; it's a storefront. If you're considering a real wine tasting, where the staff is knowledgeable about the wines and the wines are worth your time to sample,...

Today (7/22/2023) was an awful experience. The lady working clearly thought we were bothering her and wasting her time. She blew through the wine tasting, barely spoke to us when she did it was rude tones, and when my mother asked about tasting a certain wine again, the lady rudely explained why she could only taste one time. We also used to be able to mix a case at a discounted rate and we can no longer do that. Who wants 12 bottles of the same wine? Another thing I have noticed over the years is that their wines are always the same. They NEVER have any new wines. I'm not sure how the same 9 wines keep them in business, but if the customer service keeps up like this, I'm not sure they will be in business very long. Additionally, the smell of gas was very strong in the building and when I asked them if they could smell it they just said "oh yeah. We have the ducts in the back". What does that even mean? Not safe at all for anyone to be breathe in gas. They should have shut down for the day. Worst experience ever in all the years we've been going there. Judging by others comments, it would seem it's the same employee bringing the name down. My experience sounds just...