Taking or not taking your kids to wine tasting

Standing at a bar in a tasting room with children around?   Is it any different than standing at your favorite local bar having a glass of wine with children around?

Children and bars are not a good fit.  However, there are some wineries that are kid-friendly and this will be the subject of another blog post.   But let’s put it this way: here you are in Wine Country standing at a bar listening to the winery employee describing the wine that is being served.  Just as you’re going to taste you suddenly hear children screaming or crying.  Believe us, we have experienced this exact scenario and it’s very unpleasant.  It ruins the experience of going wine tasting.  Wine tasting is for adults, period.

We had a particularly unpleasant experience at Artesa Vineyards and Winery in Carneros.  We had been there a few times before and we loved the place, particularly the view of the valley and the architecture of the winery, both of which are spectacular. Artesa has redesigned the tasting room, which is very large, and put some little tables and chairs (though it now looks more like a bar than a tasting room).  The day we went it was crowded, extremely noisy and we were trying to make our way to the bar to get some wine to taste.  Besides having a problem getting the attention of the staff to taste some wine, there were little kids crawling on the floor around us.  Others were running around while their parents were drinking, not paying attention to the children.  We actually had to ask one mother to stop her toddler from crawling between our legs!    The winery personnel were not managing the crowd; those at the bar were so busy pouring wine that they had no time to talk about the wine they were pouring.  So between the kids and the servers, it ended up as two bad experiences. It spoiled the entire visit for us.

Here’s another example.  Once we were in Paso Robles in Central Coast and we are driving in front of Grey Wolf Cellars. It looks more like a private house than a winery. Just from curiosity we stopped to see what they had to offer.  The tiny tasting room was full of beautiful antiques.  Then a couple with their two children came in.  The kids began to touch everything they could reach and trying to play with a guitar that was displayed there.  The woman who was pouring wine was paying more attention to the kids than the customers in front of her.  She stepped out of the bar to stop the children touching the antiques.  It wasn’t surprising that the parents did not see it, because they were busy tasting wine and not paying attention to what their children were doing.  Tasting rooms are for adults, not for children.

All wineries have gift shops. Many sell fragile merchandise such as glasses or chinaware. So imagine kids playing around while their parents are tasting wine.  Many times we’ve experienced children running around in the tasting rooms and gift shops like it was a Toys ‘R’ Us.

So please, if you absolutely want to take your kids in Wine Country, make a few phone calls beforehand to make sure that the winery you want to visit is kid-friendly.  Or read our upcoming post on the subject!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *