Wow, I’m incredibly out of touch. Weren’t tasting fees designed to weed out weekend buzz seekers? $20 - $30/pop doesn’t work any more? Prices like those described (i.e.: $50 - $75+), it certainly looks like a new profit center…for which you’re rewarded with more personalized schmoozing and marketing.
I’ve had little use for most of the Napa Cabs I’ve tasted produced over the past decade. Clearly they have zero use or need for me. Kind of seals the deal.
Follow Marshall’s advice and hit the wine roads less traveled!
I wrote a long reply, but apparently hit the wrong button and it got blown away! Usually when that happens, it is for the best. Funny how that happens. Mr. Malloy’s post had prompted me, although he denies any family-tree connection (my father’s sister married a Malloy). I will fully acknowledge that yes, I am Mr. Champney’s cousin. He and his father did not want to believe it, but it is true.
Anyway, I am happy to share wine with friends, many of whom I have met here and on the other Boards. I am sharing some the end of this month with a friend from Chicago who went to junior high with me in Central MA! Her husband is wine geekish, and we found each other. Then her brother found me. Then his friend is SoCal. The point is, for many of us “small guys,” connection is the thing. I tasted a couple of weeks ago up at Continuum, and Tim Mondavi is as gracious in that setting as they come. His facility is knock-out gorgeous. Worth $100 per person? This was a pre-premiere event, with several wineries representing and pouring their wines from Pritchard Hill at no charge. Would I pay $100 per person to taste a couple of wines and view the scenery? No.
Yeah? Tell me where. Have you been to Healdsburg in the last couple of years? That ain’t no cow-town anymore. I have heard more Frank Sinatra and smelled more scented candles from walking the square there than I had thought was imaginable. Is it “bad?” No. Is it better than Napa? No.
Really? HALF a bottle of Contiuum PLUS 2 ‘glasses’ of Novicium??? AND cheese + olives + bread??? Half a bottle is two 6+ ounce glasses; then two GLASSES of Novicium?? That’s not a tasting, at least not in my world. I don’t really visit wineries in that league, so I have to ask if that amount is anywhere near normal.
The only other tasting at this level of wine we’ve done was Buccella. Tasting of four wines and they were all in decanters when we arrived. That was probably a little less, more like 4oz each, but more than a standard “taste”.
I want to give you a huge thanks for this post. We are visiting my daughter in Berkeley this weekend and decided to go out for a day of tasting. We were originally going to go to Napa, then Sonoma, and then I happened to read this post. Instead of going to areas where we had already visited we decided to head to El Dorado and we had a fantastic day. Thanks!
Wineries are businesses and they follow the money trail. The wineries that have put major $$$ into actively constructing tasting facilities and developing that market have done so for one major reason: profit center. You only need to go to places like Duckhorn and Domaine Carneros to see the dollars pour in from the TR ops. For the rest: this would be a promotion cost that I would think (and hope) they build into their costing which then drives their pricing.
To tag onto Jon’s post, with the exception of the larger Champagne houses in France, we have never paid for a tasting anywhere in France, Italy, Germany or Spain. And the bonus is that many times the person doing the pouring is actually involved in the wineries operations or even the owner. October we were at Vajra and were served by Guiseppe and his mom. It really gets old in Napa when you are dealing with TR employees who essentially work off a given script and are there to push you to join the club.
That said, I have not seen a winery who will not comp the fee if you make a purchase. Thankfully there is Napa Neighbors.
Napa Winery Tasting Fee - Question
Post by Ari W » Sun Mar 13, 2016 12:52 am
Brian - any specific recommendations of places to visit in El Dorado?
Brian; Glad you enjoyed your day…We will be heading up to El Dorado for their “Passport Days” in early April. Ari W, There is a great post by Ken Zinns with some wonderful recommendations.
Very different model i suppose. In Burgundy there’s usually no cost, and no pressure to sell b/c they can’t sell you anything (they’re all sold out). It’s almost entirely about the relationship there.
Tasted at Dujac with Jeremy… tried a few current release wines including a CdlR, and a 99 Echezeaux…
Tasted at Arnoux Lachoux with Pascal Lachoux - several barrel, several bottles, and a 09 RSV…
By Napa standards I’d be paying $300-500 per person for these tasting!
We used Ken Zinn’s great post that Marshall mentioned up thread to target our stops. So we only tasted at Holly’s Hills and Miraflores. I recommend both. As far as I could tell neither winery charged tasting fees. Holly’s Hills had a $5 fee to taste a couple reserve wines but that was it and we purchased wine so we were not charged even that fee. We probably could have fit in another tasting or two, but we took our time at the two stops we made and ended up having all the wine we wanted to taste for the day.
![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}