Tasting Room & Taphouse at Mount Ida Reserve

My wife made reservations for my birthday at Mount Ida Reserve. We enjoy traveling to Charlottesville to visit the wineries and spending the day with our friends. We had a 1:00 PM reservation. We arrived about 12:45 and checked in with the hostess who told us that it would be a few minutes as they were resetting from a morning activity and recommended a drink at the bar. We proceeded to the bar where we ordered our drinks. I asked the hostess if the tables on the inside were available as we waited so my wife and daughter had a place to put their flights. She said “no” but that there were chairs outside. (It’s now 12:55, five minutes before my reservation) As my wife and daughter stood at the bar tasting their flight one of the gentleman behind the bar said that we could not stay there and needed to find another place. This is the first place that I have been that you can’t stay at the bar. Isn’t that where you do your tasting? We decided to check-in the hostess and was able to get seated. Service at the table wasn’t much better. We ordered appetizers but when the appetizers showed up we had to flag down our server to get appetizer plates. We ordered the chicken skewers which didn’t show up. When we inquire the server, He said that he would check on them. (We all assumed at the table that he didn’t place the order). We had to constantly flag down our server for bottles of water and check on our dishes. One of our friends order the chicken skewers which never showed until after we asked for them. We even had to go inside and order another bottle of wine because our server was no where to be found. Virginia wineries are not cheap. For the price that you pay and the tip that is expected on the tab, the service was no where close to acceptable. The staff was not engaging or cheerful. No one from management walked around to check on your experience. The food was descent, but was not memorable. The winery itself is beautiful and scenic. I’m sure many people enjoy Mount Ida and have a great experiences; Unfortunately our first experience was a bust and we will probably not go back.

Service was poor, wine was swill and kitchen that claims to be open for on 11-7pm didn’t open until 5pm even though we saw other tables get food. Big thumbs down.