![\"\"](\"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/meadowood.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nMeadowood Resort in St. Helena.\u00a0 Photo courtesy of Five Star Alliance.<\/em><\/p>\n We have seen a worrisome trend in recent years, beginning in Napa Valley but spreading elsewhere as well.\u00a0 What was once an area dedicated to a very particular kind of agriculture, with a few nice hotels, is being transformed into upscale resorts with wine tasting as a sideline.\u00a0 Now, we have nothing against attractive hotels and try to stay in them as often as we can when travelling.\u00a0 And there\u2019s nothing wrong with golf, tennis, spas and top-flight dining rooms.\u00a0 But when they start crowding out reasonably priced hotels and inns, so that Wine Country becomes the preserve of only those who can afford to stay there, then we have a problem.<\/p>\n Perhaps an even greater issue, as we see it, is that the vibe of Wine Country becomes different.\u00a0 Perhaps 75 years ago, the reason to visit Napa Valley or Sonoma County was to be in the country, buy fresh fruit and maybe do some horseback riding.\u00a0 But for at least forty of the intervening years, roaming through vineyards and tasting wine that have been the attractions there.\u00a0 Even in some of the sleepier parts of Europe or Australia, wine tasting as a weekend or vacation activity has taken off.<\/p>\n Hotel de Pavie in Saint-Emilion.\u00a0 Photo courtesy of All Wine Tours.<\/em><\/p>\n By changing the emphasis from wine tasting to spa living or golf, the tasting rooms will attract a different clientele.\u00a0 Instead of couples taking in three or four wineries in a day, there will be visitors who only schedule one tasting a day, scheduled around their tee times or massage appointments.\u00a0 Diners may have glasses of wine at suppertime, instead of a bottle and they may not be as particular about what\u2019s in that bottle.\u00a0 In fact, they may be more inclined to dine at the resort than in the local restaurants.\u00a0 We have already experienced a bit of this in Napa Valley and are fearful it will creep in elsewhere.<\/p>\n Wine tasting has not been an inexpensive avocation ever since wineries discovered that charging for small pours of fine wine was a more profitable proposition than giving it away.\u00a0 But tasting was a pleasure that could be enjoyed by casual tourists as well as connoisseurs with deep pockets.\u00a0 Altering the focus to those who can afford Wine Country resorts will change the way that wineries approach their market.<\/p>\n There is nothing that can be done about this trend.\u00a0 Those who want to open resorts will do so, and those more interested in golf or workouts are free to indulge those pastimes.\u00a0 But those of us who are wine tasting devotees can go about doing what we have been doing.\u00a0 We can, and will, visit, sip, dine, sip some more and maybe stay for dinner.\u00a0 Let\u2019s hope the wineries continue to cater to us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It isn\u2019t necessary for us to mention it, but we will anyway: We love Wine Country.\u00a0 The sectors we spend the most time in are in the United States, but we have also gone wine tasting in Europe, Africa and Australia (sadly, not yet in South America).\u00a0 We find the scenery to be beautiful, the … Continue reading Resorts<\/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":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2232"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2232"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2232\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2235,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2232\/revisions\/2235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/p>\n