Classic Winemakers Llc

I had scheduled to have an event here on a Saturday afternoon and called the shop a week before to let them know how many people we would be having at our event. I left 2 voicemails and when I didn’t hear back in a few days, I tried calling again. No one answered, so I left yet another voicemail. The day before our event, I called AGAIN and somehow managed to find the owner’s cell phone number their website. I called the cell phone and left a message, and FINALLY got a return phone call about an hour later. The owner informed me that the shop was closed and would be closed for a few weeks due to a water problem they were having. Umm did they not check their schedule and see who had events coming up to inform them?! Good thing I finally got a call back because I had people coming all the way from Puyallup and it would have been pretty infuriating if they made the drive all the way down to Oly to find out it was closed. The owner didn’t even seem that apologetic. He asked if we wanted to reschedule for a later day… I wanted to laugh.

Had a terrible experience. I strongly suggest you avoid doing business with this place.
My wife bought me two Living Social certificates to make my own wine. My friend and I went down and made the wine. However, when I called to pick up my wine, they informed me that they were moving and had «destroyed» my wine and that I was out of luck.
What???
I said that they then owe me for the money I paid them. They said that my wine pick-​up date had «expired» but there was no such notice on my pick-​up slip. My friend had called a month earlier and they said that it was fine to pick up any time this Summer.
Ultimately, they won’t refund and they won’t make me whole with wine. Avoid this scam of a place.

I had a Living Social Deal for two for a 1-​hour wine tasting and blending experience.
My girlfriend and I went just this past weekend and had a great time! We’re both new to the world of wine, so it was fun to ask a bunch of questions, taste some wines, and randomly pick combinations to blend and see if we were successful! They bring in wines from local Washington wineries, so I thought that was neat too. The owner was super friendly, and even while we were labeling our bottles, etc. he had us sample some of the other wines that were available for purchase. Even after the six bottles we custom-​blended, I went home with another four bottles.
I know there are some reviews about iffy customer service, but I thoroughly enjoyed my interactions with the business from start to finish.
It may not be Woodinville, but this was a great first wine tasting experience!

Had an awful experience with Classic Winemakers, and would strongly suggest not doing business with them for the following reasons:
— The retail location is completely disorganized. They did not have all the different wine’s available, so we had to come back a different day to bottle the wine.
— I asked for something to be shipped. After making a payment to ship the item, it was finally shipped over 10 days AFTER the payment was made. Due to the late shipment the items arrived after the holidays.
— We’ve been in contact via email, and they will often not respond to emails. And don’t even try calling because they will either not answer or their voicemail will be full.
— I’ve asked to be in touch with the owner/​manager, and have had NOBODY provide me a contact or respond.
— Once I finally got the bottles of wine, the label that I provided the company (in their specs) was the WRONG size so the image that I used was stretched out and distorted.
There is no aspect of this business that is a success.

If 0 starts was an option, it would be closer to what this place deserves.
We showed up after confirming our appointment, and the woman there acted like she had no idea who we were or why we were there. We were told the guy who usually does the blending class wasnt there, but she could do it with us instead. She took us into the ‘blending room’ and without saying a word about what we were drinking, poured us an ounce of three different bitter wines. It was fine actually, as they were all equally awful.
The whole experience took less than 20 minutes, including the ‘making of our own wine’… She opened the top of three different plastic bags of ingredients and we got the privilege of pouring the juice into a plastic bucket. What an experience.
We left utterly shocked at the ridiculousness of the whole experience. We were told our 12 bottles of wine (which we paid for) would be ready in a few weeks. Its been almost a year and I have never heard back. Honestly, it was so awful, its not worth the 2 hour drive back to pick it up even if they had called back.
Thankfully, theres a mini-​golf course and batting cages a few exits later on the way back to seattle, so the day wasnt a complete waste of time.

In May, I called to make an appointment to make wine at this organization for September. I made it clear when I called that the appointment was for my sister’s birthday. My sister has been wanting to learn how to make wine for a long time. It was the one thing she wanted for her birthday. Two days before the appointment, I called again to confirm, once again making it clear that my appointment was for my sister’s birthday. I also made it clear that I would have to drive from Seattle and my sister from Tacoma to make the appointment. Both times, I was told that everything would be ready for us to make wine on September 10^th. When we got there, we were asked what kind of wine we liked and then the gentleman went away and never came back. Another person came out and asked us again what kind of wine we wanted to make. We told him and he let us taste wine until we found one we liked. Neither person gave us any clue anything was wrong. Eventually, we made a selection and said we were ready to make wine. It wasn’t until that point we were told they were out of that particular kind of wine. We asked what we could make, and were told that nothing was available. I explained that I had just called two days ago and was told that everything was good to go. We were only then told that for awhile the winery had been slammed from people trying to use living social vouchers and that two days ago they didn’t know they were going to be out of everything. I find it hard to believe that the winery sold out in two days. We ended up rescheduling. Even then, we were told they would have to squeeze us in, without consideration of the fact that we have had an appointment on their books for 5 months.
Their product costs between $ 200 and $ 400 dollars, which is steep considering they use wine kits like those that can be bought in a home brewer’s store for $ 60. I know the price also includes equipment, bottling and the experience, but for such a price, I expect to be treated like a customer. Last weekend, My sister and I drove from Seattle and Tacoma so she could be disappointed and her birthday ruined. I understand that things happen and am usually very sympathetic to this. Had I not called two days before to check on my appointment, I would not be so upset about my experience.

We had a very mixed experience, so I’d average it out to 3 stars.
Negative:
— Customer service is not great. I didn’t get a good impression each of the 5 times I called to set up, change, and confirm our wine blending time and ask important questions. They never sent me a confirmation email or anything, so I was worried that we might drive all the way there and not be able to do it.
— They were not ready for us even though I called to confirm the day before. We had to wait for them to set up.
— There is no unified theme in the décor, and they played really random music that just did not fit with the elegance of wine tasting.
— The wine blending takes place in a storage room… again, not at all the elegant ambiance you’d want for wine tasting.
Positive:
— Andrew was very knowledgeable and shared a lot about wines, as well as his own interesting life experience.
— They’re located very close to restaurants and shopping, so there’s stuff to do while sobering up after all the wine tasting.
— We not only got to choose among 4 custom blends and design our own label, but we also got to use the very cool corking machine and heating gun for the foil seals. The experience gives you so much ownership over your custom bottles of wine. And it’s fun!

I have very mixed reviews about this place. I think the concept is great, but the execution was poor by the owners. This place has been around for awhile, but the current owners have only owned it since 2009.
Some of the positives:
— Fun experience to taste, blend, bottle, cork and label your own wine.
— You can do custom labels for special occassions
Some of the negatives:
— It’s very hard to book a wine blending or any class through them
— Customer service via phone is so-​so as well as response time
— One of the owners, who led our blending class, lacked energy. He also dropped my digital camera when my friends and I asked for a photo and didn’t even apologize. It is broken.
— Wines we tasted were not great, but this could be because they need to «age». No clue how our final product will taste since we can’t drink it for at least 4+ months.
I’m not sure I would go back here again. I guess I’ll have to wait a few months before I can taste our wine… hope that will be good at the very least!

Shortly after my Unilocal posting, I received an e-​mail from Classic Winemakers saying that they’d been overwhelmed by the response to the LivingSocial deal and to please call to schedule. I did so. The earliest they can schedule people on weekends is in June. Fair enough. Unfortunately since I did not hear back sooner, I took the matter up with Living Social, which has started the irreversible refund process. I wish it hadn’t turned out this way. Sounds like it would’ve been fun!

This place is awesome. We are decent wine Connoisseurs, have been to every wine area in the continental US and many in Europe, and the wine we made aint half bad really. Better than most the stuff under 25 bucks in the grocery stores. We’ve done this twice, for a cab france ice wine and an italian wine blend we made and it is a complete blast each time. So laid back and fun. You can use a groupon or whatever, which is what we did the first time, but the regular prices are almost as good anyway, so it is not needed. For 7 bucks a bottle for the dessert wine, how can you go wrong? We were able to even bottle, cork, cap, and label our own private «reserve». Highly recommended for any one, snob (like us) or not.

I am writing this review purely based on Customer service with the Online staff or whoever responds for this Winery via email.
I received a Living Social deal notification and it was for this winery.
It was called a Wine Blending Class, the kicker was that the coupon was for only this coming valentine’s weekend class and you were not suppose to do a phone reservation, you were asked to contact them about reservation online via their website.
I go onto the website and go under events, there is no events listed, so I email them requesting so clarification on the Living social event and if they are booked up, if not would they provide date and times?
I receive a response via email that does not answer any of my questions posed in my email. They instead refereed me their website, the website that was not equipped with the correct information in the first place.
The associate also informed me that they are booked for this valentines weekend and the next weekend also.
I respond via email yet again, How is it possible that they are full if they are still offering the Living social deal and its specifically for ONLY this Weekend?
He responded with ONE sentence. «I do not know.»
I Do not even need to make the trip down there to their winery to experience more inadequate customer service.
For anyone who had the same intentions as I did when we saw the Deal on living social, I am sorry that this company was picked and they have failed to offer us correct and adequate date and times for an Event offered.

I had never gone to make wine before, so I really had no idea what to expect out of this or how long it would take.
At first I was stressed out having driving down from Bellevue, right after work, but my boyfriend and I walked in and Tony really made us relax by starting us right off with wine tasting.
Us, and a group of others that were also there to make their own wine batches, all spent some time chatting, and trying different wines. I was worried I needed to keep track of which ones I liked or didn’t like, but Tony kept track of it all, and I actually ended up settling on the first wine he gave us!
He also gave us a little tour, and talked about the company, giving us a background of how they came to be. We also got to see what it will be like when we come back to bottle and label our wine in 6 weeks. (You can make your own custom labels with your own picture for only $ 1 a bottle!)
One thing that surprised me was that the wine you make is ready to drink right away. A year, or a year and a half will certainly make it better according to them, but you can still drink it and enjoy immediately. In addition, the wine won’t stay very well past 5 years, because it is missing the sulfates (what gives me headaches) but I’ve never been able to keep a bottle past maybe 6 months, so that doesn’t concern me. :)
I had so much fun, and for $ 10 a bottle (I used a living social coupon!) it is certainly worth the price! I am very excited to go bottle my wine and to be giving these to my friends and family for Christmas.

This is my second time at Classic Winemakers, and each time is just as fun and exciting as the first!
You pick from a large variety of wines you want to make (while sampling each one), mix it all together, a slight science project, carefully guided of course! and then come back in 6 weeks or so to bottle and put a custom label on your personal wine! Great for presents and or just exceptional conversation pieces!