Ponzi Wine Bar

I’d been here once before when it was just the Ponzi Wine Bar. It is now the Wine and Bubbles Bar (Still owned by Ponzi).
The food was excellent and the wine was very tasty. However, the service was terrible (friendly, but terrible). It was bad service for the following reasons:
1. When we arrived, there were only 6 other people sitting and eating/​drinking. However, we stood there for about 5 minutes before we just asked if we should seat ourselves. The waitress said, «Oh yeah, sorry. I’ll get you some menus».
2. We had to remind her to come clean off our table since it hadn’t been cleaned from it’s previous patrons.
3. I was told by a friend that there was happy hour until 6:00. We were there at 5:30. She gave us the regular menu and said nothing about happy hour. We sat there for 10 minutes before she even greeted our table for the first time. (at this point there were only 4 people in the room). I finally asked if there was a happy hour menu and her response was, «Oh, yeah. That menu is floating around somewhere.»
4. It took an HOUR to get our food (and it was only small portions from the happy hour menu).
5. I asked twice to get our waters filled. Never happened. That was while there was only one other patron in the room! At this point we also had empty wine glasses, and she never asked if we wanted more drinks.
6. My sister ordered the Brussel Sprouts. All four of us at the table heard her order it. When the waitress finally brought our food, my sister asked about the Brussel Sprouts. The waitress’s actual response, «Brussel Sprouts? Oh, we don’t have any. Yeah, they’re all gone.» Really?! You couldn’t have told her that when she ordered them?
I recommend this place for the food and drinks with the hope that your sever is experienced and knowledgeable. Especially if they hold themselves at the standard that they do.

I have visited the Ponzi Wine Bar several times. All experiences in the past were quite enjoyable. That string came to an end yesterday.
I ordered a glass of Ponzi Pinot Reserve and the cheese plate, same order as many times before. However, changes have occurred since my last visit. No longer does the friendly female wine pourer prepare the cheese plate, it comes from the kitchen. Other changes included that the wine pourer was new, and no longer friendly, and the cheese plate no longer came with bread. The unfriendly wine pourer was (barely) willing to go all the way to the kitchen to retrieve some bread, and did.
I could go on with how this once fun wine stop, is no longer, but I have become bored with this review. Too bad Ponzi, seems like you have stopped caring.

Stay far, far away from Ponzi. They talk up the benefit of joining their wine club, but when someone wishes to leave the wine club it takes 3 emails (all unanswered) and 3 phone calls to finally speak to Jeff, who apparently manages this part of Ponzi’s business. I found that completely unacceptable. When this area has so many OTHER great wineries/​vineyards and outstanding customer service, you should pass on Ponzi. I think they’ve outgrown themselves and lost valuable customer service in that growth.

I have been meaning to visit Ponzi for a while and I’m glad I did. They have a great tasting room in the middle of downtown Dundee (Sidenote: You could spend the whole day wine tasting by just walking the couple blocks that makes up downtown Dundee). Ponzi was one of our last stops of the day, and we didn’t have the greatest experience at the previous winery. The ladies who were running the tasting room were fabulous. They were very conversational and knowledgeable about their wine and the wine industry as a whole. They had some good suggestions for future tastings and adjusted the tasting menu so we could try what we were more in the mood for.
I would suggest a stop at Ponzi anytime you’re in the area. Excellent wines and fabulous staff. I can’t wait to visit again!

Sometimes a refresher is needed, especially in the drinking of wine, and going along this road, memories of Ponzi’s Vino Gelato popped into my sweetie’s mind like any person who has had a few coming through wine country (somehow you think of my booze to fill your ever increasing alcohol consumption). Hoping that we would be lucky, we parked the car, and like children going to a toy store, we entered this wine bar.
If you, or your partner enjoy a sweet refresher, something of a true dessert wine, described as ‘liquid candy’ on a previous visit of mine back in 2010, then this one maybe for you. On this day they had none, as it is a small batch that is made, and they only make it every two years. While they didn’t have the wine we requested, we sat in to try two refreshing whites. Prior to the pouring, while talking to the woman who was working there, she remembered us from a year ago, while chatting about how good the Vino Gelato was, she pulled a huge (this is definitely a show and tell size) bottle of Ponzi Dry Reisling. It was a good start, the second one however made my sweetie reach for the $$$ and say ‘take my money’!! Every person’s tastebuds to wine are different, but if your a fan of white wine’s, a hint of good pure refreshing sweetness, and also a Reisling, do try what they have here in the Brooks Sweet P 2011 Reisling. It was almost like the first time we came, and she was trying the VG… we left with a bottle, and also put our names down for when the VG would be back in stock for the new year.
As we were sitting around, I spoke to the women behind the bar, and they provided us a handful of names of places to drink bourbon (she is from Tennesse after all) and knew exactly what I was looking for (Thank you again… I did end up having the PVW at the bar you told us to go). We also ordered a sandwich for the road, and our continued wine expedition. It was a great stop off, and I have a feeling once we receive the email, we will be back real soon to pick up the VG, and see what other gems they present us in… wines… and recommendations for other places to try!

My friends and I visited here yesterday and were blown away by the experience. After having a disappointing tasting experience at a previous winery, coming to the Ponzi Wine Bar was such a relief!
Andrew greeted us warmly and gave us thoughtful input while we tasted. He struck a lovely balance between conversing with us and allowing us time to talk amongst ourselves and develop our own opinions about the wine.
We were very much impressed by the offerings as well. Our favorites were the Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, and the Tavola (the perfect red table wine).
We all left much more cheerful than we arrived and all agreed we wouldn’t hesitate to recommend the Wine Bar in the future.
Thanks, Andrew!

After enjoying first class hospitality at a number of wineries we were sorely disappointed by Ponzi.
arrived at 445pm and it was closing at 6pm. we requested the flight but were informed that it was too late for tasting the full flight but we could try a couple and take a half glass. Not ideal but ok.
the flights we originally ordered were $ 12 but for 2 our bill was $ 33 for 2 tastes (very small) and a half glass.
after querying the bill we were told that tasters are $ 3 and the glass we’d shared was $ 21. Talk about feeling ripped off! After being given 2 tasters and a half glass as an alternative to what we ordered I wasn’t expecting to be hit with a larger bill. especially when they had over an hour till closing.
its a nice wine bar but there are so many better tasting rooms in the area with exceptional hospitality. So avoid Ponzi and hit the Argyle tasting room across the street!

We started our weekend of Pinot tasting here largely because they also offer some tasty small plates of food. Our tangy farmers cheeses were good and went well with the Pinot noir tasting. The servers were above average in informing us about the wines. Nice tasting room experience.

The tasting room was bright and inviting. The staff wasn’t too friendly for some odd reason. There were only my partner, me, and another couple but the service was slow even though there were 2 staff members on site. Also, the glasses were very spotty.
The tasting of pinot noir was mediocre. I had to pay additional $ 3 to try about an ounce of 2010 Ponzi’s Vino Gelato (late harvest muscat grapes and Riesling grapes) which I find to be a day light robbery. This wine is gorgeous though. If I were to describe the wine, I’d say she is Audrey Hepburn from Roman Holidays. The wine is regal, sweet but not sickening sweet, has a lively/​youthful/​fresh personality. The bottle is $ 30. I flinched at first but bought it anyway. I do see the value even though the price is on the high side.
I highly and I repeat again highly recommend anyone to try this Vino Gelato even if you decided not to buy it. It’s one of the most gorgeous liquid gems I have had in my life.
I give ⁵⁄₅ for the wine but everything else the experience was no more than ³⁄₅.

I was hoping for more wines to taste. Their website makes this sound like a happening wine bar with many different wineries represented.
In fact it is a Ponzi wine bar (okay that is the name) which has one or two other wineries open for tasting for an additional fee.
Wine was good. Worth stopping by as there is not much to do in Dundee anyway.

Even though they don’t normally take reservations, they were expecting us and treated us to an amazing afternoon! Shannon was so knowledgeable and friendly, she went over-​and-​above to take care of us. We had a delicious red flight and then tasted their dessert wine which was absolutely perfect!

Oh wine country and now my tern to whine! So this was one of our stops and i have to say I’m kind of mixed on the place. I’m not going to comment on their wine since I’m reviewing the place not their wine.

that place is clean bright and very inviting. The selections of wine is large but i have seen much bigger. what is nice is you can order some nibbles to munch on as you taste your wine. My only gripe with this was that it was rather pricey. 11 bucks for two pieces of blue cheese, some berries, walnut crisp (which was amazing!), and some bread.
service is awesome, Brian i believe it is was very informative, with the process and history and how the product came about. They’re super friendly and just let you go at your pace.
The other thing is, If you’re a Ponzi club member, you can come here and get free tastings of Ponzi. Just a note in case if there are fans out there.

Our server was very knowledgeable! She either knows an über amount of information on Oregon wines or she has an amazing memory to recite it all, but something tells me she’s knows her wines. In fact, she know so much, we wanted her to stop talking so we could drink the wine!
My favorite wine was not a Ponzi, it was «Et Fille.» A Pinot Noir made by a father and daughter. Hence the name, «Et Fille.» He does the entire production of the wine. Which is insane. Very dedicated winemaker.
The Pinot Noir Reserve from Ponzi was my second choice.