Springfield Manor Winery & Distillery

Reviews 3

.

.

One sentence summary: Lovely house, friendly inn keepers and bar staff, pleasant experience overall, but Springfield Manor had a "corner-cutting" feel, and was overpriced considering the mediocre breakfast and wine, no WIFI, distance from downtown Frederick, a few housekeeping/ cleanliness/ attention to detail issues, and comparison to similar Frederick B&Bs. Detailed review of B&B: We stayed at the Springfield Manor B&B for five days, four nights over Labor Day weekend. The Manor itself is a beautiful set of historic buildings with nice sized rooms, attractive common areas, and pretty grounds. If Springfield Manor cost ~$150 a night (to match the cheapest rooms at 10 Clarke, Hollerstown Hill, Hill House, and Frederick Inn), I would probably give the experience 4 stars. However, I felt like Springfield Manor is cutting corners but still charging premium prices. Breakfast: We are not "foodies" but the breakfasts were not good. Breakfast the first day was a little yogurt parfait, a box-mix poppy seed muffin, a slightly overcooked and unseasoned egg/sausage puff baked in a ramekin, and two little Jimmy Dean sausage slices on the side. The second days breakfast was a little yogurt parfait, a blueberry muffin (that tasted very much like Jiffy mix, complete with imitation blueberry dots), three somewhat dry Bisquick pancakes with no butter and imitation syrup, and two little Jimmy Dean sausage slices. Our table had a noticeably soiled table cloth the first day, and the table still had the same (even dirtier) cloth the second day. For $225/night for a "bed and breakfast," I was expecting better food than what I would get at "Dennys" - and I would expect a clean table cloth regardless. We actually skipped breakfast the last two days (due to the first two days being unimpressive at best) and opted to eat out at local Frederick restaurants. Bedroom: Our B&B room was quite pretty - and I believe each room has its own private bathroom. But bring your own bath robe - unlike other B&Bs Ive stayed at, robes are not provided here. Also there are no water glasses (let alone a mini fridge) in the room, so BYO water bottle. The room decor is a mix of actual antiques and TJ Maxx items (per the price tags still on many decorative items). While theres nothing wrong with this, it did add to the overall feeling that Springfield Manor is trying to operate on the cheap while charging luxury prices. We did need to request a new duvet cover, as the one on the bed was stained around the top with a bit of old blood (I know that sounds really gross, but the stains were small - maybe from a face shave cut.) Additionally, the shower was messed up on the first day, which meant 1/2 the water poured out the tub spout instead of coming out of the shower head. Fortunately the inn keepers were able to fix the shower before the second morning, and were very responsive to my request for a replacement duvet cover. Springfield Manor does not have TVs or WIFI. Part of me really likes getting away from technology for a few days, but if you want to watch Netflix after a day of hiking or exploring, youll need a laptop and a cell phone with a mobile hotspot. Vineyard tasting room: A stay at the B&B comes with a complementary wine tasting at the winery, which is a nice touch. However, Im glad we didnt pay $10/each for the tastings, as none of the wines were particularly good. Again, we arent food snobs, but the wines are definitely on the low end of the quality spectrum. And since Springfield Manor is importing most/all its wine from other vineyards until their own vines mature, I dont know why they dont import better wines. The tasting was offered by two severs (they switched out about 1/2 way through) who looked like local high school students (though Im sure they were 21+). While the servers were very friendly and pleasant, I didnt get the sense they knew much about wine, and the tasting room was a bit dirty/unkempt.

MA

Mary Harshman

I visited Springfield winery with my family today. We frequent wineries around Maryland and were very disappointed in our time spent at Springfield Manor. The trip started out promising as we pulled into a long and beautiful driveway up to the winery. We got out and were greeted by a lovely employee that explained to us where to go for various tastings and where to get food. We proceed inside for the tasting. I am aware that some wineries charge for tastings, however, usually when charged you get more than a thimbles worth of wine in your glass and have an employee that can answer all your questions about the wine in which youre drinking. Our family of four got 3 tastings for $10 each, I shared with my husband. The employee helping us had absolutely zero personality and knew nothing about the wine, it was as if we were talking to a cement wall. After dropping $30 at the wine tasting, my daughters wanted to try out the distillery in a separate part of the venue. We walked over there and saw that they offered a game right in front of the distillery. Below us was about a 20 foot drop and they had a grated plate in which you could drop a quarter to see if you could make it into a tiny cup down below, if you got the quarter in the glass you got a free glass of wine. My daughter took out a few quarters and we began filming with the go pro, cheering my daughter on. She got it on the second try! We began cheering as she went to drop another quarter to try to win again when a male employee charged out of the back yelling ONE WIN PER GROUP ONE WIN PER GROUP!!! He gave us free wine voucher, when I went to cash it at the wine counter at a different part of the venue, they gave me a real hassle and tried to charge me. We left shortly after this. All in all, save your money and go somewhere else. They had a live band playing which was sub par and a plate of nachos was $10.00

DE

Deric Allurabi

My fiance and I came to the Inn at Springfield Manor to escape DC for an evening of rest, relaxation and quiet. What we got at the Inn was an unwelcoming experience. The evening that we went there was a wedding that consumed the entirety of the property for the day and well into the night leaving us with little to no places for quiet or to explore other than our room, the Lady Victoria Room, which to our dismay was directly facing/above the reception hall where DJ music was blasting until approximately 11:00 PM. When the DJ music stopped, the unbelievably loud conversations and traffic inside the main guest house continued until close to 1:00 AM. You hear absolutely everything throughout the house, peoples conversations and all. We were unable to relax and sleep. We left exhausted, upset, and completely disappointed with our experience. The stay at the Inn is not cheap, and in the end it was absolutely not worth the money, time, or energy that the night cost us. The only reason we did not leave in the middle of the night to go home (where our evening would have been much more pleasant) was because the only way we could communicate with the Inn staff was to do so in person in the morning. The main number for the Inn brought us to voicemail over and over again. We cant emphasize enough how disappointed we are with our experience. One last note: we have read on other reviews that staff/owners from the Inn have contacted others to take down reviews that are not favorable for them. We will not be removing this; People deserve to know about this awful experience.

Other organizations