Tasting Room Fees - How much is too much?

[Wes_Barton]

@H Wallace Jr

@Wes Barton

I think the whole tasting room model should be taken into account. If people are fine with the fee and fine with the bottle cost, but then see the wine they bought at a retailer for a lot less, they’ll feel ripped off. So, having a high de facto mark-up (SRP way above actual retail) is touchy. Also, a high fee waived against a high mark-up is incentive to buy one bottle only (or whatever the minimal purchase for the waiver is). That’s fine, that means you’re making the same with or without a sale. But you should have a volume discount that brings the price to around actual retail, so you aren’t giving a disincentive to your (potential) better customers to buy.

A tasting room is not a place to find deals on wines available through 3 tier distribution.

100% missed the point of what I said.

[Wes_Barton]

@M. Sai

@Wes Barton

That’s fine, that means you’re making the same with or without a sale.

Not necessarily from a Marketing perspective. If given a choice of making $10 profit selling a taste, and $10 profit selling a bottle - the bottle is aways the better option. The hope is that the bottle is shared with others that are not familiar with the brand. No matter if they love it or hate it, consumer familiarity is half the battle.

Yep. But some/many won’t buy no matter what. It’s a balancing act with plenty of “depends”. If enough people are buying (or wanting to), then maybe a tasting fee is counterproductive.

[Wes_Barton]

@Eric Keating

Paul,

Have you ever considered hurling wine club brochures at customers right as they enter? Then constantly criticizing their tasting techniques? Rolling your eyes constantly is also a good move.

You’re welcome!

Congratulations on your recent announcement, by the way. You have to fill me in soon.

Oh, don’t forget - If they are actively taking notes while tasting, you should persistently disturb them, telling them what the wine tastes like.

[Paul_Luckin]

@Wes Barton

@Eric Keating

Paul,

Have you ever considered hurling wine club brochures at customers right as they enter? Then constantly criticizing their tasting techniques? Rolling your eyes constantly is also a good move.

You’re welcome!

Congratulations on your recent announcement, by the way. You have to fill me in soon.

Oh, don’t forget - If they are actively taking notes while tasting, you should persistently disturb them, telling them what the wine tastes like.

in an ideal situation, i will serve whites at 33 degrees F, and tell customers how fruit forward they are. i will then announce that the tasting fee has been raised from $10 to $25, due to a “slow week” in the tasting room. the hard-sell on the wine club begins as i pour the reds, and continues until they agree, or until the four-day open Cabernet is finished. finally, if asked what other wineries in the area are worth visiting, i simply state, “None are as goodest as us are. Now hit the bricks.”

[Steve_Eisenhauer]

The $30 fee at Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars (for four wines) had me looking for the door.

[Eric_Keating]

Paul, if you really want to impress a customer with your wine expertise, here is what you can do… pour the sample in their glass, but immediately grab it and empty it in the dump bucket. Kind of shaking your head with a smug face say, “Your palate isn’t sophisticated enough for this wine.”
That’ll show them that you know what they like AND you have an advanced palate. Cha-ching!

[Randy_Bowman]

Entice them:

A. Wines we sell through Cost Plus, Costco and BevMo: $5.00
B. Wines we sell to grocery stores, where they heard about us: $10:00
C. Wines we sell to upscale retail: $15.00
D. Wines we sell to restaurant only: $20.00
E. Wines that are winery only: $25.00 (actually the wines no one will take on for A through D. Also called “Cult.”)

[Paul_Luckin]

@Randy Bowman

Entice them:

A. Wines we sell through Cost Plus, Costco and BevMo: $5.00
B. Wines we sell to grocery stores, where they heard about us: $10:00
C. Wines we sell to upscale retail: $15.00
D. Wines we sell to restaurant only: $20.00
E. Wines that are winery only: $25.00 (actually the wines no one will take on for A through D. Also called “Cult.”)

drift…

hey Randy - just enjoying some Penfolds port i picked up a couple of weeks back. good freakin’ juice! i’ll have one for ya’, and stop by for a visit soon.

[H_Wallace_Jr]

@Wes Barton

@H Wallace Jr

@Wes Barton

I think the whole tasting room model should be taken into account. If people are fine with the fee and fine with the bottle cost, but then see the wine they bought at a retailer for a lot less, they’ll feel ripped off. So, having a high de facto mark-up (SRP way above actual retail) is touchy. Also, a high fee waived against a high mark-up is incentive to buy one bottle only (or whatever the minimal purchase for the waiver is). That’s fine, that means you’re making the same with or without a sale. But you should have a volume discount that brings the price to around actual retail, so you aren’t giving a disincentive to your (potential) better customers to buy.

A tasting room is not a place to find deals on wines available through 3 tier distribution.

100% missed the point of what I said.

Wouldn’t be the first time

[Guillaume_Deschamps]

@Howard Cooper

Echoing what the Europeans has stated, I have never been charged to taste in Burgundy, at least at the wineries I have visited.

Yes but on the other hand only the largest negociants or cooperatives (or smoe really large commercial operations) have tasting rooms. You simply can’t knock at a producer’s door in Europe and expect them to be there for you and open some bottles… Having to make an appointment beforehand solves many problems, but it’s apparently not the way to go in the US for whatever reason.

Re: a point that Eric was making, i.e. that tasting fees actually empower the customer to be sure he buys wine he likes, I would tend to disagree. I think the wine business is a consumer’s business. In other words, do I need their wine more than they need my business. Apart from very few top producers, I’m sure most producers need the business more than I need their wine.

Viewed in this way, in my opinion a (non highly allocated, completely sold out) producer should already be thankful I came all the way to taste his wines and maybe consider buying them. It’s not like there aren’t a ton of similar options out there.

Tasting fees seem purely like a way to recoup some costs and deter people looking for free booze.

[Richard_Merenbach]

I like tasting rooms with fees, because it chases away the drunks. In Napa it can be hard to taste at free or nearly free wineries becuase of the crowds and most of them are there to drink.

However, all fees should be appled to purchase of some minimal size.

I belive it is like any other small food business you should give free smaples, but becuase of the popularity free samples have become difficult. This compromise seems to gurantee serious customers get their free sample.

I should not I have not been charged a fee in some time since I am ITB, but this the same oppinion I held before I got my part time job.

[Paul_Romero]

@Eric Keating

Paul, if you really want to impress a customer with your wine expertise, here is what you can do… pour the sample in their glass, but immediately grab it and empty it in the dump bucket. Kind of shaking your head with a smug face say, “Your palate isn’t sophisticated enough for this wine.”
That’ll show them that you know what they like AND you have an advanced palate. Cha-ching!

This happened to me, no sheets. The quote was:

“You won’t be able to evaluate the wine until I rinse your glass with Chardonnay”.

[dteng]

@Ed Bernasky

$1

How about 50 cents?

[Nola_Palomar]

@Linda Baehr

Paso fees are usually pretty low. We charge $5 with a purchase refund. Some places charge $10. I don’t think I have ever seen one higher than that around here. I think people around here are just trying to recoup losses from people who just want to go around and catch a buzz. You are just trying to show your wares, not make your winery income off of tasting room fees. If you want to do that, open a wine bar.

Agree, we want to encourage the people who visit our winery to try the wines and walk away with a great impression. We charge 5 euros but it includes generous pours of 2 whites, 1 rose, and 2 reds (The Spanish gov doesn’t care how much you pour), some type of tapa (that is just how it is done there) and a bottle of Tempranillo. We get tour buses of people from the coast on the way up to Trevelez. It is a great way to introduce them to the wine without going broke in the tasting room.

[Howard_Cooper]

@Nola Palomar

@Linda Baehr

Paso fees are usually pretty low. We charge $5 with a purchase refund. Some places charge $10. I don’t think I have ever seen one higher than that around here. I think people around here are just trying to recoup losses from people who just want to go around and catch a buzz. You are just trying to show your wares, not make your winery income off of tasting room fees. If you want to do that, open a wine bar.

Agree, we want to encourage the people who visit our winery to try the wines and walk away with a great impression. We charge 5 euros but it includes generous pours of 2 whites, 1 rose, and 2 reds (The Spanish gov doesn’t care how much you pour), some type of tapa (that is just how it is done there) and a bottle of Tempranillo. We get tour buses of people from the coast on the way up to Trevelez. It is a great way to introduce them to the wine without going broke in the tasting room.

When I am going to wine regions I am probably going to three or four wineries in a day. Honestly, generous pours are not what I am looking for - for me, I would rather taste a range of wines, and please have a dump bucket handy because I am likely to be spitting.

[Howard_Cooper]

@H Wallace Jr

@Wes Barton

I think the whole tasting room model should be taken into account. If people are fine with the fee and fine with the bottle cost, but then see the wine they bought at a retailer for a lot less, they’ll feel ripped off. So, having a high de facto mark-up (SRP way above actual retail) is touchy. Also, a high fee waived against a high mark-up is incentive to buy one bottle only (or whatever the minimal purchase for the waiver is). That’s fine, that means you’re making the same with or without a sale. But you should have a volume discount that brings the price to around actual retail, so you aren’t giving a disincentive to your (potential) better customers to buy.

A tasting room is not a place to find deals on wines available through 3 tier distribution.

It is in Europe. I have gotten some great buys at wineries there.

[Howard_Cooper]

@Rick Gregory

Howard,

I imagine a fee dissuades people who make the rounds to get a buzz and have fun with no intention of buying anything either at the tasting room or later. After all, if you pour 6 bottles of wine a day and don’t charge you need to make back the revenue those bottles would have brought if sold, the cost of the tasting room (rent, power, salary) in bottle sales. A nominal fee will defray those costs if you get a lot of people who don’t buy. By nominal I mean $5 or $10. Not $20. And yes, I expect to get it back if I buy something.

The collector with a deep cellar? Meh, we’re a minority in most US wine regions.

If one is on 29 in Napa, I can see dissuading people who make the rounds to get a buzz, but how big a problem is this really for most of the wineries that have posted? Is this really a big issue in out of the way places?

I have paid larger than $20 fees to get to try interesting things like library releases, special wines, etc., at wineries I am interested in. And that is fine.

But, if I don’t know who you are and you are trying to dissuade me from coming if I am not going to buy the wine (which I would not know until I taste it), you likely will succeed.

[Rick_Gregory]

I’m not sure what your point is. If a $5, refundable tasting fee dissuades someone from trying the wines at some place new, then I would imagine that person’s not very serious about trying new wines. IF they’re visiting wine country on a vacation, it seems odd to skimp on a few dollars. But then, I usually go to a region with a list of places to check out, so I’m not randomly stopping in at a place that I know nothing about.

I’m happy to pay a nominal fee and, if I don’t like the wines enough to buy any, call it a day and move on. If I buy some wine, I’d expect to have the fee applied to the purchase. For me, ‘nominal’ translates to $5-7 unless I’m tasting something special.

[Howard_Cooper]

@Rick Gregory

I’m not sure what your point is. If a $5, refundable tasting fee dissuades someone from trying the wines at some place new, then I would imagine that person’s not very serious about trying new wines. IF they’re visiting wine country on a vacation, it seems odd to skimp on a few dollars. But then, I usually go to a region with a list of places to check out, so I’m not randomly stopping in at a place that I know nothing about.

I’m happy to pay a nominal fee and, if I don’t like the wines enough to buy any, call it a day and move on. If I buy some wine, I’d expect to have the fee applied to the purchase. For me, ‘nominal’ translates to $5-7 unless I’m tasting something special.

Normally, when I am in the wine country, I make two or three appointments a day at wineries I am interested in visiting. If I have time in between appointments, I am stop in someplace if it looks interesting. Where I have made the appointment, I will pay for something special. For example, I will be around Dundee for a day in a couple of weeks. I have signed up my wife and me to taste at Domaine Drouhin and we will be doing their library wines. At the fillers, I am much less interested in paying much if anything. I doubt $5 would be a big deal (in fact I would rather pay $5 for a tasting than feel obligated to buy a wine I don’t like), but certainly $15 to $20 (which is what was being discussed) is a nonstarter.

[Rick_Gregory]

Howard,

That all sounds reasonable. Stop it. This is Berserkers!