The idea of a winery as a shopping mart is almost exclusively a California thing. We have never encountered non-wine related merchandise in a winery anywhere outside the United States. We have encountered an establishment in the Central Coast that bills itself as a gift shop and winery, in that order. (In keeping with Power Tasting’s speak-no-evil policy, they will go unnamed, but let us assure you that the wine in a self-described gift shop is likely to be awful.) Many wineries sell a few items – shirts, baseball caps, coasters and wine glasses – emblazoned with their name or logo. We aren’t talking about those; we mean wineries with sizable retail establishments.
The shop at Robert Mondavi Winery.
Most of these are in Napa Valley, with a few in Sonoma County. There are some where we make a point, whenever we visit, to see what they’re selling because we have occasionally found things we like and bought some gifts. Among these is Robert Mondavi Winery, where our primary interest is the wine, of course. They have an extensive gift shop that is particularly attractive at Christmastime. The shop has an interesting selection of books, mostly of the coffee-table variety, on wine and wineries. Besides books, we have bought Christmas-tree ornaments and decorative ceramics there.
Beringer Vineyards also features beautiful wares for Christmas. Their shop is not very large, but they do have quite a few beautiful things. Once again, the reason to visit is not for the shopping, but for the wine and the architecture. Still, there are lovely items available for sale.
Inglenook Vineyard, once known as Niebaum Coppola, is a testimonial to the life, career (and ego) of Francis Ford Coppola, the film director. Despite that, Inglenook makes some top-end wine, especially their Rubicon blend. The architecture and grounds are attractive and the selection in their shop is, for a winery, extensive and idiosyncratic. On several occasions, we have bought tablecloths there; like many of their items these evoked Mr. Coppola’s Italian-American heritage. The products on sale differ every time we have been to Inglenook, so other than corkscrews and coasters, don’t expect to find the same things twice.
Photo courtesy of Darioush.
The most opulent winery shopping experience is to be found at Darioush (which to our opinion is way too much.) In keeping with their Persian temple architecture, the items they sell are luxurious, perhaps extravagant. Many of them are Iranian-themed, such as a pomegranate plate or Persian cookbooks. The handbags and clothing, housewares and backgammon sets are all beautiful and well-made. Management at Darioush has made it clear to us that their intended market for their wines is interested in luxury items, which they also extend in their non-wine wares.
You may notice that we haven’t mentioned prices. None of the winery shops are inexpensive. Likewise, all the shopping locations we mention are also producers of top-quality wine. That’s probably not a coincidence. People who like great wine are also likely to be customers for beautiful goods. At the same time, there are many other wineries with excellent wine who only focus on the wine-tasting experience, not merchandise. Our advice is to visit wineries for the wine. If there are pretty things to buy, why not look them over?