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<\/a><\/p>\nPhoto courtesy of Spring Valley Vineyard.<\/em><\/p>\nThe above is good advice but it\u2019s not entirely true.<\/p>\n
\n- Walk-ins are still available<\/strong>. It helps, we\u2019ve found, if you appear a bit abashed, saying, \u201cGee, we don\u2019t have a reservation, but do you think you can take us without one?\u201d\u00a0 If the tasting room (or more likely, in good weather, the tasting patio) isn\u2019t busy, they\u2019ll take you.\u00a0 Groups of two will be taken, but larger than that and you\u2019re less likely to be seated.<\/li>\n
- The issue is labor shortages<\/strong>. We have been told that the reason for the \u201cby appointment only\u201d policies is that qualified tasting room staff are hard to find in the years after the end of the acute phase of the pandemic.\u00a0 If the schedule for the day is known in advance, they can staff appropriately.\u00a0 However, although most wineries won\u2019t admit it, they often have staffed up for some walk-ins.<\/li>\n
- It\u2019s easier at the lesser-known wineries<\/strong>. The biggest labels, which have historically drawn the most visitors, are the most likely to enforce their reservation systems.\u00a0 You can tell by checking their web sites.\u00a0 If they state that they have a strict<\/em> reservations-only policy, they probably mean it.\u00a0 Many of the wineries that aren\u2019t household names are eager to please and attract new customers.\u00a0 And quite often we\u2019ve found that there\u2019s little or no sacrifice in the quality of the wines we have tasted by sticking with the smaller wineries.<\/li>\n
- It\u2019s also easier at the less busy times of day<\/strong>. You are more likely to find availability if you arrive just as the tasting rooms open their doors or an hour before they close them.\u00a0 The morning is better.\u00a0 The servers are more chipper and they\u2019re not in such a rush to get home.<\/li>\n
- And you have a better chance on weekdays. <\/strong>Naturally, wineries are busier on weekends, just as they were before the pandemic.\u00a0 But the reservation-only regimes have eliminated the wild party mob scenes of yesteryear, and that\u2019s not bad at all.<\/li>\n
- You may not get prime seating<\/strong>. If it\u2019s a beautiful day and you want to sit on the veranda, you may find that you can only be accommodated inside.\u00a0 The wine tastes exactly the same and since you didn\u2019t make an appointment, you have no right to complain.<\/li>\n
- Maybe ask for all your wines to be poured at the same time<\/strong>. If you are a fan of the extended tasting experience that is the rule in Napa Valley today, by all means let them serve you one wine at a time and plan to sit there for more than an hour.\u00a0 But if you need a lunch break or have an appointment at another winery, you can save some time and reduce the irrelevant patter by having all four or five wines poured at once.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
If you\u2019ve decided to go wine tasting in Napa Valley, you\u2019d better make advance reservations and be prepared for an experience lasting at least an hour.\u00a0 [This is largely true for Sonoma County as well, but let\u2019s keep the focus on Napa Valley.]\u00a0 You\u2019ll sit at a table and be served one wine after the … Continue reading Without Reservations?<\/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\/2388"}],"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=2388"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2388\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2390,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2388\/revisions\/2390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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