1285 Winery — Attraction in Washington Township

Truly unfortunate experience due to the unprofessional and unethical behavior of the co-owner. I’ve heard wonderful things about this place, but after this incident, we’ve now learned from local authority that she has been known to have this habit.

Just two days before my sister’s dinner in celebration of getting married, she attempted to strong arm her into paying a higher price than what was quoted and agreed on months in advance.

I can see how this would work for her. How many brides/grooms/anyone with a large group would disagree, cancel, find a new location so last minute? Who else would be able to accommodate a large group with only two days notice? What about the headache of telling all of the guests that the dinner is actually going to be held elsewhere?

She actually had the nerve to apologize for her “oversight” but insist there was nothing she could do (as the owner!?) and tell her she had no choice but to pay up. And my sister, the bride, had told her she just wanted dinner only, nothing else, for 60 people, the day that she was getting married. So she knew from the start that it was her wedding day, which is why two days before she suddenly wanted to up the prices, explaining that since it is a wedding it costs more. Excuse me? This isn’t news to her. She knew this from the start. Why only just inform her two days in advance? Also she is getting absolutely nothing from the wedding package. They had gone over costs and sheets months ago that showed prices for weddings and the bride was told to ignore that part, since it’s only dinner.

Truly mind blowing that she thought it was ok to behave in such a despicable manner. My sister, the most laid back person I know, throwing the simplest wedding she can put together to avoid the stress and just enjoy and celebrate this moment in her life, was brought to tears after being bullied by this woman. The owner tried to make her feel like she was being difficult and rude simply because she tried to stick to the agreement and wasn’t budging.

Can you imagine being a person that preys on one of the happiest (but often stressful) moments of someone’s life?

Well little did she know that my sister is not one to be jerked around. Very firm, calm, and resolute little woman that we are all so lucky to have in our lives. And it wasn’t as much about the money as it is about the principal of this very scummy move.

And guess what? Our little bride to be is backed by 60 wedding guests that actually don’t care one ounce when or WHERE the dinner is going to be - we’re there for the the bride and groom, not their wood fired pizzas and drinks the price of a bottle. Profits that could’ve lined her pockets if she’d been professional. But I think that money is much better spent elsewhere, don’t you?

So in the end, this is a happy turn of events for all of us.

And they lived happily...

Pretty building, interesting business practices. We arrived Saturday around 2pm. It was our first visit here and we were impressed with the outside appearance of the winery. Walking to the front, there was a little outdoor counter where people were arranging for blueberry picking. We went into the main door of the building and walked up to the hostess stand. The hostess asked if we wanted a table for 2 and I said we were there just for wine tasting; she said we would do that at our table and it would be a ten minute wait. I asked about the outdoor patio and she said those tables are also arranged by her and that we could visit the gift shop while we waited. Now, I was a bit surprised when she originally said the wait would be 10 minutes, this is before I mentioned wanting to sit outside and we had full view of the dining room. There were maybe 6 people inside, with almost every table completely empty. We briefly looked in the gift shop and then sat on the bench near the hostess stand. She said our table was ready and helped the girl who would seat us with menus, a bread/butter dish, napkin/silverware roll and the girl walked us outside. But, our table wasn't ready; she had to split a table for 4 into 2 tables for 2. Hmmm. We then sat at our table and the girl who seated us walked away. We began looking at our dinner menus (they begin serving dinner at 2). The menu contained only food options, no drinks and no mention of wine anywhere. We patiently waited for someone to come by so we could ask for a wine menu. Five minutes passed, then ten. At that point, I set a timer for 5 minutes and we decided if no one came by the time the timer went off, we would leave. The timer went off, no one came to see our table. Interestingly, staff visited the tables behind us and in front of us multiple times. We left. We wasted 30 minutes there and drove out of our way to visit. What a waste of our time. Our feelings after our visit is that 1. this is not a winery, it is a restaurant. There is nowhere to taste wine and after expressly stating we were there to do a wine tasting, we were not given a wine menu. 2. We saw through them making us wait for a table, it was a ploy for us to buy something in their shop. Sad for them, if we had a nice experience tasting wine, we probably would have gone back to buy wine, something from the bakery, a latte and maybe a souvenir. Instead, they received nothing from us. I have visited many, many wineries and have never, never experienced one without a tasting...

Party of 4, lunch time on a Friday. All ordered the tasting of 3 wines of your choice. Server brings the 12 wines to our table. Not labeled or in flight holders like every other winery. She proceeds to try to hand out the correct wines to each of us but had no idea which wines were which or who ordered what. Seriously, she was like "This one is either the Blueberry Bliss (sweet wine) or the Malbec." BIG difference! Then, "I think this is the blackberry." This continued for each glass she handed out. I had choosen 3 sweet wines, only 1 of mine tasted sweet. Others didn't think theirs tasted correct either and we are all experienced wine drinkers. We couldn't even have purchased a bottle we liked to take home because we had no idea what we were drinking! Then the food order: I ordered a Chicken Salad Croissant. Description clearly says "served on a toasted buttery croissant with kettle chips AND A CUP OF SOUP 15." The server informs me there is an up charge for the soup. I said, "oh, I want the croissant, it's included". Assuming she thought i wanted the chicken salad listed below the chicken salad croissant with other side choices. She says yes but there is an upcharge for soup. I try showing her my menu where is shows what is included with the chicken salad croissant. She doesn't bother looking and says "I know it's confusing, you can get soup but you have to pay the uncharge for it. Yes, it's very confusing since it's printed in black and white right in front of my face what is included but whatever. I didn't order soup on principle. If I had ordered another meal that didn't list soup as a choice, I gladly would have paid the upcharge for soup. Then we hear the people at the table next to us order with a different server. Three of them ordered the chicken salad croissant. Their server said to each of them, "that comes with soup, which kind would you like?" When our server comes back, I question the interaction I had just over heard. Again she says: "yes it comes with soup but you have to pay an upcharge for it. We are not required to tell you about the upcharge but I like to let people know when they order." Then our food comes and someone got the wrong sandwich. He decided to eat it anyhow because tables that had come in after us had already eaten, paid and were leaving. They did take 10% off just his sandwich for giving him the wrong one. The place was beautiful but it was an absolutely horrible experience! Would definitely recommend NOT...