Category: Wine Tasting Tips

The reason to go wine tasting is, of course, to taste wine.  That rather unextraordinary statement obviously needs some refinement.

The main reason we go wine tasting is to educate our palates and increase our understanding by sampling the finest wines we can, in whatever region we are visiting.  We realize that there are some people, usually those living nearby, who are simply enjoying a day in the country along with some nice beverages to enhance the pleasure.  For them, lingering over a rare and expensive Cabernet Sauvignon or Chardonnay just isn’t a part of the game plan.  If you are one of those people, the rest of what follows really isn’t for you.

So now that it’s just us serious tasters, we’d like to ask a question: If you’ve come all this way to France or California or Italy or Australia or…why would you want to spend your time and tolerance for alcohol on anything other than the best wines?  (There are actually a few good reasons and we’ll get to those later.)  But for now, please take our advice and when you enter a tasting room, scan the wines offered and select the best available.

How do you know which are the best?  One way, of course, is that there’s a special list with the best wines on it, often called the Reserve or the Library selection.  If there isn’t such a list, there will be some wines that are more expensive than the others.  It is highly likely that those are the wines the proprietor considers the best.

Not only will you taste better wines this way but you will have a better experience.  Sometimes, the glasses will often be larger and thinner.  You will probably get a better explanation of what is being offered to you, especially if you are tasting on a weekday.  You may very well be in a special, more elegant tasting room as is the case, for instance, at Beaulieu Vineyards and at Cakebread in Rutherford.

Naturally, these better wines cost more to sample.  For example, at the two aforementioned wineries the cost of a regular tasting at Beaulieu Vineyards is $20 and $35 for the Reserve tasting.  At Cakebread  it’s as little as $15 for a selection of current releases and $40 for the Reserves.  We always choose the Reserve lists.

Now, we understand that the higher price may be a deterrent for some people.  That’s one of the good reasons mentioned above for choosing the lesser quality tasting list.  Another might be that there are wines that are on the regular list that you’d especially like to try.  A particular winery might not have a reserve Merlot, for instance, and you’d like to know what their Merlots are like.  There’s also the fact that you might want to taste wines that you are more likely to buy when you get back home.

Here are a few tips that might make tasting the good stuff more affordable.  We two almost always share a tasting.  Remember that the idea is to taste, not drink, so a shared glass gives both of us enough of an idea of what we want to know.  Moreover, we have sometimes found that the server will pour a bit more into a shared glass than to a single taster’s.   If, in addition, you want to try something on the lower priced list, the server will almost always accommodate you if you purchase the more expensive tasting (although often not the other way around).  In fact, it is often a very good idea to taste both the regular and the Reserve wines side by side.  (Just ask for an additional glass.)  You may well find that the regular wine is more to your liking than some of the pricier ones.

There are two types of locales in Wine Country.  Some are places with a small number of wineries, often not of the very highest grade.  Areas like Temecula Valley, Long Island’s North Fork and Jerome, Arizona fall into this category.  Then there are the sectors where the world’s great wines are made, such as Bordeaux, Napa Valley, Stellenbosch, Barossa, Tuscany and the Cote d’Or in Burgundy.  These are enormous territories with hundreds of wineries and tasting rooms.  (For example, there are more than 400 wineries in Napa Valley alone.)

Here’s a little non-secret: you can’t visit them all.  Probably not in a lifetime and absolutely not in a day.  So if you’re visiting one of these legendary wine-making areas and you only have a day (especially if you only have a day) there are some tips that will make your visit more enjoyable.

• Do some advance planning. Figure out where you will be starting from that day, how long it will take to get to Wine Country and when you need to be back.  Many thanks to Google Maps; everyone can be an expert in these matters nowadays.  You also must factor in the number of wineries you intend to visit, which is governed more by your tolerance for alcohol than in the number of hours you’ll be in the area.
• Choose just one section to visit. Or maybe two, at the most depending on the geography.  The point is that you want to spend your time visiting wineries, not driving long distances from place to place.  [Exception to this advice: Maybe you do want to drive around in order to take in the scenery.  Maybe you want to see the vineyards surrounding castles in the Medoc or the gracious hills in Sonoma County or the Route Touristique in Champagne.  That’s a great idea, too, but then plan to minimize your winery visits.]
• Figure out where you’re going to have lunch. If you are going wine tasting, you are going to have lunch.  This may be a picnic by the side of the road in a Burgundian village or a fine repast at a South African wine farm.  But these meals don’t just happen.  You need to plan ahead if you’re bringing lunch with you or know where restaurants are if you intend to dine that way.  Some of the best bets are knowing where the local delis are.  These days, many have gone gourmet, which isn’t bad at all.
• Go to the best wineries in the section you choose. This is easy if you’re familiar with the area, but what do you do if the wineries are all just names to you?  There are several answers.  Again the Web is your friend; look up “best wineries in ______” and you’ll have an excellent chance of tasting something worthwhile, at least to someone’s taste.  Or just ask people.  We have often pulled into the first winery we see, tasted their wines and then asked the people there where else we should go.  These folks in wineries are usually very generous with advice and have often led us to some of the greatest wine tasting experiences of our lives.  (See Valpolicella Follies, for example.)
• Do your wine tasting in a town, not at the vineyards. As a general rule, tasting rooms in towns are inferior to what you’ll be able to try at the places where the wine is actually made.  But that is not universally true.  For example, you can have a very pleasant experience walking down Grand Avenue in Los Olivos, stopping at a few (just a few) of the 25 tasting rooms in town.  You can do the same thing at the degustaziones in Montalcino.  If you happen to be staying in those places, you don’t have to worry about getting behind the wheel of a car, so your day is optimized.
• Don’t worry about what you didn’t get a chance to see. It is far better, to our minds, to get the most out of a small sample then just to skim a larger selection.  We realize that not everyone feels this way, but consider the fact that having visited one corner of Wine Country, life has a way of giving you another chance one day.

For some people, wine tasting is an event on a vacation.  For others, especially those who live close to Wine Country, it’s an occasional excursion.  Then there are some, like ourselves, who choose to take several days or even a week and spend the whole time in a particular wine region, with the primary purpose of tasting wine.  We do it every year somewhere in California and have arranged our vacations that way in France, Italy and Australia.  But that’s not all.  This sort of vacation is also about immersing ourselves in the natural (and man-made) beauty of the region, picnicking, dining, lazing by the pool and generally relaxing.

A multi-day wine tasting excursion is not the same as a series of one-day trips.  While each vacation day may stand alone, there are some significant differences with day-long outings from a central location outside Wine Country.  For one thing, there is no need to rush back to wherever one came from at the end of the day.  For another, one can sleep late and still be out tasting as the wineries open.  And there is none of the psychological pressure to see and experience as much as possible each day; what does not happen today can wait for tomorrow.  There might even be a day where the morning is spent in some other activity like visiting art galleries and the afternoon left to the wineries.

Most important perhaps is that a dedicated wine taster (anyone who spends several days going from winery to winery is by definition dedicated) can approach the wines differently and gain a more focused perspective.  One day might be given to comparing an unfamiliar grape, such as Syrah or Pinot Gris, at multiple wineries.  Another could be dedicated to comparing different winemakers’ approaches to Bordeaux blends or Chardonnay.  Visitors with some knowledge of the best-known labels might enjoy a day of tasting only wines from unfamiliar vineyards; there is no better way to deepen one’s understanding of the region and its products.

As with day-trippers, a multi-day vacationer should limit visits to a concentrated region.  Napa Valley, for example, aside from being a geographic region is also an American Viticultural Area (or AVA).  There are 16 sub-appellations from Calistoga in the north to Carneros in the south.  (Just to confuse matters, the area around Napa City does not have a sub-appellation, although we think it should.  And to carry the confusion even further, most people refer to the sub-appellations as AVAs anyway.)   It is possible for a vacationer with several days to spend to return to just one AVA and learn how adjoining properties growing the same grapes make very dissimilar wines, adding fuel to the argument that it is winemakers’ skills that make the difference.

Oh, but wait…  When you actually see the properties, with minute differences of sun, elevation, proximity to water and other aspects of microclimate, you will be able to say that it is all about terroir.  Only by giving yourself the opportunity to go into depth within an AVA does one get the knowledge to participate in the argument at all.

If you do spend several days winetasting, it is important to avoid a certain jadedness.  If all you have been tasting has been wine of an extremely high quality, the bottle you can afford to order at dinner may seem a little bland, or maybe more than a little.  Of course, there are many winemakers in the great winemaking areas in the US and abroad who aspire to greatness and not a few who achieve it.  If you focus only on tasting the very best that one particular region of Wine Country has to offer, you will miss many excellent wines that you will be able to buy once you get home.  You might try one of those wines and say to yourself “Gee, this awfully good.  I wonder why I didn’t care for it when I was on vacation.”  It’s all too easy to become an instant wine snob.  Don’t let the superb be the enemy of the very good.

As we mentioned in this issue, we recently attended a wine tasting organized by Treasury Wine Estates, the Australian company that owns many top end wine producers.  It was part of a tour around the country and similar tastings were held in Dallas, Miami and elsewhere.  They were highlighting four of their California brands: Beringer, Stags’ Leap, Chateau St. Jean and Etude.

If you have the opportunity to participate in such a tasting, we urge you to do so.  There are some dos and don’ts to keep in mind if you do.  Keep in mind that an event such as this is akin to a whole day’s visit to Wine Country, compressed into two hours.   Thus you have the advantage of tasting without all the driving from place to place.  On the other hand, a wine tasting like this packs a pretty solid alcoholic punch.  So, much as in a day of wine tasting, you have to pace yourself and make the most of what’s offered to you without overdoing things.

Moreover, tasting a lot of wines in such a short period of time challenges the taste buds.  Can you really differentiate what you’re drinking now from what you had five minutes ago, and five minutes before that as well?  You must use not only your mouth and your nose but also your brain.  What is there about each wine that distinguishes it?  What foods would bring out the best in the wine and voice-versa? (Having a spread of different foods to pair with the wines certainly helps figure this one out.)  If you’re with others (we always go wine tasting together) what do they think?  Their taste sensations may kick off thoughts in your own mind.

So when you go to a wine tasting such as the one we describe, consider some of the following tips.

• Eat before you drink. There are two reasons for this suggestion.  The first is that if you’re going to ingest a lot of alcohol – and you will at such an event – you had better have some food in your stomach.  The other is that the best food goes fast.  There was quite a spread at this tasting: steak, jumbo, crabmeat, oysters and much more.  Many of the best items were gone within a half hour.
• Don’t try to taste everything. No matter how small the serving, sipping up to 20 wines in that short a period is going to have a physical effect.  Moreover, you probably don’t like everything.  If you’re not a fan of white wines, don’t bother with them.  If Cabernet Sauvignon overwhelms (or underwhelms) you, skip them.  In other words, drink what you like, but not everything you like.
• Stick to the best. Since you shouldn’t try everything, you ought to go straight for the wines each estate is known for.  And if you’re not sure what that is, ask your server or the representative from the winery.  This will enable you to make peer-to-peer comparisons, both between the same grapes (Cabernet Sauvignon at this tasting) and between different ones of the same vintage.
• Talk to people. After all, they’re all wine-lovers like you so find out what brought them to the event.  In some cases they’ll be members of the same club as yourself.  Or perhaps better, they’re members of another winery’s club and can give you some perspective on why they like those wines enough to have joined.
• Find a seat. Two hours on your feet is a long time.  Two hours drinking makes it feel longer.  At the particular event in New York, if here was any one criticism, it was that they didn’t have enough chairs.
• Go back for more of your favorites. The wine is there; you paid for the experience ($30 in that case) and the servers aren’t going to take any bottles with them.  There’s no reason to be greedy but there’s no reason to be shy, either.
• At the end of the tasting, don’t get behind a wheel. No matter what you think at the time, you’ve had too much to be safe.  By this point you’ve found your favorites and have gone back a few times for more.  It adds up.  We took a taxi home; you should, too.

A tasting like this one makes for a great night out.  Make the most of it if you get the chance.

Wine tasting is an interactive endeavor.  Unless you’re opening a lot of bottles at home, by yourself, the very least you need is someone to pour the wine for you.  (And sitting home alone opening bottles isn’t healthy for mind or body.)  For most of us, it’s a social activity.  We go wine tasting together and it’s rare that we have a tasting room to ourselves.

A significant amount of time is spent talking about what we’re tasting:  “What did you think of the nose/mouthfeel/acidity/finish?  Wasn’t that yummy?  I don’t like this one.  You like big, heavy wines more than I do”.  The conversation is always amongst ourselves and often with strangers who happen to be at the bar or the table at the same time as we are.

The common element is always the server, who generally selects the order in which you taste wines and the amount that you receive.  They are trained to act like hosts at a party, to be convivial, provide information and while not actively hawking the winery’s wares, to encourage you to buy some or join the wine club.  It therefore follows that to maximize the pleasure of your visit, you should interact in a friendly manner with your server.

Now, much of that is just the manners your mother taught you.  If somebody gives you something, you smile and say thank you.  But the objective here is something more.  If you engage your server in conversation and ask fairly meaningful questions, you will get a lot more in return.  What are some reasonable questions?  You can ask how the wine you just sipped differs from previous vintages.  If the wine is estate-grown, where are the winery’s vineyards?  And if they are sourced, who do they buy grapes from?  Does their winemaker control the farming practices or is it strictly up to the vineyard owner?  You could ask the server’s opinion on how long to cellar a wine that seems to need it.  We almost always ask what the blend of grapes and the level of alcohol are.  If we think we might be interested in buying some of a wine, we ask to see the bottle; there’s often a lot of information to be gleaned from the labels.

There are two types of servers: plain pourers and wine educators.  You’re not going to get much from the former.  We’ve found that better wineries make a point of training their people so that you don’t get someone who is simply capable of filling a glass and no more.  Ah, but when you meet an educator, showing interest brings rewards.  If you wanted a comparison with previous vintages, he or she might have some and will open them so that you can compare.  We have had some rather in-depth verticals (multiple years of the same wine) on occasion.  And if you ask about cellaring, the educator might just remember that there’s a bottle of a ten-year old (or older) that they served to visiting dignitaries just this morning. “Would you like some?”  Oh, yes, indeed.

Even if you don’t get little extras, you will almost always benefit from the information you receive.  Since one of the objectives of wine tasting is to increase your knowledge of wine in general and specific producers in particular, you get the pleasure of just adding to your understanding of fine wine.

When a tasting room is really crowded, on a weekend or when a tour bus arrives, you may not be able to show your interest to your server.  He or she is overworked and underappreciated on those days.  But when you hit the right person on the right day, the effect is wonderful.  It is another reason to have a quiet, seated tasting on the busiest days.  The staff know you’re serious and treat you accordingly.

We often receive the question from our friends, “How many wineries can a person safely visit in a day?”  And the answer always is, “It depends”.   It depends on your level of interest, how you like to taste wine and most important, what your tolerance for alcohol may be.  Everyone is different in these regards so self-knowledge both in the planning before you go and during the day that you’re there is critical to both enjoyment and safety.

Here at Power Tasting, we’re all about wine tasting.  It’s not about the quality or even really about the quantity of the wine – or the cake – it’s about your overall level of appreciation.

Of course, wine is an intoxicating beverage. If you have too much of it, you can’t appreciate what you’re tasting.  And if you’re driving, you can be downright dangerous to yourself and others on the road.

So to answer the opening question, we often visit six wineries in a day.  “Six!!!!” you may be saying.  But we have our method and maybe it can help you.

• We share a tasting. We get one glass for the two of us, just as you might get two forks for one slice of cake.  That way, we get to taste as several wines at any winery without imbibing as much alcohol.  Our objective is to taste, not to drink.  (Now, there are exceptions.  If we are visiting a place that makes wines we know in advance we will particularly like, we sometimes each have our own glasses.  Those are the days we spend more time in those particular wineries and visit fewer of them overall.)  In addition, it’s less expensive if you share.
• We get a lot of appreciation out of aromas, as well as tastes. For one thing, smelling wine is an equal part of the experience.  Our noses often tell us a different story than our mouths do.  The aromas may be intoxicating, but you can’t get drunk just smelling wine.
• We sip just as one might have a nibble of cake. It only takes a little bit to get the flavors, the mouthfeel, the finesse and the finish of a wine.  There are some who spit before swallowing, but we are not among them.  Yes, we take in a bit of alcohol, but we get the complete sensation of a wine.  And then…
• We pour. That’s what the bucket on the bar is there for.  Let’s face it, not every wine is great or at least not to everyone’s taste.  So if we sip something that either or both of us don’t like it, we get rid of it.  Honest, the servers don’t care.  They fill glasses; how the visitor empties them is not the server’s concern.
• We always monitor how much we’re drinking and how we feel. If there’s any question at all, it’s time to stop.  By the time you know you’ve had too much, you’ve had way too much.

Because we are careful, we know that our usual consumption is on average about a half a glass per winery.  So if we visit six wineries, it comes to three glasses over a six to seven hour period.  For some people, that may indeed be too much, so don’t do it if you’re one of those people.

Airplanes are made for flying, not for tasting wine.  Nonetheless, they serve wine on (some) airlines, so why not taste it?  Well, for one thing, most of it is pretty awful.  In economy, they have those little 187 ml. bottles that have labels like Chateau de Somewhere or Turkey Neck Cellars.  Yes, it’s liquid, contains alcohol and is either red or white.  I think it’s fair to say they make it from grapes.  Beyond that, you’re taking your chances.

But if you’re fortunate enough to be flying in Business Class or (gasp!) First Class, they often have some pretty good wine available.  We’ve done a lot of international business travel which has given us quite a few such opportunities.  We’ve had Dom Perignon, Penfold’s St. Henri, and Chateau Beychevelle, among some of the more notable wines, while aloft.  If you’re flying overseas, why not avail yourself of a tasting based on the wine list the airline offers?  Tell the flight attendant that that’s what you’re trying to do and he or she will often be happy to give you two glasses so that you can compare, say, a California Cabernet versus a French Bordeaux.  Or ask for a white before your meal (pretty much only on overseas flights only) and then red wine with it.

If you would like to experiment in this way while flying, there are a few things you ought to think about.

Airplane cabins are not ideal locations for wine tasting.  The air is pressurized and recirculating.  The light is not in a good place to appreciate the color.  And your senses are not the same as they are on the ground.  As a general rule, powerful wines come across better in the air than lighter ones because they overcome the natural dulling of your smell and taste that are the result of airplane conditions.  As a result, what you might fall in love with in the air may taste overpowering when you order later, in a restaurant or shop.  Steve once discovered a Cambria Syrah only to find he really didn’t like it when he tasted it in California’s Central Coast.

Don’t forget that wine is alcohol.  And you’re going to feel it sooner and harder.  So the general rule that you should sip not drink if you’re wine tasting goes double up in the air.  But it’s soooo easy to forget.  The movie is playing and the attendant keeps filling your glass, so why not have a little more, and a little more and…

Once, Steve was flying home from Japan and asked the steward for one of those forms that you can use for comments.  JAL had had to do a lot of maneuvering to get him on the plane and upgraded and he wanted to thank them.  The steward must have broken protocol and read the comments, because he reappeared with a broad smile and a bottle of champagne.  For the rest of the flight, he wouldn’t let Steve’s glass become empty, to the point that Steve had to fake sleeping in order to get him to stop.  Or maybe he wasn’t faking?

Airplanes bounce.  If your flight is long enough, you’re bound to hit some turbulence somewhere.  And, lo and behold, wine will slosh.  You could have a long way to go with red wine all over your pants.  That’s why airlines don’t use stemware, so that their glasses, especially when filled, will have a lower center of gravity.  So try not to have your glass filled to the top.  Of course, you could drink quickly so there isn’t much in the glass.  Bad idea.  Or you can ask the attendant not to pour too much, which also has its drawbacks.  The flight attendants like to show the airlines’ generosity to their higher-paying customers and so give you a lot and come back to give you more.  However, they never seem to be there just when you’d like another drop or two.  For some of the more expensive wines, they may not have a lot of bottles on board, so if you don’t take these fine wines when offered, they may not be there when you want them.  Still, restraint is always a good approach.

All the above sounds like we’re discouraging you from sipping wine in the air.  Not so.  We just hope that you do what you would do if you were on a tasting visit to Wine Country.  Think about what you’re doing.  Use discretion.  And then open your taste buds and your mind and taste what may prove to be something wonderful.  Have a good time.  And bon voyage.

Wine tasting can be a destination activity.  You travel to the capitals of the wine world – Bordeaux, Napa Valley, Tuscany, the Barossa Valley – for the purpose of tasting the wonderful wines they have to offer.  But in other cases, tasting wine is secondary if not incidental to the trip.  Perhaps you’re on vacation in a city that has wineries nearby and you’d like an afternoon away from the urban bustle.  Or you live in such a place and you wake up to find a day too beautiful to stay in town.  So you decide, let’s go to Wine Country, not for serious tasting but just for a pleasant day out.

Here are some tips for making the most of such a day.

Plan ahead.  We don’t mean that you should spend hours studying guides and maps.  But take a quick look on the Web for a locale that has all the things you need: a few wineries, a restaurant and a deli.  There was a time when you really needed to know where you were going.  Nowadays, Google knows and you only have to ask.

 Minimize your driving.  Select a destination that you can get to primarily on major roads and then go there only (and there only).  Don’t lose your time behind the wheel going from winery to winery.  If there are two or three in close proximity to one another, those are the ones to visit today.  Your tasting at Chateau Latour can wait for another day.

Have lunch.  Have a very good lunch.  Have wine with your lunch. If you dine in a restaurant, make it one that’s fun.  For example, when we go wine tasting in Long Island’s North Fork, we often have burgers and sandwiches at the Old Mill Inn in Mattituck.  The attraction is sitting on a dock watching the ducks come begging for French fries and seeing the pleasure boats head out into the Sound.  It’s not great food but it’s great fun.

Shop for something that isn’t wine.  Almost every winery has stuff for sale, from caps and shirts with the winery logo to truly beautiful, unique (often overpriced) products.  You don’t have to buy but the looking can be fun.  And since Wine Country is by definition farm country, you can often find a stand with fruit, vegetables, pies and candy.

Savor the beauty that’s all around you.  There may be exceptions, but in our experience grapes only grow in beautiful places.  The vines in serried rows, like soldiers marching in formation across a hillside, are going to look brilliant, any time of year.  At almost every winery they are aware of what they have and provide a bench or a porch where you can just sit and take in the glory of the scenery.  We both say it fills our hearts.  Fill yours.

Stay as late as you can.  Of course, it depends how much time you need to drive home.  But seeing the vines in the long, golden rays of a summer afternoon – or better yet, a sunset – makes for an unforgettable day in the country.

Taste, don’t drink.  It is so tempting to go to just one more winery and to swallow everything each one has to offer.  But don’t forget that it is alcohol and you have to drive to get back home.  Sip each wine and experience it with all your senses – the aroma, the color, the feel of the glass in your hand, the murmurs of other guests – and if you really like it, buy a bottle to take home with you.

In California and in many other wine-producing regions of the world, the typical experience of wine-tasting is to pull up to the winery, stand at a bar and sip selected wines, pay a fee and leave. If you have the time and interest, you might ask a few questions and learn a bit about the wines and the people who make them. There are certain wineries and certain occasions that call for more formality. You have to call for an appointment and show up at a specified time.

This is essentially the only way to taste the wines from the grands chateaux in Bordeaux. It is also necessary at the grandfather of all Brunellos, Biondi-Santi in Montalcino, Italy. There are a growing number of wineries in Napa and Sonoma counties that require an appointment. From the wineries’ points of view, there may be a number of reasons for this policy. Often it’s because the winery is so small that there are not enough people to support having a tasting room staff. One such that we have enjoyed in the past is Acorn winery in Russian River, a mom and pop operation with a real mom and pop, Betsy and Bill Nachbaur, offering you tastes of their wines.

Others just don’t want to deal with crowds and so limit the number of visitors. Everything is usually very informal and you get a lot of personal attention. We recently visited A. Raffanelli in Dry Creek where we tasted Zinfandel, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon in their barrel room, with the wines served by a member of their production staff.

If you are interested to take a tour of a winery’s vineyards and production facilities, you usually need an appointment. This is only fair because they need to schedule workers to lead the tours and cannot accommodate too many people.

Finally, there are those who require appointments because they want to underscore their exclusivity. This may not be as snobbish as it sounds; they may sell extremely well-made wines at extremely high prices and see no reason to share their products with those who are unlikely to appreciate them. Yes, that’s snobbish. But when you are being asked to pay high prices for a tasting – $50 at Viader on Howell Mountain; $75 at Verité in Chalk Hill – you don’t want to be bellying up to the bar with the riff-raff. In other words, if you’re willing to pay that much, you become a bit of a snob as well. It is, in many cases, the only way you can have the opportunity to taste some very rare and pricy wines. However, you have to understand that you might be there for an hour or more listening to the whole story of the family, the building, the winemaker, the vineyard, and how great and beautiful their wines are plus dealing with the chit-chat of the person serving you. Too many of those in one day can be annoying.

One of the best reasons to sign up for an appointment is to avoid the madness if you are visiting Napa and Sonoma on a weekend. Saturday and Sundays (and sometimes Friday afternoons) can find tasting rooms packed, noise levels high, and large groups preventing you from getting a little wine in your glass, much less having a conversation with a knowledgeable server. You may even have the unpleasant experience of sharing the space with an overserved bachelorette party. If nothing else, an appointment guarantees you some tranquility while you’re having your tasting.

In many cases, tastings that require appointments are sit-down affairs, with a server who really knows what he or she is pouring. Often they include a tour. (There are significant exceptions to sitting around a table. Chappelet on Pritchard Hill, for example, offers a walking tour, tasting as you go.) All are fairly lengthy; you won’t be able to sip one or two wines and then leave. As we said, you’re in for the long haul, often more than an hour. Some are worth it. For example, the tasting at Jordan in Alexander Valley is conducted in a lovely library and dining room in a faux French chateau. Alas, there have been occasions when we felt trapped in a room with ten strangers, counting the minutes until we could gracefully escape. No matter the quality of the wine, the experience can be claustrophobic. We’re afraid that Far Niente and Nickel & Nickel fall into that category.

Here’s a nice little secret. “By Appointment Only” doesn’t always mean what it says. If a tasting room has the capacity, they will probably accommodate walk-ins, especially if you ask nicely. We were welcomed in that manner at Passalacqua in Dry Creek recently and were rewarded with a splendid seated tasting on a veranda overlooking seemingly endless vineyards. The staff at Tamber Bey in Calistoga found room for us on a Saturday. That was kind of them, but even with an appointment-only policy, they were quite full with large groups of visitors and it was very noisy.

Our advice is to use appointments judiciously. They make sense if there’s a specific wine you’re dying to try. If your travel plans mean that you must be tasting on a weekend, they can alleviate a lot of the unpleasantness that is an unfortunate part of Saturdays and Sundays in Wine Country.

 

In the late 1970’s, when wine tasting in California first became popular (or at least when we first experienced wine tasting in Napa Valley) the pours were served in tiny glasses, about four inches high with a bowl the size of a small tangerine. They were thick and heavy for a small glass and the wineries gave them away. Those were the days when the winemakers were happy that anyone was paying serious attention to their products at all. Somewhat thereafter, the wineries would buy glasses with their logos inscribed on them and they would still give them away. The tastings were free in those days, too.

Over time, there was a charge for the tastings and the wine glasses became larger and thinner. Some wineries still give them away with the tasting but don’t expect it. In more recent years, the glass only came with the reserve tastings (i.e., expensive) until today there are only a handful of wineries that give away glasses at all. Among them are Caymus in Rutherford and Silver Oak and its sister winery, Twomey in both Napa and Sonoma. Tablas Creek in Paso Robles and Steele in Lake county still do so as well. There are a few others, but even the ones that gave glasses even a few years ago no longer offer them.

We would not recommend that anyone go to a winery just to collect stemware. The wineries mentioned here are well worth a visit for the quality of the wine, which of course is the prime reason for going wine tasting at all. Nonetheless, souvenir glasses are fun to collect for some people, and if you are one of them you can usually buy engraved glasses at the winery. This raises two questions: how do you get them home, especially if you are flying, and what do you do with them once you get home?

The glasses you get at wineries today are usually of fine quality, with large tulip shaped bowls made of fine, thin crystal. The glasses are often from some of the most famous crystal-makers, including Riedel and Schott Zweizel and have no beads. (The bead is the rounded edge at the rim of a wine glass. The finer the glass, the thinner the bead and the best have no bead at all.)

The problem, of course, is that fine crystal is very delicate. Many of the wineries will wrap the glasses in tissue paper and give each glass to you in a paper bag. We recommend that you bring bubble wrap or envelop the glasses in your clothing.  Still, there’s no guarantee that they will arrive intact. If you buy a set of glasses, the wineries will usually have a box for them, thereby avoiding the problem.

Over the years, we have collected many souvenir wine glasses. In our second home, we have enough that we can set a table for maybe as many as sixteen people, although we don’t have a table that big. In our New York home, we use the souvenir glasses for our everyday wines, reserving our finer crystal for our best wines. The engraved glasses are great for parties, since people can recognize their own glasses by the name of the vineyard. When we have two of a certain winery’s glasses, we give them to couples.

So in sum, don’t go wine tasting just to collect glassware, but if they give you glasses, enjoy them. And if you particularly like a glass and want a souvenir where they don’t give them away, buy them.