Ironstone Vineyards — Restaurant in Angels Camp

EDIT/UPDATE: They have definitely not gotten any more organized in the last 2 years. I called almost every day for the last 2 weeks trying to get a vendor space for the event on July 2nd 2022. Every time I was transferred to a different person rhat was supposed to be in charge of Vendor spaces. I left multiple messages on each person's voice-mail that I was transferred to, and never heard anything back! Today I called again and was transferred to yet another different person supposedly in charge of booking Vendors. We own and operate a CBD company here in Calaveras County and vend at all the local farmers markets and community events.

Apparently our products are "not what they would like to have at their venue." All of our products are thc free and are 100% legal in all 50 states on a federal level.

Just seemed very strange because they sell and allow alcohol consumption on their property, which is highly intoxicating. Our CBD products on the other hand are not psychoactive, they can not get you high or alter your judgment/motor skills. Our products are very therapeutical and provide healing to our communities. Alcohol on the other hand is known to create lots of problems for people(physically, mentally, emotionally, and strain on peoples families and friendships.)

Just find it very strange that they push alcohol so hard, but when it comes to something that could actually benefit and help their attendees plus their customers and their familes,, they want nothing to do with it! Came for the 4th of July event in 2020. Was $1 short for the entrance fees, and employee Robert was not wanting to let us in. After unsuccessfully trying to find change in the car, Robert told us he was sorry but we could not enter. The manager ended up letting us in after saying she would out the dollar in. What kind of big winery doesn't have the ability to take debit/credit payments? Now we are inside and the parking is all meesed up. There's a giant line and the people directing the cars are telling us someone made a mistake and let too many cars through, so now we are stuck in a line of cars trying to find a spot... So far not a good impression...

This review is specifically for the Toby Keith Concert on June 16th. For the usual wine, food, staff, patios, ambiance, I would give Ironstone 5 stars, no problem - we love visiting, which is why seeing Toby here seemed extremely appealing. I read past reviews of prior concert goers so as to successfully avert any concerns based upon those reports, including "dust bowl parking" which, unfortunately, bled clouds of dust over into the main vendor and porta-potty areas. However, we were NOT prepared for the very FLAT grass seating area (which appears to be a majority of seating area - quite extensive.) Veteran "lawn" concert people, we were very disappointed that, when seated, the stage itself was not viewable. Even worse where the millions (not kidding here) of little brown BUGS flying out all over the lawn (!) landing on everything, everyone, everywhere. Gross, unavoidable, and unimaginable for a venue of this supposed quality and designation. I wonder if because Ironestone knew the place would be filled with drunk revelers simply seeking a Toby Keith party (he delivered, of course) is why the management didn't bother to properly treat the grass beforehand. We will visit Ironstone again, yet only for the afternoon, not for a concert event, and will most definitely stay away from any green grass present...

Hopes were high for this rural music venue, but we'll never return. For reference, we went to the Robert Plant and Alison Krauss concert over the summer. It took 1.5 hours to travel the 1.5 miles from Murphy's main street to the venue due to the line of traffic, and once we arrived and parked in the dusty lot (which had no traffic control for the thousands of attendees), we stood in another long line to go through security, whose treatment of attendees reminded me of the TSA. Rude, slow, and yelling at people. Nothing about arriving was welcoming. Once we found seats on the grass, we realized this was not quite an ampitheater. Lights were shining on us the entirety of the show. We knew leaving the one-road in, one-road out parking lot would be a mess. But we also thought there would be staff helping to direct traffic. Yet there was none! We idled for an hour before wheels even moved. For comparison, we saw Robert Plant and Alison Krauss a couple years ago at the Greek Theater in Berkeley. We had none of the problems experienced at Ironstone. Whoever owns Ironstone needs to put much more effort into the attendees' experience. For the price we paid, we expected more professionalism and thoughtfulness. Instead we now tell friends to avoid this venue for the...