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Fredericksburg Winery
Rating Details »
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Private Lot
- Good for Kids:
- No
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
6 reviews for Fredericksburg Winery
I've done a lot of wine tasting in a lot of different places, and this was by far the worst experience ever in a tasting room, not to mention some of the worst wines I've ever tasted.
Firstly, the place is like a big wearhouse (I think maybe a former bank) and it's cold and uninviting. There were four of us in the group, and it took almost fifteen minutes before we could get up to the bar. We waited patiently and wandered around the store. They have some jams and spreads laid out for tasting, with a giant sign stating that if you sample the foods first, you absolutely will not be served their wine. I guess it's going to ruin your palate? Let me tell you, I didn't need any jam or jelly to tell me that these wines stinks.
When we finally got up to the bar, our server/hostess was one of the most unfriendly people I've ever come across. She poured the tastes, and then immediately took the bottle away. I like when the bottle is left because I like to take a look and read the label. When my friend tried to ask questions about the wine, the employee acted like we were wasting her time. I thought the point was to get to know a wine and find out about it. Not here, I guess.
I'm partial to California wines, but I'll try just about anything. I'm always open to a new wine region. Central Texas is not that region. All the wines were super sweet, very fruity, and tasted like grape juice. I hate grape juice. The wines tasted like they never got any time to age, and they were merely fermented and shoved straight in a bottle.
I have to admit, they have really cute and fun labelling, and I was hoping that at least one wine was good so I could have some souvenir from my trip. Nope.
All four of us walked out offended and disappointed.
This was my third time in the winery and I knew coming into it, this was going to be a unique wine tasting experience. I prepared my out-of-town friends with, "It's a little different and the sommeliers are like auctioneers at times." I've always had the ZZ top wine server who rattles off useful and useless wine information at lightening speed. I have found him endearing and have even bought wine from here. BUT NEVER AGAIN!
The last experience has left me feeling like this is the Archie Bunker shack of all wineries. We had a different wine server this time and he insulted all five of us within two minutes. His humor was not appreciated as he rambled about the incompetence and inferiority of women (our group was made up of 5 women), graduate students (3 of 5 of us are grad students), teachers (1 teacher of our group), and female lawyers.
After alienating all the liberals in the land by saying that only lies come out of the mouths of Clintons or John Kerry, two people in our group walked away in the middle of the wine tasting as the insults and comments were unbearable. After directly addressing him as a sexist, he slowed his roll, but the damage had been done.
In the parking lot as we left, some friends were pulling up to go in. We saw them at the next winery and asked them how their experience was at Fredericksburg winery, they replied that it was "awful." A different wine server had snapped at my friend's father because he drank a wine out of sequence. When he calmly replied that the wine tasted all right and not too bitter out of sequence she insisted that it was unacceptable and that's not how they did things at their winery.
I really want my wine tasting experiences to be peaceful, relaxed, and enjoyable. This was the antithesis of all those things.
If you are looking for something worthwhile in town, I HIGHLY recommend the Fredericksburg Herb Farm. They have beautiful garden grounds, cook their fresh herbs in EACH recipe, sell herbs and homemade lotions and soaps. Check it out!
Okay, so let me start off by saying that the two stars here are SOLELY for the hot spiced Christmas wine that I bought. I'd never had anything like it and it was very tasty.
This was probably the worst "winery" I have been to. I'm used to walking in to a place and seeing their property. Seeing their barrels of formenting wines. Hearing about their process and then tasting their delicious wines with someone who actually gives a crap that I am interested in their product.
When my friend and I got there I was immediately put off by the warehouse-esque feel to it. It was noisy. There were maybe twice as many people as there were sommeliers and we were ignored for so long.
The woman that eventually ran down the list of wines with us was obnoxious. She completely ignored us, never made eye contact and acted like we were a nuisance. She took a much greater interest in all the other people there tasting and joked around with her co-workers. She was one more giggle snort away from a "Listen, lady! Poor my wine NOW!" from me.
All in all, a pretty terrible experience. I was not at all impressed by them. Not to mention the slave child and elderly labor that they had putting labels on bottles.
Boycott this winery for its offensive sommeliers!
I am said friend that Rosalind C. referenced in her review and I want to echo her sentiment that Fredericksburg Winery is not worth a visit.
Let me clarify: I was not in the same group as Rosalind C., but did go to the winery on the same day. I really had to go to the bathroom and we wanted to hit one more winery before we left town so we went in for some tastings and a pit stop. When I came back from the loo (nothing special here) a lady was serving us, so I didn't expect to get the same sexist comments as Rosalind C. encountered.
My dad started with a sweet wine while me and my S.O. started with a less-sweet . When my dad took a sip of my S.O.'s glass, the sommelier flipped out:
Sommelier (in a strict, exasperated tone): Sir! You can't try our wines out of order! That wine you just sipped out of her glassed will taste bitter because you started with a sweeter wine!
Dad (calmly): Actually, it tastes pretty good.
Sommelier (now offensive): We do it our way here. If you want to try that wine, you have to go back to the beginning.
I don't know if I can do her surliness justice in print. I mean, come on. If you want people to try your wines your way, that makes perfect sense. But if a customer wants to sip a different wine without sipping all 14 wines in strict order, then there's not much you can do about it and you should let them without being offensive. No other winery in Fredericksburg is as uptight and controlling of its customers. They rest are for the most part really laid back and just kind of want to talk about grapes and alcohol.
A few seconds later, I walked out of the shop and proceeded to go yell in the car because a second sommelier came up and was asking all these personal questions and I got pissed off that she was making assumptions about people.
Spend your time elsewhere if you visit Fredericksburg.
Honestly, I'm not a huge fan, the wines here are decent, but nothing really wowed me, though the sweetness chart on the sides of all the bottles was a cool and handy feature. The collection of preserves, jams, jellies and salsa though, now those were yummy. I also picked up a nifty wine saver thing that pumps all the air out of the bottles and reseals them so that the wine keeps longer.
If you like sweeter wines this would be a good place for you.
For anyone touring Central Texas wineries, my advice to you is this:
SKIP THE BIG FREDERICKSBERG AREA WINERIES (Fredericksberg and Becker in particular, but see individual reviews on Grape Creek, Torre di Pietra and Woodrose) IN FAVOR OF THE SMALLER ONES.
They are crowded, noisy, busy, tasting is not a fun experience, and, the wines can be quite expensive.
Texas Hill Country Wine Passport: #9
Tasting: I don't know, we didn't get to taste anything!
Tasting Staff: I don't know, we got completely ignored by them
Facilities: Large tasting room/bar, with lots of staff
Wine Dogs: none here, maybe its the staff?
This is the only winery on our wine tour at which we did not taste any wine. Why? Well, we walked in, approached the bar and got in line behind another couple and patiently waited our turn. When they finished, we walked up to the bar and waited some more. About 5 minutes went by, no one made eye contact with us, no one talked to us, other groups approached the bar after us and began their tastings. WTF? Another 5 minutes, nothing. So, we went to the checkout line (you taste, and then you wait in another line to check out) to just get our wine passport stamp and leave. This took another 10 -15 minutes because the ladies ahead of us were happily getting great customer service and chatting with the staff. We walk up, ask for stamp, get hardly a word out of the cashier and leave. I don't know how they do it. Just skip this one - there are several really good wine experiences to be had nearby (Singing Water in Comfort, TX is one of our favorites, or Chisholm Trail just outside F-berg for the unique Tex-perience).
