{"id":2879,"date":"2025-01-29T19:44:38","date_gmt":"2025-01-29T19:44:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=2879"},"modified":"2025-01-29T19:50:33","modified_gmt":"2025-01-29T19:50:33","slug":"overtourism-in-and-near-wine-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=2879","title":{"rendered":"Overtourism in and Near Wine Country"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

There was a recent article in the New York Times<\/em> about the crowds that are overwhelming certain popular tourist locations, such as Dubrovnik and Venice.  So this month\u2019s Places to Visit article isn\u2019t about a single destination, but rather about the crush of visitors in many of the sites that are fun for a day away from wine tasting.  The subject brings up the famous aphorism attributed to Yogi Berra: \u201cNobody goes there anymore.  It\u2019s too crowded.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Dubrovnik in the summer high season.  Photo courtesy of the New York Times.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is clear that wine tasting, as an avocation, is increasing in popularity, which in turn means more people in the wineries.\u00a0 At the same time, many wineries (especially in California, but also elsewhere) have moved to tastings by appointment, so they are able to control the amount of visitors and limit the staff required to serve them.\u00a0 All the same, traffic on the main arteries (Route 29<\/a> in Napa Valley, Main Street on Long Island\u2019s North Fork<\/a>, Via Traversa del Monti leading into Montalcino<\/a>) can get rather busy.\u00a0 And then if you want to stop for lunch, say, around the square in Healdsburg or in the village of Chateauneuf du Pape, parking is nearly impossible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who are all these people?!?!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, they\u2019re us\u2026all of us.  The same people who enjoy sampling fine wines where they are made also enjoy fine dining, fine art and many of the finer things in life that make popular vacation spots so popular.  Maybe there has just been an increase in the number of cultured people in society.  Or maybe there are enough people who have the money, time and interest to go wine tasting in the more popular corners of Wine Country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We think that the travel lust that was suppressed during the pandemic has sprung back.  People are taking the trips they didn\u2019t take in 2020, 2021 and 2022.  We also believe that while the global economy hasn\u2019t been kind to everyone, those who are might be interested in sipping Merlot in California or Bordeaux or Long Island are doing well and travelling more often.<\/p>\n\n\n

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A Napa Valley vineyard in March\u2026out of season.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are a few things that can be done to avoid the overcrowding.\u00a0 One is to travel out of season.\u00a0 If, for example, you would like to combine a trip to the Loire Valley with a few nights in Paris, there are going to be fewer fellow visitors between November<\/a> and March<\/a> than when the weather is warmer.\u00a0 However, it\u2019s not as pleasant to see naked vines nor to exclude sitting in an outdoor caf\u00e9 in winter.\u00a0 There are trade-offs for many things in life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is another way of looking at the problem.\u00a0 There is an austere beauty to seeing vineyards under a coating of snow.\u00a0 It\u2019s pleasant share Christmas<\/a> or the first inklings of springtime with the local folks.\u00a0 You get to feel more alike a local and less like a tourist.\u00a0 And out-of-season in the vineyards is often the height of the cultural season in cities.\u00a0 Trade-offs aren\u2019t always bad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There was a recent article in the New York Times about the crowds that are overwhelming certain popular tourist locations, such as Dubrovnik and Venice.  So this month\u2019s Places to Visit article isn\u2019t about a single destination, but rather about the crush of visitors in many of the sites that are fun for a day … Continue reading Overtourism in and Near Wine Country<\/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\/2879"}],"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=2879"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2879\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2884,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2879\/revisions\/2884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}