Montelle Winery — Attraction in Washington

I really used to love going to Montelle Winery!! My husband and I loved sitting among the beautiful trees, looking out over the valley. We have been back two times this summer after not visiting for many years. I'm quite disappointed, to say the least. The information below refers to our visit on Sunday, Aug. 1. There are a few additional notes about a visit in late June. In addition, I want to point out that with both of our visits, we were there about an hour or so before the stated closing time (6:00 pm on the days we stopped by). The trees/shade are gone. We sat under the covered area to get out of the sun. It was ok, but not as breezy. The tasting room was already closed. CLOSED! Like cleaned up, closed up, no one even standing in the area. I understand the need to clean up and shut down - my husband is in the restaurant/service industry - but this kind of work is often done after closing time, in order to provide guests with the utmost service and experience. Right? 3a. On that note, the man working the cashier station on Sunday was not friendly. In fact, he seemed annoyed that we were there (an hour before closing!). We asked about cups/glasses, and he simply pointed to the shelf by the door and said, "Over there." He also pointed out the closing time. I should also point out, other guests arrived after us, so it wasn't like we were the only stragglers along the wine trail. 3b. During our previous visit, there were 2 women working at the cashier station and my husband overheard one of them talking about how they wished they could close earlier like some of the other places in the area. Complaining about your hours of operation in front of guests just doesn't seem appropriate. 4a. While enjoying our reasonably priced snacks on the covered patio, it didn't take but 20-25 minutes before another employee stopped by to announce that closing time was approaching. He was friendly, as he offered for us to holler if we needed anything. But it was clear that he wanted us to finish up quickly. NOTE: An entire pack of cheese was covered in mold. If employees are checking the items they sell, there's no way this could have been missed! 4b. During our previous visit, it was just my husband and I. I took a few pretty pictures of the sunset as we shared our bottle of wine. Again, someone came by after only being seated for about 20 minutes and let us know that closing time was approaching. We were also told the closing time upon checkout of our bottle of wine. We were very aware. An announcement was made, like on a loud speaker/PA system, that the place was closing. We got to hear it twice, in addition to the employee walking by just minutes before. Really, a PA system to announce that you are closing? We were told to leave early. Again. This time it was about 20 minutes early. During our previous visit it was about 10-15 minutes early. What is the point of a closing time if you're employees are going to chase everyone out early? Again, I understand the need to get people out, close the doors, and clean up, but I also thought the clean up took place AFTER you were closed and guests were gone. I do not recall if we were told to clean up our own mess but we certainly weren't going to leave wrappers and dirty plates just sitting. Unfortunately, as part of the closing process, all of the trash cans near by were turned upside down, including the ones along the way as we were walking. There was one final trash can near the exit that we had access to. Convenient for the employees at closing time, but not for the guests.

I am not sure if we will give Montelle a 3rd try this summer/season. After 2 visits, I'm quite...

First let me say I wanted so bad to give this place a great review. After months of planning we finally arrived at Montelle Winery (there were 7 of us girls). I had been in contact with the Winery manager prior to our arrival due to the rules and regulations that they have on limos and buses and group sizes. We actually booked a van that was much bigger than we needed in order to be in compliance. I had discussed the vehicle with them prior to booking it and was assured that it was fine because it would fit in a regular parking spot. However, that is not the case. We were dropped off at the front door and then our driver took the van to the very back of the parking lot to assure he was out of the way ( just to be on the safe side). We decided to do the wine tasting and also order food, not aware that the wine tasting needed to be paid for at the back desk we all walked up to the tasting bar and were rudely told that we needed to go to the back to pay... (ok not totally a big deal). We paid for our tasting and also decided to order food as well (which was really really good). We started our tasting and the lady that was pouring our wine kept leaving us and talking with co workers not paying any attn. to the fact that our glasses were empty and that we were waiting after finally making it to wine 3 some of our food began to arrive (at this time we had been standing there for 20 mins for 3 wine samples out of 7) my friend took a bite of her salad and was immediately scolded like a child and told she could not eat here food at the bar (still not a huge deal..but there was nothing stating this and we were not told this at the register). Finally after eating and enjoying the food we all went in and purchased ALOT of wine and I mean ALOT we text the driver we were ready to be picked up so that we did not have to haul cases of wine across the parking lot. As we were loading everything up a bouncer type guy came out and began staring at us then another female staff member came out and began harassing our driver making threats towards him and accusing him of being in violation of their no van over 8ft tall rule (ok so all of a sudden after talking to them for months and getting approval prior to renting the van there is an 8ft tall rule that no one mentioned ...until we spent a lot of money there that is...) the lady requested the drivers card and advised him she would be reporting him BLAH BLAH....the threats continued until we were all on and had packed all of the wine (which by now I wanted no part of and neither did anyone else.) Fast forward 3 days later I returned home with this still on my mind went through all emails making sure I had not missed anything and decided to call them because I felt so bad for that poor driver...I felt the need to reach out to them (which I didn't have to do) when I called I asked to speak to the manager Sue... I explained to her what happened and how I was confused because via the emails and phone calls I was assured everything was fine and that I did not want our driver to get in trouble for following my itinerary . I also explained how rude and hateful the staff was...SHE DID NOT APOLOGIZE OR EVEN ACT LIKE SHE CARED! She didn't even take the time to be passive aggressive.. she was like "oh well"... there was nothing... she was cold and unapologetic. I will never return to this vineyard or purchase wine from them again which is sad because if you take away the staff and the horrible customer service provided the day of and by Sue after..it would have been...

Went to the winery for a relaxing evening, but wound up wearing three bottles of wine in less than 8 minutes. Montelle notably jacked up the prices, cut down trees that used to provide natural shade, and replaced the shade with dinky dark green umbrellas. After pouring myself and my friends a delicious glass of wine each, they went to use the restroom. Meanwhile, I was on watch duty. After they left for the restroom, a strong gust of wind uplifted the green umbrella while tipping the table and all the wine content. With a quick reflex, I was able to prevent the table from fully falling down. However, the gravitational pull was very strong and definitely not on my side. Three full glasses of wine landed on my lap as the bottles went scattering to the wooden deck with their clanking sounds. To save myself the embarrassment, I quickly propped up the table and picked up the bottles as fast as I could. Sadly, I was only able to save just a little bit of wine as the rest basically poured out from the bottles after hitting deck. There I was just sitting quietly with wet shorts and an uncomfortable damp croch, hoping for my friends to hurry back. One of them showed up with a bottle as the other friend was behind the one with the bottle. I explained to them what had happened and we drank from the newly arrived bottle. For the next thirty minutes or so, I sat there with one hand wrapped tightly around the umbrella pole with a wet croch. Made sure the gravitational pull didn't get anymore creative than it already had. One of the workers came by to take the empty bottles away. He had on cool dude sun glasses and wore a red baseball cap. His long hair was hanging out from the back of the cap. My friend explained to him about the umbrella situation. His response was, "Oh really? Maybe try tightening the knob." Although the cool dude knew that it was a common problem, he had decided to play dumb and told us to try another table and left. After our watching of similar umbrella event entertainment with other tables and finishing the bottle, we left the place to go to another winery. They need a better solution to provide shade from the scorching sun. Having 80 flying umbrellas from wind while dumping the pricy wine off the tables...