Novelty Hill - Januik Winery — Attraction in Woodinville

My family of three visited Januik winery expecting a similar experience as we did during our visit 8 years ago. We will always have a love and fond memories of Januik, however this visit was a bit disappointing. We arrived for our reserved wine tasting and food pairing experience and was seated in a beautiful spot on their outdoor seating area. The table was very small for three; it would have been fit for three adults to have a glass or wine, but when our wine flights and food arrived, we could not fit everything and asked to be moved to one of the larger tables. They said they were reserved, so they brought us a waiters-tray stand to place some of our food and such to fit everything. It was awkward. The waitress told us about the wines on each of our flights in a auto-pilot type of way. The wines were underwhelming and tastes of their finer wines weren't available. The food was decent. Sadly, I feel that they are catering to a fast-pace tourist vibe focused on a lesser mature pallet these days.

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In reply to Donald Januik's reply:

Thank you for your reply, Donald. First, I wanted to correct you on one thing; you mentioned my Classic Tasting Flight, which I did order. However, my husband and I ordered both the Classic and the Reserve flights simultaneously in order to taste all of the wines you have available for tastings currently. The wines that we found most enjoyable were the Januik label, rather than the Novelty Hill. As for the larger tables being reserved for larger parties, though I understand this, I did make the reservation for three and made it clear that we would be ordering food as well as wine. As you probably already looked up, we ordered two appetizers and two meals. Combined with the two tasting flights there was absolutely no way to fit everything on the table at once. It was so crowded that even with the tray provided (which was embarrassing to have sit by our table the entire time), it was difficult to maneuver and share wines and food family-style. With the large tray sitting at the table, along with none of the finished plates, etc. being removed, and the wind attempting to blow away the small paper plates provided for sharing, this definitely took the experience down several notches. My husband and I were determined to bring a couple of bottles home, so though they were unable to give us other tastings of Januik labeled wines at our table, we went into the bar area and asked for a couple of tastes.There was an heir of annoyance from one of the staff members for asking to taste wines that were unopened, but one of the staff members was kind enough to open a bottle that had not been prior, and we did wind up purchasing a bottle of that, along with two other options from the tasting flights. While we were attempting to choose a wine inside (since we were not allowed to at our table), there was a line of people behind us needing to check out. They were clearly agitated by us taking the time to ask about the wines and receive tastings, which caused us to feel rushed and as if we were a burden. This was dramatically different from our original experience of the quaint, romantic and un-rushed vibe 8 years ago - with the servers taking the time to speak about each wine with passion, patience, pride and care, and even having been walked through the winery. All-in-all, our first experience reflected the quality and passion that goes into your wine. This experience did not. Maybe it was just an off-day at the winery, but our expectations were high since we had been looking forward to a similar experience to share...

Decent Wine, Poor Wine Tasting Experience

We love wine tasting experiences, and take the opportunity to enjoy these when we travel. We've collected many wonderful memories around in the US and the world (California, Oregon, Washington, Italy, France, Spain, South Africa, etc.)

As a result, we have a basic expectation about wine tasting experiences - i.e., we expect that the host will provide at least some basic information about the winery and the wines.

Not so at this disappointing experience. The host dropped off the wines, and then was off. The only info we had was the basic info printed on the list of wines.

So overall a huge miss on the experiential aspect of what a good tasting experience provides. Will not recommend, or repeat. Donald - I appreciate your taking the time to respond, but I respectfully must clarify the situation as you may not have received accurate (or all) of the information surrounding our tasting.

Upon arrival, we did ask if there was availability outside, and were told that there wasn't space due to how busy they were. That was completely fine, as we had not explicitly requested an outdoor seating.

As a result, our initial wine tasting "experience" was indoors in the tasting room where we had booked our reservation. As I stated previously, this wasn't the normal level of service I would expect at a tasting. The two tasting flights were dropped off at our table with information cards by the server without ANY additional information or explanations. (As a point of reference to readers, I've been in other Woodinville Tasting rooms during a holiday weekend. Even then the staff took time to explain the basics of the wines we were tasting. So this isn't typical for Woodinville which has many great winery tasting opportunities.)

When we were tasting our third or fourth wine (we were sharing two tastings), the server did inform us that there was a table outside that we could use for the next 45 minutes. It was a beautiful day, so we did decide to move. And we did greatly appreciate the offer to move outside.

If weekday staffing is truly the issue, then I might suggest not promoting this space or offering outdoor tastings for bookings on your website, as this is what it states under the "Outdoor Wine Tasting" heading which has a direct link for booking.

"Our outdoor patios and gardens offer a serene Woodinville wine tasting experience, surrounded by a native Northwest landscape. A variety of tasting flights are offered to suit all...

We've been to several wineries all over the country but this one has got to have the worst service we've ever encountered. Our part of 6 was seated outdoors. At other wineries a waiter comes around to take you tasting orders and usually curates the wines for you, explaining the process and tasting notes. Not here. If you actually want to be served you have to go inside and order at the bar, then a waitress will drop the flights off at you table with no explanation to what they are (though there is a card). We weren't even aware there was water available until we went inside as nobody even asked if we would want any. When we asked for forks for the charcuterie plate she looked dumfounded, they could barely scrounge together 6 forks for us. Nobody even checked in with us after that. They definitely weren't understaffed, they just couldn't be bothered to come out of the air conditioning to do their jobs.

And on top of that, we were in the middle of a terrible heat wave, making sitting outside unbearable. The umbrellas and small trees are the only source of shade on the patio and they were not sufficient, no fans or any kind of mitigation was available. We asked if we could sit inside and the hostess gave us a surly response about how there's no space for our party and they can't push the tables together even though the indoor area was almost totally empty for the entire time we were there. As we were leaving one of the waitresses sneered at us.

The space is very beautiful and modern and I'm sure it would have been better on a day that wasn't so hot. But that's no excuse for the terrible and inattentive...