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.