{"id":1458,"date":"2019-12-30T17:12:11","date_gmt":"2019-12-30T17:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=1458"},"modified":"2020-02-25T15:08:45","modified_gmt":"2020-02-25T15:08:45","slug":"how-to-enjoy-wine-tasting-in-napa-valley-without-spending-a-fortune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=1458","title":{"rendered":"How to Enjoy Wine Tasting in Napa Valley without Spending a Fortune"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Wine tasting in Napa Valley has become quite expensive.\u00a0 As reported elsewhere in this issue, it is common to spend $45 or more for tastings of the better wines in the better wineries.\u00a0 For some people, this isn\u2019t an issue, but there are many others who might be dissuaded from visiting America\u2019s premier winemaking area because of the cost.\u00a0 Here are some ideas for making a Napa Valley visit more affordable (although not cheap).<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/wine_glasses2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-1455 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/wine_glasses2-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"549\" height=\"367\" srcset=\"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/wine_glasses2-300x200.jpg 300w, http:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/wine_glasses2-768x512.jpg 768w, http:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/wine_glasses2-1024x683.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/wine_glasses2.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 549px) 100vw, 549px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Photo courtesy of Vox.<\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>There are still some top wineries that don\u2019t charge an arm and a leg<\/strong> and there are still a few that are free (although who knows how much longer that will last). Foremost among these is Heitz Wine Cellars, a Napa Valley pioneer that has never charged for wine tasting.\u00a0 Do a little homework before you go to find wineries within your budget.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Share a tasting. <\/strong>This is good advice on its own merits, since you can taste more wines without consuming more alcohol.\u00a0 Of course, you need to travel with a fellow taster \u2013 your Significant Other is the best idea \u2013 and you may have to forego gulps in favor of sips.\u00a0 But that\u2019s what wine tasting is all about, anyway.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Join a wine club.<\/strong> All the wineries have <a href=\"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=157\">clubs<\/a>, which are a way for them to lock in customers.\u00a0 In almost every instance, membership enables free wine tasting, often for a group, not just an individual.\u00a0 Of course by being a club member you commit yourself to buying 2, 4 or 6 shipments of their wines per year and that can become costly.\u00a0 Recently we have learned that some wineries allow you to communicate requests to welcome your friends as if they were members as well.\u00a0 So if you have friends who are members of some clubs, ask them to call on your behalf.\u00a0 If you are a member of some other wineries, you can make such requests reciprocal.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Buy a bottle.<\/strong> In many cases, wineries will waive tasting fees if you make a purchase.\u00a0 This is a triple deal.\u00a0 You get to taste for free, determine your favorite and take a bottle of that one home.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Taste wines on the less expensive menus.<\/strong> We do recommend tasting the reserve lists, but on occasion there are very nice wines to taste among the recent releases.\u00a0 If you want to enjoy a particular winery for its architectural beauty or its views, it might be just fine to taste the regular wines\u00a0and enjoy the winery.<\/li>\n<li><strong>B.Y.O.B. to a restaurant.<\/strong> There are many restaurants that will charge a corkage fee if you bring your wine.\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=354\">And some don&#8217;t charge at all.\u00a0<\/a> Even with the corkage fee, it is often cheaper to bring your own bottle than buy it at the restaurant.\u00a0\u00a0 Also, you&#8217;ll have\u00a0a taste for the bottle you&#8217;ll buy for tonight&#8217;s dinner.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Splurge on just one special winery.<\/strong> There may be a Napa Valley wine that you particularly like.\u00a0 Or one that is very famous and that you always wanted to try.\u00a0 Yes, you\u2019ll pay a lot to taste these wines but if you limit the number of such wineries, it will lower the economic pain.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Go wine tasting somewhere else.<\/strong> There are great wines in Sonoma County, Santa Barbara and the Central Coast.\u00a0 You don\u2019t have to be in St. Helena or Rutherford to have a very pleasant tasting experience.\u00a0 As for us, we\u2019ll be back to Napa Valley for sure, just not as often.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wine tasting in Napa Valley has become quite expensive.\u00a0 As reported elsewhere in this issue, it is common to spend $45 or more for tastings of the better wines in the better wineries.\u00a0 For some people, this isn\u2019t an issue, but there are many others who might be dissuaded from visiting America\u2019s premier winemaking area &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=1458\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">How to Enjoy Wine Tasting in Napa Valley without Spending a Fortune<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1458"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1458"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1458\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1491,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1458\/revisions\/1491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}