Our family visited the central coast in mid March and still had a great time even thought there was more rain that usual. Of course living in Seattle the rain doesn’t bother us as much. The tasting rooms still had plenty of people even on a Monday and Tuesday. We were in Los Olivos on Tuesday in the middle of a driving rain storm and there was still plenty of people at Stolpman when we stopped in. We had lunch at Panino and there was a constant stream of people. I thought the place would have been deserted due to the terrible weather.
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Are there tasting experiences for those that love wine and hate the pageantry and snobbery? I just want to show up and try wine and if someone who knows something is there for a compliment or question, great. If not, also great. I wish they just had tables by the farms that they are and a food truck with tacos and cheese curds and maybe a karaoke machine on Saturdays. It’s just fucking wine.
Sorry, I spent the day assembling patio furniture and dealing with cardboard and styrofoam. I’m in a mood 
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Yes! There’s plenty of that. That’s the beauty of Napa and Sonoma - something for everyone, the wine nerd and the newbie, the no-nonsense and the hedonist.
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You just described Colorado wine country. 36 wineries in the Grand Valley AVA and 13 in the West Elks. Good wines, great people, Colorado casual. We were written up as the next Sonoma. I am biased though, I’ve worked in the tasting room of a couple wineries.
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Great news having opened a tasting room in September of 22 haha. We are definitely hearing the same from everyone around.
Is there a comparison to say 2018/2019 numbers? I wonder how inflated 22 was. I would think a lot of people couldn’t travel in 21, had money saved up, and traveled/spent more in 22. Might just be a case of comparing to post-COVID inflated numbers.
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Have been going to Paso since about 2008. Would go almost every year. COVID obviously puts a wrench in my assessment, but I haven’t been overnight in 6 years. Places I would just pop in for 30 minutes to buy and do a quick taste were appointment only now. Some places I even just wanted to buy, and not taste, but it was as such a hassle. I live to find the next gem in Paso, and now I feel I can’t do that, which is what disappoints the most. I don’t mind the price increase, because I was always in to the next up and coming winery. However, when the new winery is charging $35/40 for a rosé, and no waived tasting fees for purchase, Iam certainly not visiting the area as much. Times change, but for the people who want to just make a day and hit 5 wineries for a quick taste, it’s a bummer
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I find the whole hotel situation in the valley area to be kind of crazy. Even $500/night places feel like they are not getting enough and need parking/valet surcharges, along with the ever creeping resort fees (online access to USA Today, whoo hoo!)
All that being said, as Al pointed out upthread, prices are the way our market economy rations things. And access to a crowded, and traffic jammed region, needs to have some delimiter. But I wonder if a drop in visitation will limit the exposure of wineries to new customers. The old customer base is aging, and not really replacing itself.
Maybe out of region tasting rooms are the solution, downtown SF should have plenty of open storefronts and capacity for this?
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This doesn’t just happen in Napa Valley, though, to be fair.
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One partial solution is to visit wine tourism areas off season. We’re admittedly lucky we live close enough to do that, but it’s rare we visit a wine area during the growing season, say May through September. Fall and winter can be cooler, sometimes a little wet (this recent rainy season was unusual), but it’s still beautiful, and enjoyable to visit. You may not get green vineyards, but everything else is green in winter, unlike dead and brown in summer here in California.
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But….prices are not reduced at this time except perhaps housing.
Cheers
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Hotel pricing is the biggest expense, unless you’re doing really high end dining. Hotel rates off season can be 30-50% of high season, especially if you plan ahead a bit.
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I’ve long thought this was a big untapped opportunity. Do one or those hipster converted warehouse type places in Los Angeles, for example, put in ten tasting counters from good SB/Paso wineries (maybe you even rotate which wineries are in there to keep it fresh and keep people coming back), some food options, mingling and seating areas, it would be a total weekend destination afternoon/evening.
Wineries would find customers and sell club memberships and bottles, customers could come wine taste for a half day without traveling to wine country, you’d get locals and tourists both to come. I’ve always been surprised this doesn’t happen.
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Larry brings up the big issue, at least for me. I started visiting Napa in 1981. Like others have said, it was easy to drop into just about any winery and try the new releases. Just as examples, we did that at Grgich Hills and Caymus. Grgich was new and we had tasted their 1977 Chardonnay prior to that visit. No doubt we tasted at a couple of other wineries we didn’t know anything about.
I’m not sure if Charlie Wagner was keen on seeing a couple of long-hairs trying his wines, but he didn’t turn us away. 
It doesn’t matter to me if hotels are cheaper in the off-season. I don’t want a f*ckin’ experience and pay the commensurate fees to taste.
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I feel this is the most important point. Limiting the exposure of your wine to your future customers will not bode well in the end. Short term gain for long term pain.
Maybe we should open a high end Hard Seltzer tasting room and court the young…who cannot afford or care about wine?
As someone who just did a 10 day vacation to do 6 days of tasting in Willamette, Sonoma and Napa….I’d consider it a one and done thing for me and my wife.
The 6 days of tastings for 2 people + 2 days of driving from OR to CA were several times multiple higher than a 2.5 week honeymoon to Spain with wine tastings in Rioja, private tours of cities, Running with the Bulls, 3 different Mich rated restaurants, etc.
Was it enjoyable, yes, but I have very little to no interest to go back. A driving service using my rental car, 3 tastings a day for 2 people and 2 meals are pushing $1k a day after a few bottles purchased. And not one bottle purchased by me was over $150 so these weren’t trophy wines. This is not factoring in hotels as I had free rooms on points nor flights as those were free on points too and I got to check 5 cases of wine home for a total of $100. If I had to pay $300-$500/night we would have not booked the trip at all.
It was a helpful trip because I took 19 wineries across those regions and baked it down to 4-5 where I can do a yearly case purchase an be content. But my wife and I agree we do 2-3 trips a year around the world and have zero interest in making this a yearly or even like an every 5 year kind of trip.
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sort of like this?
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Oh, come on. You’re seriously suggesting that Napa should go back to a business model that worked 40 years ago? That’s entirely unfair. Tourist expectations are different. The wine business is different. Consumer tastes are different. Branding is different. Information is different. There’s a ton more competition to distinguish your tasting room from the rest.
Is it better? Sometimes. Is it worse? Sometimes.
Is everything more expensive than it was 40 years ago? Almost. Maybe not VCRs.
Also, remember that the vast majority of Napa visitors aren’t hard core wine folks. They want the experience, a reason to indulge in the lifestyle for 2-3 days. If a winery is going to build a hospitality program to justify the cost and attract wine club members, it’s not giving away wine for free to all comers to a standup bar at a tasting room.
Is that annoying for the wine nerd who really just wants to taste the wine? Of course. You don’t have to like it, but you can’t honestly suggest that going back to the model 40 years ago is a viable business.
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I NEVER said that in my post. Please don’t put words in my mouth.
Why does it have to be an either/or? Why can’t wineries do both? Make it feasible to have walk-in customers (not for free, but charge a reasonable fee), but also do the “experience” for those who want that.
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Seems that DTC is dropping across all product groups, not just wine – and especially for subscriptions. I have a coffee roasting business, and I see the drop off over the last 4-6 months. It wouldn’t surprise me if wine follows suit. The economic uncertainty has more people reflecting on how important an extra few bottles from the winery really are.
As someone else mentioned, if the trendline continues into May, then yeah, this is a problem for at least the rest of '23 and likely into mid-24. Hoping for the best.
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Larry, my apologies then. I thought that was what you were insinuating with your nostalgia. I understand now that wasn’t your intent, so sorry about that!
In answer to your question, I think it’s a combination of cost and capacity. Wineries in Napa are capped at the number of visitors. If you’re gonna have a limited number of slots, and hire the staff to run the program, you’re gonna try to maximize the value of each slot.
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