Tasting Rooms or Drinking Wine at Wineries

There is a huge difference. When someone goes to visit a winery, there is a continuum in the experience. A the one end, there is the scenario where they as the visitor pay a fee, usually very overpriced, and for that, they get tastes of some number of wines often that they choose off of a list. There is no education. There is no experience. It's largely about sitting outside or inside with family or friends and thinking you like wine that you probably really don't and getting a bit tipsy by the time you visit your third or fourth of the day. These wineries hope you will leave with a few bottles of their wine or better yet, join their wine club, but they are frankly in the business of being a wine bar that sells only their own wine. While I've done this and enjoyed it, it's more about the day than about the wine because the wine is often, in a word, bad.

Let's move up the continuum. The next step up adds a degree of professionalism. You are probably standing or sitting at an actual bar. And, you are being served a set list of tastings by an actual person who actually knows something about actual wine -- the wine they are serving you. Here, again, you will likely overpay compared to the cost of the wine you are tasting, but at least if you are diligent you have the opportunity to learn something. Where these experiences fall particularly short is that you usually do not have a dedicated server. So, for example, Bob will serve you your first wine and tell you about it, Carol will do that with your second, Ted will help you with your third, and you'll close with Alice for your fourth (shameful reference to a late 60s movie with Natalie Wood, Dyan Cannon, Elliot Gould, and Robert Culp). So, you get an experience, but not a particularly personal experience.

This is where the experience jumps a whole bunch. We've now moved to a tasting where you have a single tasting room staff member dedicated to you. They may also be serving other customers, but they are responsible for your experience and for your happiness. After all, a really good experience will cause you to leave with a good supply of wine while a poor one will have you walking out the door empty-handed. 

Your expectations here should be different. Expect your personal wine concierge here to be well-trained and knowledgeable about what they are serving you. How was the wine made? What makes it unique? Is there a story around the way the wine was created? Does the name mean something? Is this wine consistent from vintage to vintage. Done well, you'll begin to feel an attachment to that winery. And, frankly, it is from these and further from the last two steps of this journey that I got my basic wine education (some people might consider it more than basic).

The penultimate step is where a tasting room or winery worker is dedicated to your party and nobody else. You'll pay for this, but you should, although if you purchase enough wine, your tasting fee will almost inevitably be waived. This is where you develop a personal experience. This is your opportunity to ask all the questions you like unencumbered by the need of your host to take care of their other customers since they don't have any.

For me, these are the experiences where I almost always leave with wine, often too much wine. If you show a real interest in their wines, don't be afraid to play the game. "Is there anything else [not in their normal tasting menu] that we need to taste?" Perhaps there are some "Library Wines" that they are willing to pull out for you. Maybe they usually don't pour their Special Grand Poobah Reserve. But, if you are going to play that game, you really need to be prepared to play their game as well. The more that they treat you like you are special, the more you should consider buying. If they stretched for you, consider stretching for them.

The last step is really special. You are the only guest of the winery. You spend time with a single person who probably is the best they have. Perhaps it is the winemaker or proprietor. But, essentially they have shut down the winery for you. Cherish those moments. These are the situations where you become personal friends with the person serving you. They will give you their thoughts on a wine and want to know yours. You will not be rushed. 

I think back to a number of my experiences like that. The people that made my experience are friends on social media. Their numbers are in my phone and perhaps ours in theirs. In some cases, they have been to our home and we to theirs. It is the ultimate personal wine experience. It's also the ultimate opportunity to immerse yourself in the wines of a particular estate.

Do not expect to be charged for these visits. But, at the same time, expect to leave having made a large purchase. 

Notice that I left one thing off this whole continuum -- the winery tour. There are some phenomenal ones that I highly recommend, but most winery tours are a waste of time. You are paraded around with a bunch of other drunk fools as if you were taking a bad museum tour, And, you pay for this. So, unless you have reason to take a tour, don't.