Well here I go again. I’m not sure why everyone is so upset. It’s not like they are saying this is the only way to taste our wine. This is 1 unique experience they are offering.
I am so old I can remember Joe Heitz pouring for free in the tasting room.
With those old fashioned wine glasses that used to be ubiquitous.
I’m fine with whatever they wanna charge, but, man, before Napa Valley turned into Veblen Valley, it was a real playground!
Probably not. I don’t have a problem with it. That said, one of the worst tasting room experiences I ever had was at Heitz, so I doubt I would go back regardless.
He could be very mercurial.
Yeah, laughing all the way to the bank.
Curious, what made it your worst tasting room experience?
Pretty sure when we penciled it out it was a money losing operation of significant scale. No laughing anywhere. Just trying to have fun.
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Horribly rude. The staff could not be bothered. The person pouring was actually reading a book while pouring. Didn’t even tell us what they were pouring they just pushed the bottle forward and continued to read.
I dont think anyone is upset… so far it has just seemed like no one things this particular experience would be worthwhile.
My guess is this is targeted towards moneyed wine lovers that are not on top of the market.
wow… I guess I will be skipping Heitz.
There was a time Joe Heitz was so broke, he had to sell some of his production of Martha’s 1968 to meet his tax obligations.
I wouldn’t necessarily skip it. This was many years ago.
I had the same experience at Heitz the only time I went there, which was in 2014
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Everyone so salty over this
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What book was it?
Must have been really good.
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In the small print, $1000 buys you the undivided attention for seven minutes of the schmo in charge of pouring. It’s a difficult job, and requires long periods of rest, so the number of times he/she takes eyes of the written page are extremely valuable and worth many hundreds of dollars. Please don’t expect any insights into the wine; that will cost another $500.
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I think what people forget is that it is easy to do these sorts of things when you are doing it on an expense account. No different than going to the US Open, Taylor Swift or a Knicks game.
A few years ago I dined at a SF restaurant that had the current release of Screaming Eagle on the list for $10,000 and I asked the waiter if people ever ordered younger wines like this and he said yes tech bros on expense accounts.
This is unfair to the folks who actually do this job. Of course, there are some who suck at it. And of course, different wineries have different programs. And I’m. It dismissing that the “value” of the education the customer will receive relative to the cost is highly variable.
But, “schmo”? Sarcasm?
That’s unkind and doesn’t reflect the fact that many in the winery hospitality business are hard-working individuals with lives and a love of wine.
There are plenty of legit criticisms, but a blanket attack on the line-level individuals isn’t one of them, in my opinion.
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I was not suggesting all wineries are like this, in fact I know they are not, but given the comments regarding the Heitz tasting room, it did not seem that unfair.
I have also met lazy and incompetent people at tasting rooms; it is like any other profession; there are people who are good at it, and people who are not.