McMenamins Edgefield Winery & Tasting Room

We attended McMenamin’s Wassail Cider fest in January so we wanted to try more of their ciders and this is what popped up online. We got the cider flight and the red wine flight, both of which were really good. However, the wine flight they gave us 2 of the 4 glasses, then told us to come back to the back for the other 2, which was a bit weird and honestly I wasn’t a fan of. The service was also pretty lackluster, it was walk up service, which seems to be pretty common in the PNW so we’ve grown accustomed to it, but when its walk up service, I expect a little more when I do come to the bar to order. There were two employees, a blonde woman that I’d guess was in her 20s and a middle aged gentleman. The woman was very nice and enthusiastic and seemed eager to help, but the man seemed like he was doing everything he could to avoid serving guests; when I returned to the bar for the second half of our wine flight, he noticed me, but proceeded to drink water, pace around, look in the storage closet, take a step towards me, turn around, take his sweatshirt off, look around again, then finally came up. As a bartender myself, it seemed like all the things that someone does when they don’t want to help a guest, so they try to waste as much time as possible until another co-worker comes to help them. The vibe was pretty cool being in the basement with glass windows all around so you could see the wine barrels, but it was a bit too dark in my opinion, which made it seem kind of dingy being in the basement. I also wasn’t a fan that when you walk in, there are no signs or menus, just brochures advertising other McMenamin’s properties, and the bar is very small with standing room only and very crowded. It reminded me of a busy college bar where I had to fight through to order drinks, but in this case I had to do that just to see a menu, let alone order a drink; not exactly the experience I want from a tasting room. Overall though, it was still unique experience and I’m sure it would be really cool to stay on property, but I don’t think I’d go back.