Adelsheim Vineyard — Attraction in Newberg

I am very impressed. My wife and I were tasting in Willamette Valley and came across Adelsheim Vineyard based on a recommendation of a friend who went to “Pinot school” in the Willamette Valley area. We made reservations for a tasting but arrived about 30 minutes early. We were greeted with a tasting of Rose and took a seat on the patio to enjoy the sunshine while we waited. Since we still had some time to kill before our actual reservation time my wife and I decided to walk up to the bar and get a glass of wine while we waited. The folks working the bar area were beyond friendly and helpful to allow my wife and I to taste a few different options so we could decide which glasses of wine we would enjoy while we were waiting for our reservation. We adjourned back to the patio to enjoy our glasses of wine in the beautiful sunshine. We were called for our reservation on time and seated along the rail overlooking the vines excited for our tasting to begin. Unfortunately about 15 minutes passed and no one greeted us. This was unfortunate but the winery was very busy and I’m sure they are dealing with staffing issues like the rest of the service industry. My wife and I decided to leave as we had already tasted a few wines and thoroughly enjoyed the glasses of wine we had picked out while we were waiting. As we were leaving a gentleman on staff noticed we hadn’t been helped and offered to take care of us personally. We declined as we were satisfied with our visit and needed to move on to our next reservation. I was most impressed by what happened next. As we were driving to our next stop I got a phone call from Mark, the tasting room manager. He had heard about our experience and wanted to reach out personally to apologize. I informed him that we were not upset and had actually enjoyed our visit and the wine. He thanked me for my feedback and asked if we would like to return in the future for a complimentary tasting. Unfortunately we were only in the valley that day and would not be able to return. He apologized again and asked which wines my wife and I enjoyed the most and offered to send us something. I told him it really wasn’t necessary and I appreciated his follow up. Having worked in the service industry for years I know mistakes happen but how you recover makes all the difference. He echoed my point and said that for him it wasn’t just about the tasting room experience but they were trying to establish customers for life. What a refreshing perspective especially during covid when the attitude seems to be get your stuff and get out. When we arrived back home Mark had sent us 2 bottles of wine , mine and my wife’s favorite bottles from our tasting experience. Needless to say Mark has made us customers for life and we will return to the vineyard when in the area but we will also order wine direct and purchase when we are lucky enough to see it on the shelves in the Austin area. My wife and I shared a bottle of Pinot that we found at Whole Foods last night. Thank you Mark and thank you Adelsheim for allowing your managers and staff to do what they can to retain customers. It means...

We had the best introduction to Willamette Valley wines & hospitality at Adelsheim, the bar has been set very high for future winery visits!

Adelsheim has a fantastic COVID protocol. All tastings are by appointment. On arrival you are greeted and checked in individually and led to your private tasting cabana. The view overlooking the original 52 acre vineyard is picture perfect. Masks are worn everywhere except at your private table. A dedicated staff member was sanitizing each cabana area as folks finished (the tables, the chairs/cushions) and replacing the tasting note pens/papers for each customer. This system surely cuts down on the volume of people they can accommodate each day but it made us feel comfortable that we and the employees were keeping safe the entire time.

We hit the jackpot with having Elizabeth to lead our tasting. Her knowledge and enthusiasm about the winery specifically and wine culture in general made our tasting really special and personalized. We are always particularly interested in terroir and regional variations and Elizabeth was so fluent in this because of her personal work experience. She was very kind to take the time and share some of those details with us and it made the tasting even more memorable.

This area is known for their world class Pinot Noirs and they did not disappoint, even getting to do a mini-vertical tasting. Don’t sleep on the whites though, the Chardonnay was lovely, bright and acidic with just a hint of oak to round it out...a real treat on a warm day.

Thank you for such a great...

Wines are decent. Felt like there were a number of Pinot’s we had that day that I enjoyed more...and were even a little more affordable. Our visit was a somewhat awkward and uncomfortable experience. Website said they had a patio, but when we got there, they said it was closed and sat us in a tent in The parking lot. Was a bit of a bummer cause it was a beautiful outdoor wine drinking kind of afternoon. But just assumed it had something to do with COVID, as they are taking some serious BIG TIME precautions at this place. Much more so than any of the other wineries we went to. Kate Brown would be proud! :-) However, when I went to the bathroom, we saw the patio was actually open. When I inquired with the patio server (who made sure to let me know that he was also a MANAGER, even though I didn’t ask) He said it wasn’t open and became oddly defensive about it. Clearly there were a bunch of folks on the patio. So assumed it was a special event or maybe reserved for wine clubs members? NOPE! He said it was overflow. Shouldn’t the parking lot be for overflow I asked? To which he seemed to become Terribly offended and rude. I actually felt Like I needed to walk away or risk a very unnecessary escalated confrontation. As I did, I heard him say “WOW” as he walked away. Quite immature and unprofessional behavior for a Manager...and super aggressive. I had to assume he had just grown tired of trying to explain why they are telling people they’re patio was closed...must have been...