Hi Berserkers,
In the interests of fairness, I wanted to post a followup thread regarding my experiences at the 20 Bees winery. I actually enjoyed the visit very much irregardless of my wine reviews and I think certain things should be mentioned to even out the thoughts and feelings that were mentioned in that thread. Full disclosure: I have had a friendly e-mail correspondence with the staff at 20 Bees and they are fully aware now of the content of that thread so that you all know where this is coming from.
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The visit to the winery itself was amazing. I should’ve stressed this a lot more. The winemakers took time out of their Saturday when I’m sure they could’ve been doing something better to give us an awesome tour experience and I appreciate that they went out of their way to do so. I can tell you for a fact that the experience with the Steven and Chris wine was nowhere near as fun or as hospitable. I have no doubt the attention they paid us resulted in a few more sales, and that’s great customer service. I took several pictures of the tour and sent them some photos as a token of my appreciation (though they may wish to burn them now… ).
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This was my THIRD visit to 20 Bees (yep, been there two times before) and I have made purchases every time, including 4 bottles of icewine this last Saturday which I had intended to buy long before I set foot in the door (the tour organizer actually noticed my spreadsheet printout with the wines I was going to buy from 20 Bees). As was mentioned in previous threads, the customer votes with their wallet and these guys have had my vote three times. It was just not on this particular set of wines this day. I can assure you my reviews will be very different when I crack open those icewines I purchased, as I already know what kind of quality product I can expect out of those from previous experience.
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There were SEVERAL purchases of wine amongst the 25 tour goers from the Dan Aykroyd line, so obviously a lot of people liked what they drank. In contrast, if you didn’t get the inference from my thread on the Trend line, NOBODY on the tour bought any of those wines. I think that in itself speaks of how much the tour as a whole liked the product.
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I will not backtrack on my reviews, but please let’s remember something. I specifically stated that Berserkers wouldn’t enjoy the wines, not the average person. I believe the people on this board are wine elitists. Not snobs, but elitists. As in having their own cellars with 260 boxes of wine on the floor because there’s not enough space in their regular cellar storage. Not everyday people who buy $15 wines.
From what I’ve read here so far, the skill level and experience is obviously far beyond the norm of the normal consumer and knowing that somewhat influenced what I wrote. I aspire to be one of you and having an idea of your tastes from my previous live get-together did influence my opinions.
- As Michele Bosc said on a previous thread, no inferences should be drawn from my own amateur personal opinions of the wine regarding the care, work ethic or skillset of those involved in making the reviewed wines. It turns out that the same winemakers actually worked on the icewines that I highly recommended and purchased (I went out of my way to inquire on this) so that speaks volumes to their skills and product. I do apologize if that inference was drawn from my soapbox comments.
I do want to let everyone know that the reactions from the Boscs and the correspondence I’ve had with 20 Bees have both informed me quite a bit and led me to commit to being more measured in future posts. Measured, not self-censored. Benjamin is right in stating that I should not be afraid to state what I think of wines, but it should be clear of any potentially wrongful inferences and misguidedly high expectations (a la $50 value wines for $15 and not expecting the winemakers to go belly up). Again, anyone reading my stuff should always remember why my opinions actually don’t count for that much and shouldn’t hold any sway over your own purchasing decisions: 
I intend to post more TNs over my long weekend in April to the Niagara region and hope that I will come across as more skillful, even and fair in those.
Thanks for reading.