Viansa Winery — Attraction in Sonoma

The most amazing view; the rudest bartender/server.

My wife and I drove there to grab a glass of wine and snap a pic from the patio with our little one. We arrived at 4pm and made our way to the main tasting bar. We stood in line for quite a bit of time. We eventually were against the bar and engaging a taller, younger gentleman server, with his hat backwards. He was trying to finish pouring two young ladies but had to open two bottles and was engaging them and us along the way.

Then he switched to my wife and I, and as we ordered our glass of wine, a shorter blonde server spoke to him, “you can’t pour a glass.” I asked why not; I was told by the taller guy, “we can’t serve past 4:30pm.”

As you can imagine, at this point I’m very frustrated cause we just watched this young lady talk, while moving at a snails pace, do very little and while we waited from 4:10 to 4:30 to be served, at 4:33 she tells him he can’t pour a glass.

Tried to hold my frustration and simply switched to “fine, I’ll take a bottle of each.” She popped off again, “well we can’t open it for you.” Hmm, I thought as I bit my tongue as I already understood the rule, that you CLEARLY DON’T POST ANYWHERE, but we drove all this way and I simply wanted to take it home at a minimum.

The taller guy, even appeared frustrated as he clearly knew we’d been standing there, but he didn’t talk back to this person and I just looked at my phone, took note of the time (4:33pm) and let him at least know I’d definitely be leaving a review.

So, 1) Viansa website, google page, and signage on the property displays that they close at 5pm. This particular short, blonde female clearly didn’t want to evaluate the situation and provide excellent customer service, but rather refuse to serve my wife and I at 4:33pm. Again, this is after we’d stood in line since 4:10pm watching this particular server just run her mouth, and had already “before 4:30pm engaged the guy that was rushing to help us.” 2) After refusing to allow us to purchase our first and only glass we were requesting, they continued to serve many people at the counter who had paid for flights, or who they “knew” as the two girls that got served at 4:31pm ahead of us surely weren’t told no. 3) Outside servers were still walking up to tables and pouring wine till about 4:45pm, but we’d already decided to take the pic and leave.

I have to say, businesses like restaurants, wineries, breweries should do their job till they actually close. While this winery will forever get business cause it’s gorgeous, it’s a shame to not strive to match your beauty with appropriate staffing, training, and execution in customer service! Situational awareness in this case, and a realization that we’d been there waiting, we’d been acknowledged, and the guy was trying to serve us…….. we shouldn’t had to have written this review! The guy should be rewarded for trying and his realization that I am a vet as he gave us a discount on the bottles.

All this said, we left and went to Jacuzzi; they served us and let us sit past close and were super friendly. I guess they have better customer service expectations there cause they don’t have quite the venue, but………. It’s still very beautiful and I’m glad they allowed us an opportunity to enjoy the trip we took. 1 star to Viansa and...

I was pretty disappointed by our experience. I can't share all of it now but here are a few bullet points:

They had tables outdoors without heaters and were working to get heaters. It was freezing and this was a situation created by poor planning. Look at the weather report and arrange for the heaters to be there before people arrive.

There was no one available to clean up our dirty plates at our table. We essentially had to bus our own tables. This should not be the case when you are paying $90/person for a buffet. They should have hired extra help. I'm sure they made a killing.

The waffle station was almost constantly out of waffles. They kept restocking one small rectangle plate with waffles, overseen by one lady who would keep running back to get more. It was a poorly planned and managed set up. We were all left waiting for waffles.

The fruit salad was covered in a strange and disgusting mint dressing. No child wants mint dressing on their fruit. They could have made at least one version of fruit without any weird fancy dressings. I thought it was inedible.

They told me that the egg hunt would be announced and not to worry about getting ready for it. The egg hunt was never announced. Instead, the Easter Bunny announced it to a small group of kids and then it was mayhem as everyone starting running to the egg hunt lawn. Not cool and very stressful.

I went inside the winery to look for a wine stopper for our wine bottle purchase. The employee was too bothered with his phone (texts and Instagram) to help me out with a simple matter that would have taken him 15 seconds to solve. He tried to send me to the other side of the building, where there were visibly 15 people waiting at a counter to be served, while I was holding my baby and clearly in need of assistance.

When we ordered our omelets there was a young man there taking our order. He told us to come back in 10 minutes. When we returned, the "young man" was nowhere to be found and the omelet chef knew nothing about our order. It was a total disaster. We had to order the omelets again and wait for them to be prepared. The result was that I was running inside and outside several times, and kept away from my family, for a simple omelet order.

The food was good but not $90 good. I would say that it was worth $50 per person for the food and maybe an additional $5 for the 2 ounce pour of wine that they give you. Then maybe $15 for the Easter Bunny and egg hunt. BUT, due to all of the above blunders and disorganization and poor service, I would say that it was worth $0.

We...

Pretty location but lacking in service a bit during peak Saturday hours. This winery already seems quite bustling with plenty of outdoor seating (many for reservations but there are some open patio seating and picnic bench areas), and even moreso if they're also setting up for an event in the evening, which could close the venue earlier for the day. The initially full parking lot was a real warning sign.

One staff member Kat behind the non-member counter was a bit brusque, more eager to ring up our $25 tasting than even initiate a perfunctory overview and explanation of the first pour. Fortunately there was another member at the other end who despite all the hustle and bustle still took time to give a paraphrased description (hopefully a bit of her own opinion and not merely echoing the written tasting notes ;) and some extra details about the grapes and growing region relative to the estate itself. Appreciate at least this initial gesture to continue the conversation if desired. Ended up buying a bottle of the 2021 Altura primotivo from her, and also would consider the 2022 Terra chardonnay (hmm I wonder if I would've bought that too had the initial pour been more inviting from the first pourer 🤔).

The cafe operations are quite slow, unfortunately. Even overheard another person return complaining about food not ringing the buzzer even after 40 minutes. As for us, 15-20 minutes for a plate of cold olive-oiled toasts, burrata and effectively sauces (tomato and pesto) should've been platable in a minute or two, but the staff efficiency handling a queue of other more complicated sandwich orders or platters keeps you waiting, ruining any attempt at pairing any of the order with the wine you're tasting. They clearly don't run that portion as efficiently as a dedicated restaurant might, but it's also unusual to see such an offering at a winery. In the end, the burrata was tasty and satisfying (but sadly didn't pair it with the whites as originally imagined). Just note that this type of speed at the food counter could make a real dent in any itinerary if you visit on a weekend. At least you can still do walk-in...