Durant Vineyards Tasting Room — Attraction in Newberg

UPDATED 9.18.2019

I was contacted by the owner, Paul Durant, after posting this review of my experience, and Durant and his staff has gone over and beyond to correct this situation. Not only with a full refund of our time at Durant, but with other generous accommodations we are very excited to take him up on. I also received a personal call from our server from that day, which was very appreciated.

Thank you to the Durant team for going over and beyond to make this right and restoring excitement with our group about the Durant brand.

Because of this, I'm going to change my review from ONE star to FOUR stars.

I’ll be completely honest here. The product, location and view at Durant was amazing. But I’m leaving a one star review because I was so disappointed in the staff. A group of 9 of us came in to Durant to celebrate a triple birthday. The theme was wigs and wine, so we all showed up with fun colored wigs on. We were having a blast and because of a late start, Durant was first on the list for a glass of wine. We ordered three bottles to share amongst all 9 of us, sat on the patio and had a great time. Three ladies (including myself) in my party even inquired about a wine club membership because we were enjoying the wine we selected so much. We wanted to order a couple more bottles, but was told by Durant that they stopped bottle service at 4PM. Thinking this was a policy, we completely understood, paid + tip, and moved onto Stoller for our final stop. Here’s where things get real unfortunate.

Upon our arrival at Stoller, we were informed that we would not be served, as they received a call from Durant that we were over intoxicated and should not be served any more wine....

Now I understand under OLCC rules, servers of alcohol have to make judgement calls on whether people are intoxicated and should not continue drinking. But, we were at Durant for under an hour, split three bottles between 9 people (which means we all got maybe 2ish glasses, our DD had one glass.), and made no drunken scene. As a matter of fact, we were in back patio under the covered area, away from most of the other visitors.

Now, here’s my problem. If they were worried about over serving us, they should have just been honest with us. A simple conversation with us would very easily show that we all were not drunk. At all. And if they thought we were THAT intoxicated, they should have asked us if they could call us a cab home, verified a DD, or let us know they were calling our next location. Instead, they let us drive away (remember, they think we are too intoxicated to be served), so it’s awesome that they’re willing to allow us to drive on the roads in that state but not tell us why they’re about to call our next stop, or why they’re making that judgement call. Good thing we weren’t drunk at all and had a Designated Driver with us.

Long story short, I’m extremely disappointed in the staff at Durant. I’m so disappointed that I would hands down not recommend their location for wine tastings, they lost 9 customers and 4 potential wine club members. I hope in the future, they better train their staff on how to make an appropriate judgement call, as well as how to properly execute that judgement call before ruining a party’s plans who didn’t deserve it. And let’s hope if this happens again, it’s not with someone who’s disabled and a limp is mistaken for a...

I brought a total of six people to this winery for a tasting. The day was a Saturday afternoon. We sampled the olive oils and the vinegars. Everyone of us loved the selection and the taste. Some bought one or two bottles of each. It was a smashing success. The winery grounds were beautiful! when we went to the actual tasting, our server was very lackluster. She didn’t seem excited about waiting on us, serving the wine, or really anything else. We tasted the flight of wine. Each one of us felt that the wine tasted gutless-a watered down version of a decent wine. None of us were impressed by the selection or by the taste. The only saving grace was the charcuterie board. It was excellent! Perfect selection of cheeses, meats, and fruit. But this is the winery. I can say that location, The olive oils and vinegars, the charcuterie board, was exceptional. However it is called a winery. I would never come back to the winery and neither would the five others that I brought. With the exception, if I wanted olive oil, vinegar, or maybe a charcuterie board, I would consider it. But there’s no way I’m trying anymore of their wine. And that was the assessment of all of us. And two weeks later the group is still moaning on the service, the wine, and the shock that that’s what we were served. And not only that the bill was over $250 for just the board and the six flights. We all felt that was hideously expensive for what we got and how we were treated. I hope our server improves. She would really have to if she wants to get good reviews. With so many good wines in the valley, unless we wanted olive oil, we would all go elsewhere.

Updated 9/24. It took my party of six until this time to select a date to accept Durant’s offer to return. I’m telling you, to deal with COVID restrictions for six of us and the subsequent scheduling of their options, was like herding ferrel cats. But we did it. And yesterday was the day.

I had written an honest review depicting a snapshot of our visit, highlighting many great points and only two concerns. That was the sum total of my motive. Besides that, we were just one voice among many happy reviews. I was so shocked that I received three different appreciative emails from high ranking company positions voicing real concern over our snapshot. Each one a day a part. Sadly, in most companies, gone are the days of real customer service. However, that is not true here. They wanted to make it right so we could have the appropriate experience that most people who come to this winery have. They provided admirably without the slightest hint of negativity. Excellent wine selection for our flight couples with the service of caring and knowledgeable staff. I don’t believe our time could have been better. Shout out to Amanda. We even desired three bottles, not because of feeling obligated, but because we actually loved the wine. We understand that any business or employee can have an off day. That’s a reality. But it takes a solid, caring business and staff to want to make it right for the customer. And it takes boldness to carry it through. This is what the...

I came here with my friend and moved two chairs to sit in the sun after ordering our bottle of wine and food. Once we sat down, this woman with a tattoo of a whole garden flowers on her both arms came over and told us that we can not move lawn chairs and those chairs are for only those who reserved it with a phone call. To make it clear, there were no "reserved" signs on any of the tables. The whole time we were there, we've noticed that there were no one came for those chairs. With almost 99.9% of the white people who were sitting at all the tables, I can see why this woman didn't want someone with brown skin sitting there. Shame on you, tatooed woman with a white shirt. There were so many empty tables with lawn chairs around, and you did not want us to sit where we were. If you are not white, I would not go to this pathetic place. However, the server Daniel, whom we had, was really great and tried to cheer us up and serve our wine and food by knowing what had happened. Beautiful place with a horrible server with a terrible attitude. I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND THIS PLACE TO ANYONE. To the owner of this vineyard , be careful of whom you hire as employees. They can give you a bad reputation. Hire people who respect and treat everyone the same.

Answer to the owner - Thank you for the apology. At least you or your staff should have put a note on each table if they are reserved without asking us to go find any table that is available. As I mentioned before in my review, those chairs or some other tables were not occupied at all during our two hour stay. My friend who visited your place more than 6 times told me that it never happened to her before when she visited with her son. They used to grab a chair and sit. I guess there is a profiling as one reviewer said in his...