A few months back, I was grilling steaks for dinner and decided to open a bottle of Pepper Bridge 2002 Cabernet Sauvignon. I had not tasted a Pepper Bridge wine before, therefore was excited when someone gave me a bottle to try. A very generous gift considering this bottle retails for $50.

From the first sip before dinner, throughout our meal, and then afterward, my wife and I were really taken with this wine.

We were pleasantly surprised that it wasn't your usual high alcohol fruit bomb, like many Washington cabernets made from Columbia Valley fruit. The fact that this wine was comprised of grapes from Pepper Bridge's estate vineyards in Walla Walla made it an interesting find. As a result, I was eager to connect to Pepper Bridge in way that went beyond the bottle.

You can imagine my level of anticipation on the day I visited the Pepper Bridge winery. There is something really special about being at an estate winery. You get to see where the grapes are grown and the wine is made all in one place. This is what Pepper Bridge affords each visitor, a grape-to-glass experience several miles south of downtown Walla Walla.

On my way to the winery, I passed acres of vineyards along winding roads until coming to a set of buildings at the top of a hill. My excitement grew as I approached the place, seeing the rows of budding vines, parking next to the gravity-flow winery, and then walking into the detached tasting room.

Inside, the Pepper Bridge tasting room is a well-appointed, roomy space, with views looking out across the surrounding vineyards. I was immediately greeted with a friendly "hello!" from the woman working this Tuesday in early April. The tasting room bar is large enough to accomodate a sizable crowd, but small enough to provide direct contact with the person pouring.

I had heard that Pepper Bridge charged for tastings, therefore was already prepared for this aspect. But I hadn't anticipated paying $8 for only 3 wine tastes, which included their '02 and '03 cabs and the '04 merlot. Granted, the tasting room fee is waived for wine club members and is refundable with a purchase of wine. However, considering the price of their wines are $45 to $50, I doubt many folks are motivated to try to recoup that fee.

Once we agreed to a taste, I was poured the first of three reds and was treated to a good overview of where the grapes came from and their style of winemaking. The person pouring was not only very knowledgeable about Pepper Bridge wines, but very enthused about their product.

Unfortunately, just as I was enjoying myself, learning about their wines, and making a connection to the winery, things went astray.

Suddenly, she started citing points, medals and other accolades their wines had received. There was a comment about Robert Parker awarding their cab ninety-something points and another about it being tied with Leonetti as "best cab" in Washington. Without skipping a beat, she just kept going on about how great everyone thought their wine was.

Maybe she took me for a Leonetti fan. Or maybe she thought I was someone who needed the assurance of a ninety-something plus wine rating to add credence and credibility to what I was drinking in my glass.

To be honest, her emphasis on ratings, points, reviews and medals completely turned me off from their winery. It was as if she took the spit bucket next to me and dumped the entire contents over my head. I was already enjoying the wine and was close to splurging on a bottle. In fact, I made all of this known in between sips of their wine.

For whatever reason, she broke an important rule in sales: don't sell past the close. And she clearly misread me as someone who buys and drinks by ratings alone. In fact, over time, I have shied away from even considering wines that come with Robert Parker's or Wine Spectator's endorsement. Why? Their recommendations are usually not consistent with my taste in wine.

After hearing her onslaught of bragging rights, we continued to the second tasting, the '03 cab. I offered a few comments on how it tasted relative to the '02. At that point, she looked at me in a serious way and said, "we normally don't do this, but since you're the only one in here, I'll let you taste the '02 and '03 cabs side-by-side."

Her well-intentioned statement offers a useful example of what not to do when trying to create a meaningful customer experience. Rather than state that this was the exception to the rule, why not just grab a glass and pour? Better yet, why not do this for everyone, so folks can enjoy the differences in the vintages that much more? Here again, she over-sold and under-delivered on my experience.

To sum it up, I arrived excited and enthused about Pepper Bridge, but left disheartened and dismayed. The tasting room experience just seemed a bit too "high-brow" for my taste, even though I enjoyed sampling their estate wines in such a beautiful setting.

With that said, I would recommend a visit to Pepper Bridge, for the location and setting alone. There are a variety of nearby wineries to see as well, therefore you need not make it the only stop when visiting this area south of Walla Walla. But the view from that hill alone is definitely worth the detour.

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