Vintner's Collective — Attraction in Napa

I had the pleasure to work with the Vintner's Collective team to book a private event for 9 people, in the converted brothel upstairs--obsessed with the background on the Madam, as well as the beautiful space! Lessly was fantastic in getting everything set up over email, and with all the flexibility I needed due to the unknowns around our travel (Air Canada strike, potential border issues). When we got there, we were greeted by the bartenders--who were all so kind!-- and met our host for the evening, Kurtis. We had a fantastic hour plus with Kurtis and were given many options of wine to taste from VC's insanely good collection. The tastings were customized to each guest, which was very thoughtful.

The best part? After leaving and promising to come back to pick up some wine before we headed back to Toronto, we returned 2 days later and not only were we warmly greeted, but Kurtis remembered all the particular wine we tried and liked. We had a few additional (complimentary) tastings & bought 5(?) bottles of wine to take back home. Tried to travel in a carry on, but ended up checking bags to take home some Patel cab sauv, and my personal fav Hertelendy 2018 Signature Mountain Blend.

I'll add some pictures later.

Exceptional...

One of the worst wine tasting experiences we have ever had. Stood at the bar, place was empty but offered no seating. Staff rude, would physically leave in the middle of us explaining what type of wine we liked and then just came back with a bunch of random bottles without listening to our preferences. Would be in the middle of talking with them and they would completely stop to talk and laugh with their friends that were just hanging around. Didn’t rinse glasses or change them between whites and reds. We had one glass for the entire tasting with no rinse in between, if you do wine tastings like we do this is a hugggeeee no! Gave water after the 3rd tasting, after the 4th provided crackers (it was only a 5 tasting that we did). When pouring the bottles splashed the wine everywhere. Tried to get us to have wine from everywhere even though we expressed wanting to taste the Napa area. Seemed to judge us when we said that and only gained a little bit more respect when they realized my husband was French so he knew wines. Shame would definitely be cast on any novice American wine taster in this place! I won’t even start on the prices because that is to be expected in this region but they should at least try to make it a...

We visited Vintner's on June 10th, 2018. Mike Johnson was our sommelier and he was unbelievable! We thoroughly enjoyed the wines, but also his enthusiasm, knowledge, humor, and energy. There was a slight mix up with our private tasting with cheese reservation (no 2 option), but they remedied this immediately and we didn't miss a beat. Of course the extra pour of wine was like duck tape - capable of fixing anything. :) Mike really impressed us with his knowledge of the Valley, the history, and his taste for some for some of the smaller vineyards. We didn't realize until we visited that Vintner's is a tasting room for some smaller boutique vineyard that do not have one... and we really enjoyed the quality of the vino. And the cheese plate? Excellent, with some meats, cheese, nuts, etc. We will be sure to make this a stop every time we visit Napa. - Joel & Carolyn...