Brooks Wine — Attraction in McMinnville

I'll start with the good: the wine and the location. Most of the time these two factors suffice for an enjoyable experience. However, as someone who has been a patron to this establishment multiple times, my most recent experience was so shockingly disappointing that I felt a review was warranted . The negligence we received from the wait staff was unlike anything I have ever experienced. We arrived for a 1:30 reservation, and didn't receive any acknowledgement from a single server for 30 minutes, not even a "hello, we'll be right with you". After waiting some time, we personally reached out to two servers, on our own accord, just to make sure they were aware that our table had been seated. Even still, little to no attention was given to us, and it took 45+ minutes just to receive a single glass of wine with little to no explanation or acknowledgment from our waiter. After we were finally able to order some food for lunch, we were left to wait some more. In fact, after an hour and half past our reservation we were told the "WiFi" had messed up, and the kitchen hadn't even received our order. By this point we were frustrated because we already felt like we were begging just to receive the bare minimum of service, and asked the waiter if we could even receive something to snack on while we continued to wait for our main course. The waiter said yes, but unsurprisingly at this point, nothing came. Meanwhile, people who were sat 30+ minutes after us had already received all their food and beverage. When we wanted to express our concerns, we felt our concerns were dismissed by the lead (Zachary). I truly felt like the staff couldn't care less if we had a good experience or not. Ashlyn was perhaps the only one who genuinely made in effort to apologize. Overall, we left the establishment feeling like it was a massive waste of time. It is truly disappointing considering it was supposed to be a nice visit for our parents visiting from New York. I highly recommend the management takes this review into consideration, as this experience was enough for us to never come back or...

We had the best experience ever because of Jaymi! We’ve been fortunate to be Brooks wine club members for about a half decade, and on Oct. 4, it was another level. There are few dining out moments my wife and I could recall where it was instantly elevated because of our server, and that’s just what happened on this day. Jaymi has a natural, “best friend-type” manner about the way they approached our table. Their explanations about the wines were perfect – so unique – and they were ideally attentive. There was a level of genuineness from them that was definitely remarkable about this visit. (Worth mentioning we have had no bad experiences at Brooks. It was Jaymi’s ability that prompted us to write a review for the first time, though.) Thank you, Jaymi. We hope we get you as our person every future visit!

One last note about Brooks. This is the wine place in Oregon. My wife and I have visited a variety of wineries over 20 years in the state, and nothing compares to the perfect value that Brooks offers its members. They have bona fide, fabulous food offerings -- not only cheese trays. Formerly Chef Norma, and now with Chef Matt, they make such delicious items - with ingredients from Brooks' garden. And the view! AND THE DECK! Please go here if you’ve never been, and strongly consider their wine club membership. We’ve been able to experience so many wines and share them with friends because of their 50% discount on wines opened on-site. Of the many wonderful perks, this is the best! May it never go away. Thank you to the managing director, Janie, and the entire crew...

I rarely leave reviews but this place really required one, and unfortunately, it’s not good. We came here with a reservation and high expectations for a great experience based on prior reviews - we were so excited. And it’s true that the location is beautiful and the wine is great - but the experience was not. We were seated outside and promptly ordered two tastings and a cheese plate. As soon as the cheese plate arrived, so did the bees - ALL OVER our table, food, and us. We put the untouched food at the end of the table to keep them away, but couldn’t enjoy our wine for quite awhile as it took what felt like forever for someone to come see what was going on and attempt to fix the problem (which wasn’t really successful). We ended up just finishing our wine quickly at another table and then waited, again, to pay for it because the wifi was not good enough to swipe cards outside. We were finally able to pay and left a tip - because none of this was the fault of our server, who tried her hardest. It just felt like there was no management around to fix issues and support staff, and in turn felt like we as customers sure weren’t that important. Hopefully our experience was an isolated incident and this review helps the Brooks team improve....