{"id":2455,"date":"2023-08-29T18:00:59","date_gmt":"2023-08-29T18:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=2455"},"modified":"2023-08-29T18:00:59","modified_gmt":"2023-08-29T18:00:59","slug":"the-evolution-of-wine-tasting-in-napa-valley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=2455","title":{"rendered":"The Evolution of Wine Tasting in Napa Valley"},"content":{"rendered":"

We\u2019ve been visiting Napa Valley for the purpose of wine tasting for a long time, since 1977 to be exact.\u00a0 Needless to say, the valley has changed greatly over nearly a half century.\u00a0 In some ways, the wine has stayed the same, but in others it has developed quite a bit.\u00a0 And thus, the way that visitors engage in wine tasting has evolved tremendously.<\/p>\n

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St. Helena in the 1950s.\u00a0 Photo courtesy of Cinema Treasures<\/em><\/p>\n

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Napa Valley was primarily agricultural, and of course it still is.\u00a0 But towns like Napa, Yountville, St. Helena and Calistoga are unrecognizable from what they once were.\u00a0 For example, we can remember when the French Laundry in Yountville used to source its produce and poultry from farms just across Washington Street.\u00a0 Calistoga was known for mud baths, not wine.\u00a0 St. Helena was a village for locals and Napa was nowhereseville<\/em>.\u00a0 What changed them?\u00a0 Tourism, of course.\u00a0 And what brought the tourists?\u00a0 Wine.<\/p>\n

In the earlier times, growers and wine makers would offer tastes of their wines for free as a form of advertising, in hopes that visitors would buy some.\u00a0 Wine tasting was an afterthought in the commercial scheme of things, conducted in a barn or a barrel room.\u00a0 The visitors were attracted more by curiosity (\u201cDo they really make wine up there?\u201d) than advanced oenological expertise. \u00a0And while there were always exceptions, the wines were predominantly Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay.<\/p>\n

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St. Helena today.\u00a0 Photo courtesy of Visit Napa Valley.<\/em><\/p>\n

By the 1990\u2019s, tourism was well established.\u00a0 There were plenty of excellent restaurants to feed the visitors (quite well), though hotels there were primarily chains and bed-and-breakfasts.\u00a0 Wineries began charging for their tastings, enough at first to cover their tasting costs.\u00a0 These had begun to climb as they had to improve facilities, hire more staff and improve the glassware.\u00a0 And the varietals had expanded.\u00a0 Everyone seemed to have a Pinot Noir from Carneros and Sauvignon Blanc from all over the valley.\u00a0 And the visitors were interested in sipping some of all the wines.\u00a0 The tastings went from a little of one or two wines to flights of four or more.<\/p>\n

By the millennium, wine tasting had become a profit maker unto itself.\u00a0 Napa palaces were erected from one end of the valley to the other.\u00a0 And the tasting fees had risen to the point that they were a consideration \u2013 along with alcoholic sanity, of course \u2013 as to how many wineries could be visited.\u00a0 Many tasting rooms offered two lists, with the premier wines available at a higher price.\u00a0 Increasingly, the visitors demonstrated significant knowledge and taste buds.<\/p>\n

Today, especially with the aftereffects of the pandemic, much of the tourism in Napa Valley is directed to resorts, with wine tasting almost a sideline.\u00a0 Of course, Napa Valley wines had long achieved eminence in the world and preeminence in California and the US generally.\u00a0 But the cost of tasting in Napa Valley had made other winemaking areas, such as Sonoma County, Santa Barbara and the Central Coast attractive alternatives.\u00a0 The wines of Napa Valley are still superb, but the tasting fees at the finest wineries are a deterrent for some potential visitors.<\/p>\n

Napa Valley will long produce great wines and the scenery will forever be beautiful, but the nature of wine tasting there may never be the same.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We\u2019ve been visiting Napa Valley for the purpose of wine tasting for a long time, since 1977 to be exact.\u00a0 Needless to say, the valley has changed greatly over nearly a half century.\u00a0 In some ways, the wine has stayed the same, but in others it has developed quite a bit.\u00a0 And thus, the way … Continue reading The Evolution of Wine Tasting in Napa Valley<\/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":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2455"}],"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=2455"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2458,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2455\/revisions\/2458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}