I've really been procrastinating on this blog post as our visit to the Good Earth Food and Wine Co. left such a sour taste in my mouth - and it wasn't even from the wine! I considered just skipping this post but that would prevent me from accomplishing my goal of reviewing all 80+ Niagara region wineries, since it's pretty unlikely that I'll visit this one for a second time.
Chris, Carrie and I visited Good Earth for our first stop of the Niagara New Vintage Festival on the festival's last day. For this particular festival, tourists buy a passport for $40+HST which contains 8 coupons, each for one wine and food tasting at any of the participating wineries. I chose Good Earth that day because of it's impressive offering of 3 different wine and food combinations per coupon: a mini 3 course tasting menu of sorts.
Our initial impressions were quite good. The atmosphere is cottage like, with lots of pine and a kitschy but cute set of giant utensils in the vineyard. There are at least 4 different seating areas, 1 indoors and 3 outdoors, providing an intimate feel while still allowing for a sizeable number of guests. The well manicured garden area bridges the patio to the vineyards, creating the sensation of a sprawling property much larger than its actual size. Taking in all of these sights, we were rather eager to dive in so we headed into the wine boutique, where our visit began to fall apart.
The boutique, which is also the restaurant's waiting area and a pass-through to the kitchen for the staff, is no more than 200 square feet, was jammed with confused patrons. After a brief wait, the hostess materialized and explained that the passport tastings would be held at the tasting bar in the garden. That cleared out about 1/3 of the room and we headed out past the patio, through the garden and found seats at the adobe style bar. The server asked for our passports. We explained that we needed to buy them. She told us we were to have bought them inside but that they were sold out. We asked what we should do. She told us to go inside and talk to the hostess who could do something for us. Chris went inside but the hostess simply confirmed that they had, in fact, sold out of passports, and we would have to go to a different winery to get them. End of discussion.
Put another way, we showed up to the business of a small player in a large, highly competitive industry, saying "please let us try your product" and were told "get in your car, go to our competitors, and then come back and try our product." No alternatives were offered or suggested and an overwhelming attitude of "not my problem" oozed from the staff. Needless to say, we left, bought our passports at the next stop on our tour, and didn't go back.
Now, on the off chance that the owners of Good Earth ever read this, I have some advice. You cannot afford to be so apathetic or complacent. I'm sure your wine is palatable, but you are a 10 minute drive from Tawse, Canada's best winery, 3 years running. Yes, the food we saw on the patio looked and smelled delicious, but only 12 minutes away is Vineland Estate's world renowned restaurant. You also have a beautiful location with lovely views, but so do Angel's Gate, Thirty Bench and a whole slew of others. Either I'm missing something and Good Earth is so fabulously successful and profitable that it doesn't need to consider these things when it sends a customer out the door without having tasted its product, or Good Earth is simply out of its league.
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