Fainting Goat Vineyards — Attraction in Talking Rock

Fainting Goat rates up there (or down there) as the top 5 worst winery experiences, we have ever had. My experience is not limited to North Georgia – I have had the privilege of some of the best wineries around this country as well as France, Italy and Australia. We went to FG on Friday on the way to TN for my wife’s birthday. FG has been talked up by many friends. One of my wife’s friends, knowing our taste in wine, suggested their Chardonnay… why not… its not to far out of the way and we have wanted to check it out for a while. We were excited, but that was short lived.

Upon entering the tasting room, we waited a few minutes to be welcomed. While the attendant was helping someone, it would have been nice to receive a hello (but that is a nit). My wife explained that it was our first time, and she had heard great reviews of the Chard. The worker asked if we wanted a bottle. My wife asked if she could have a taste, before committing. We were not looking for free wine, just did not want to pay, if we did not like it. The response was, “I cannot provide you a taste, there are cameras everywhere and I would get fired if I poured free wine.” WAIT, WHAT? You cannot provide a simple taste?!?! We decided to order 2 glasses and give it a go. The lady behind the bar was only interested in selling a bottle, we politely declined. But it does not end there…

We took our glasses outside to enjoy the view and have our glasses. NOTE – this is not a review of the wine as that is very subjective. Before to long, it was a tad chilly with the wind and we went inside. The chairs were horrid and not conducive for sitting and enjoying a glass (or bottle) of wine. Very uncomfortable metal chairs. To each their own, but I am used to wineries having relaxing furniture that aides in the enjoyment of the wine.

Finally, upon leaving I used the restroom. On the back of the door (I wish I had a picture), there was a sign that said something like “Do not steal our glasses, you can purchase at the bar.” Look, the glasses with the goat are really cute, but common, look at the message you are sending. Clearly you are accusing your customers before they even did anything. We walked out of the tasting room without even a “Good-bye, thanks for coming.” The attendant was in the back, saw us leave but was clearly not interested in the customer service aspect of the experience.

Needless to say, the experience was not good, and we will not be coming back to Fainting Goat. This please seems more about the money (yes I know it is a business), and less about the guest...

First off I’d like to say the views, atmosphere and Sunday Basket Picnic were all wonderful . That being said the administrative side of this place is horrible. They held our credit card in their file to insure that all items provided were returned. I completely agree with this decision, however when we returned the basket and checked out they forgot to return our credit card. We discovered this on Monday and contacted the winery. I spoke with Al who explained the manager was not in yet be he would have her call us. No return call. We contacted them again and spoke to someone else who said the manager would call us back . No return call. We called again and it went to voicemail which was full. We called again on Tuesday and spoke with someone who told us the manager wasn’t there. After explaining the situation, the call was transferred to the manager who it turns out was there but apparently didn’t want to be bothered. We explained again the situation and simply asked if they could Fed Ex the card to us since it’s over an hour drive to get there. She said she wouldn’t do that because they’ve had issues mailing credit cards back to people leaving the only option to cancel the credit card and request a replacement. What a nightmare this has been. The whole situation could’ve been remedied had they had a system in place with the associates that guaranteed the return of the credit card to customers( maybe a checklist) I’m not sure why they couldn’t simply write down the credit card information in lieu of holding the actual card. I don’t understand why they couldn’t Fed X the credit card since I seriously doubt that Fed X would lose a package that required a signature, it was just laziness on their part . The fact that the manager had the associate lie about her being there says volumes about the integrity of the whole place. The fact that no one called back and that we had to keep calling , not good customer service. Probably won’t be recommending or returning to...

We really like this vineyard. We travel from FL several times a year to come here to visit and love to venture out to the vineyards in the area. This is our 2 nd time to visit this vineyard. We absolutely love the views and the cute goats. We love them, the theme and surroundings. However, the last visit about a year ago we came, enjoyed, and went back to FL. When we opened a bottle of the four we purchased, the wine did not taste like the one we had at our visit. We visited again today and mentioned the odd-tasting wine to the girl helping us and she told us that they stopped selling that particular wine because they had many complaints about it.🤷‍♀️ Today our group of 5 bought 5 flights and 8 bottles of wine. When we later checked the order, we realized the order was not correct. We are due to return to Fl tomorrow and NOW have to return to the vineyard to get the order straightened out. It is unfortunate that we have to delay our trip home to get something fixed that we feel should not have been an error. We believe things happen yes but we are hoping that this will be handled in a mannerly way and simple errors as such will be recognized and taken care of so that we will love to continue to frequent this vineyard. Thank you in advance.

11/11/2024 Monday ( update) After returning back( an hour out of our way to returning back to FL😢) to the vineyard to swap out what we thought was a wrong bottle of wine that was given to us accidentally we were informed that they had changed the name of the wine that was listed on our flight list and that was what we had chosen to buy.We should have been informed about this change of the wine while purchasing. Our party spent over $500 this trip and I feel this is inadequate training of staff members. It is sad that we most likely will not return due to lack of information about wines and risking getting home and losing out on dollars for a bad...