Adobe Road Winery Tasting Room — Attraction in Petaluma

Definitely got taken. We walked in, and a friendly woman offered us a tasting, and we quickly agreed to a tasting of the "Racing Series". We didn't look at the price -- we've done plenty of tastings in our lives. We got the first pour -- smallest pour I've ever seen! Then I found the book with the "menu" and prices. OMG -- the tasting with 4 pours of 1.5 ounces was fifty smackeroos. That is equal to one glass of wine for 50. They sold single glasses for seventeen. I could have had 3 full glasses of their wine for the price of 4 tiny pours.

Like many wineries, they waive the tasting fee if you buy something. They required the purchase of 3 bottles to waive one fee. They didn't waive both of our fees. For some reason and probably faulty logic, we did buy three bottles, so we paid 223 for 3 bottles plus the equivalent of 2 glasses of wine.

The woman who came and poured was polite, but really just read from the back of the bottle and told us how cool the labels and bottles were. No other info. Yes -- 3 of the 4 were likeable, but not amazing, and the bottles were "cool". We definitely were suckered. So not worth it!

Oh yeah -- the pictures and other reviews implied it was on the river. No. It's in a mall-like building. They no longer have access to the river seating. No atmosphere to go with...

They didn't honor our reservation, and had really loud live music. We showed up and said we had a reservation. They didn't look anything up, and just said "we can't seat you". I noticed a couple sitting at a table had a "reserved" placard. I asked how the couple got a table with a reserved placard. Their staff admitted that they didn't know; that the two probably just sat down there. They clearly don't have their reservation system under control.

They sat us down outside their main area in non-ideal seating right next to extremely loud live music. Loud live music is a pretty unwelcome surprise for a wine tasting. After being seated no one came to take our order or explain our options so we just left. I don't think I would've been able to hear a wine explanation anyway over the volume of the live music. I'm going to avoid this tasting room...

I recently visited Adobe’s tasting room with my wife and mother-in-law, and we were all pretty disappointed with the experience. The wine selection didn’t quite live up to the high standards I’ve come to expect from our area. The atmosphere was also a letdown, with subpar service that left us feeling unwelcome. There was a particularly unpleasant interaction that really dampened our visit. I will probably not be back myself (at least for a while), but I hope they can improve their experience as great food/wine is always welcome in our lovely downtown.

That being said, with so many great wineries around here, I’d probably suggest trying somewhere else in...