I think we way over did it today. What is your “record” for wine tastings in a day?
Zaca Mesa to Foxen (both Foxen tasting rooms) to Volk to Parker to Beckmen to Melville to Babcock.
Wined out. But happy.
You’re not even close to a record. I think I’ve done 10 and I’m a lightweight.
If you really want to learn something from the experience, limit to 5 or less IMO
12 or 13 - the trick is to not have a buzz on hen driving which means not trying everything they offer. To really enjoy the time it should be less than five.
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I agree I was driving and stopped after Parker. But ny caravan wanted to keep trucking.
I guess it would be possible to do that many in Los Olivos or or at the wine ghetto in Lompoc.
I won’t try though. But son#1 and my Dil want to hit the wine ghetto mañana. I am wined out.
Foxen is freaky good which tells you I like more fruit forward pinots.
I’ve done 12 in one day, on a couple of occasions. And that was not just walking down the block from one tasting room to another in Los Olivos or Lompoc either - it was on the road between all of them. Once in Paso Robles and once in Sonoma. I wouldn’t taste that way these days but that’s how I used to do it years ago.
Well, Andrew, you didn’t hit mine so obviously you didn’t max out!!!
No set number - depends upon how much food you are eating, how much you’re spitting, etc . . .
But do drop me a line if you’d like me to open for you tomorrow . . .
Cheers!
Wow! And I thought 6 was a lot. Usually try to keep it at 4. Did 7 once on my birthday, with a bottle at a sit down lunch, and regretted it.
5 or 6 is usually ok, if not too far apart -
7 to 8 can easily be too many, depending on the number of different wines tasted.
Not to mention how hot it is!
In California we would do 4 or 5 per day. Never tried to go above that number, as it made everything a rush. If there was time left voer we might just do a drive by at a tasting room.
In Germany we did 3 per day, and sometimes only 2. Of course the visits were 90 minutes (low end at Rheinhold Haart - he fit us in!) to 5 hours (high end at Leitz - soup to nuts - we even helped press TBA). That was educational!
I have generally arranged private tastings or small group tastings that last 90 minutes or more, including a vineyard tour. If this is the case, 3 is the right number, 4 is pushing it way too much. I don’t get much out of the quick tastings. I like to learn how the wine is made, the approach in the vineyards, etc.
I want to do a “century”, 100 tasting notes in a day. Once. I’ve done 70 before and it was exhausting. Not tasting, but writing!
4-5 seems to be the magic number where I get to move around, don’t feel locked in or bored, yet can taste lots of wines and never feel rushed.
This works for me…with no more than 3 appointments.
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If I get an appointment with the winemaker/owner, then 4 a day is ok, maybe 5 if there are producers I already know.
In regions where producers have 2-3 wines to show at most, it could be a bit more.
Just going from tasting room to tasting room, I guess 8 is easy to do, but I have no interest in that so never tried.
At special events (e.g. a wine fair in a village) I’ll do 20+ easily, but it’s just to get a quick impression on the wines.
I am generally trying to go in the opposite direction from most of you. I have found that my best days touring in the wine country are when I see fewer producers, but get to spend a good bit of time there. I need to follow David to Germany to visit producers like Haart, but I only did three producers last summer when I went to Alsace and that was a lot give the time we spent there and the number of wines we got to taste (of course, I cannot imagine leaving any of the three out - they were all incredibly gratitious). And, in Burgundy last summer we only did 2-3 and in one case 1 producer a day. It was a special day being with Ray.
Similarly, in California a few weeks ago, I enjoyed longer visits at Chateau Montelena (where we did the library tasting), Mayacamas and Stony Hill much more than running in and out of other tasting rooms with the masses of people.
To me, the test is not how many producers I visit, rather it is to have special visits where I go.
I’m a one in the morning, lunch, and then one in the afternoon guy. I finds this lets me make the best impression about future buying.
How many is too much?
If you begin retching before you even make it in the door, Definately too much.
If you drop outside the door after the tasting, too much.
If you stumble and can’t find the car keys while searching around for it in the driveway or parking lot, waaay too much.
But seriously, why race through these tastings? Aren’t they supposed to be FUN? I would limit it to 4-6 wineries a day, max, depending on how close together they were, whether you need an appointment or not, if the owner/winemaker was there, if there was a vineyard tour, etc. It depends, but more than this and the visits just blur to me. This is where KISS comes in handy~
I was going to take the under on four as a reasonable number. That’s about one per hour in the prime of the day, so plenty of time to sip if desired, ask questions, walk around the grounds, have a snack or lunch, and so on. If there’s a tour or other form of 1 on 1 time scheduled, 2-3 is probably about right.
When I lived in SBC, usually it was the “southern hordes” from LA and the valley who were trying to break land-speed records for tasting. I guess this thread doesn’t dispel my stereotype, though the inclination usually is to cram in more tastings than you can fit when visiting a region more than an hour drive away. At least that was my experience. Anyway, my personal favorites were the plastic 40 year olds who were mixing RX drugs with their tasting at Palmina before lunch while asking how they could get to Sea Smoke. Thank God/Vishnu/Allah they had a limo to carry them around!