Barrister Winery Downtown Tasting Room — Restaurant in Spokane

I want to be as fair as possible despite my frustration as there are two sides to every story.

My group came in on 10/20/24 at about 1pm. The wine and atmosphere is not at issue. It was the service. When my girlfriend and I first walked in to meet our group, my friend was at the bar ordering more wine. He told me that if you buy a bottle, you can get a tasting for free. I thought “oh cool. That's a good deal. I’ll do that.”

Here’s where my frustration began. First, the sommelier behind the counter treated me as if I was going to dine and dash when I told him that I’d buy a bottle with a tasting. I am well aware that businesses need to be weary of this sort of thing but, the sommelier did not clarify ANYTHING about the promotion my friend described. He told me that he would just charge me for the bottle up front before the pours. Which I should say is FAIR.

Additionally, to be fair to the business, I know that you can’t just hand out freebies but I was only able to sample two wines before paying $35 for a bottle… before tax and tip. I thought the point of buying a bottle with a tasting is finding out which one you like? (Yet again, to be fair, a tasting comes with five pours and me and my girlfriend had 4/5 between us. So we could have had one more sample. But the server never told us about the fifth and we never received it. I didn’t even know a tasting came with five pours until my friends told me.)

I even had to ask him “what bottle am I buying?” as I paid. He did not explain prior and simply told me, “you’re buying the cab-franc,” as if I don’t have a choice.

As a consumer, I should have asked for clarification before purchase. This part is my fault.

However, in a customer service/hospitality industry, a server should explain the details of a deal before forcefully stating, “you’re buying this…” in response to a question about what is being purchased…

I am still unaware as to whether I had the option to buy another bottle in the tasting lineup.

Further, no matter how much I type, I still cannot adequately portray the attitude I felt that I received. It was not overtly disrespectful, but not kind in any way. I am not a person that frequents wineries and this experience reinforces why.

As such, this is all background context to the real issue. A group walked in the door right after us and they were treated with a level of respect that me and my girlfriend did not receive. The sommelier had a much more kind demeanor, going out his way to provide better service and explanation to the other group. I would not be writing this review if it was only me that noticed. But a few of my friends did as well.

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