One of the pleasures of wine tasting trips is discovering new wineries and the wines they make. At the same time, if there is a winery in the area that you are visiting that you know you love, it’s a pleasure to return and try their wines again. If you’re travelling to a sector of Wine Country where you’ve never been before, this distinction is lost; every winery is new to you. But if you’re already familiar with an area, say Napa Valley or Burgundy, you do have to make some decisions.
If you had an infinite amount of time, you wouldn’t have to choose. But most of us are visiting Wine Country for a limited period for each trip. So many wineries, so little time!
Photo courtesy of eto.
Here are a few tips for choosing whether to return to favorite wineries or not.
- Set a theme for your wine tasting trip. If you want to seek out wineries you don’t know, then make reservations accordingly. The same applies if you just want to go to places where you know you have enjoyed their wines in the past. Another twist might be to focus on specific grapes, such as Chardonnays or Zinfandels. If you do, you may choose to return to one or more wineries where you know their Cabernet Sauvignons, but not their Chards or Zins, in order to learn how they do with other grapes.
- Consider the time commitment. In many locales, the days of bellying up to the bar are over. If you want to sample a winery’s latest releases (even more so, their reserve and library wines) you will do so at a seated tasting. These are often accompanied by a tour. These take more time, usually an hour and a half. Thus, the number of wineries – new finds and old friends – is limited.
- New wineries, or new to you? There aren’t many new wineries opening in Bordeaux, but there are plenty in other regions. For example, we have been tasting the wines of Long Island’s North Fork for more than 30 years. These days, whenever we take a tasting trip there, we find numerous recently established wineries or old ones that have changed hands. And there are some wineries that have been there for quite a while, but we never got to them. It’s easy to specialize in new experiences on Long Island.
- Go back, you might fall in love again. That was the name of one of Power Tasting’s earliest articles, and the advice is worth reinforcing. Maybe there was a winery where once you didn’t enjoy their wines. It might prove worthwhile to give them another shot. Maybe that last time the winery just had a bad year, or your server didn’t know what he was doing, or you were simply in the wrong frame of mind. Particularly if the winery has a good reputation, it might be worth your while to give them a second chance.