{"id":3133,"date":"2025-11-30T18:17:33","date_gmt":"2025-11-30T18:17:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=3133"},"modified":"2025-11-30T18:17:33","modified_gmt":"2025-11-30T18:17:33","slug":"dealing-with-reserved-seated-tastings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=3133","title":{"rendered":"Dealing with Reserved Seated Tastings"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Wine tasting these days in California, at least in Sonoma County and Napa Valley, almost always consists of sitting at a table, with a server coming by to pour wines on a preset list.&nbsp; Depending on the winery, it can feel like an elegant way to taste or an arduous process of tasting what the winery wants you to taste versus what you want.&nbsp; Also, almost all of the wineries say that you must make a reservation and that tastings will last 90 minutes.&nbsp; That can be rather limiting if you want to make a day of sipping (<em>not <\/em>drinking) fine wines.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/image-1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"731\" height=\"338\" src=\"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/image-1.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3136\" srcset=\"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/image-1.png 731w, https:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/image-1-300x139.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 731px) 100vw, 731px\" \/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>There are some tips to regain control of our wine tasting experiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Reservations may matter.<\/strong>&nbsp; Yes, there are some places that are serious about the reservation policy.&nbsp; For the most part, these are wineries that make very high-end (i.e., expensive) wines and often entail a tour as well as a tasting.&nbsp; Do a little homework in advance if you\u2019d like to try one of these.&nbsp; A rough rule in this regard is that the ones where you must be on the list to be admitted will say \u201cBy appointment only\u201d rather than specifying reservations.&nbsp; Ramey in Healdsburg is one of these.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>For the rest, reservations don\u2019t matter.<\/strong>&nbsp; We have pulled into wineries with signs outside saying \u201cOnly by reservation\u201d, to find an empty room with a bored employee waiting for customers.&nbsp; There are even signs popping up these days saying, \u201cWalk-ins Welcome\u201d.&nbsp; We think that the restrictive policies were meant to manage labor cost of servers but have resulted in keeping visitors away.&nbsp; Maybe a phone call while you\u2019re on the way would be polite; still, if there\u2019s a winery you want to explore, just go in.&nbsp; The worst that can happen is you\u2019ll just get back in the car.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>In-town tastings are more likely to be open.<\/strong>&nbsp; These too are likely to be sit-down affairs, but so many rely on walk-ins that there is rarely a need to reserve in advance.&nbsp; Most of these are relatively unknown, so the curiosity of passers-by is their marketing strategy.&nbsp; There are also some well-known labels in the towns.&nbsp; For example, if you walk around Healdsburg, you might encounter Hartford Family or Siduri, which have significant reputations.&nbsp; But there are also some relative unknowns, such as Lurton, which also serve pretty fine wine.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>You don\u2019t have to follow the list<\/strong>.&nbsp; If you see that there are wines offered on the tasting list that you are uninterested in, skip them.&nbsp; If, for example, you only want to sip red wines, say so.&nbsp; In that case, you\u2019re likely to get not only the listed wines but a selection of others that they make.&nbsp; And if you\u2019re only interested in a varietal, you may go through their entire inventory of that grape.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Hurry the server along<\/strong>.&nbsp; In some cases, they want to leave you to yourself.&nbsp; In others they want to chat.&nbsp; If your interest is tasting and then moving along, keep the server filling your glasses.&nbsp; Of course, if you prefer solitude or conversation, ignore this tip.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/image-2.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"780\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/image-2.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3135\" srcset=\"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/image-2.jpeg 780w, https:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/image-2-300x138.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/image-2-768x354.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px\" \/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Ask for all the wines to be served at once<\/strong>.&nbsp; This not only shortens the interaction with the server, it also gives you a chance to compare wines side-by-side.&nbsp; Also, it\u2019s pretty to see so many glasses of wine in front of you.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wine tasting these days in California, at least in Sonoma County and Napa Valley, almost always consists of sitting at a table, with a server coming by to pour wines on a preset list.&nbsp; Depending on the winery, it can feel like an elegant way to taste or an arduous process of tasting what the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=3133\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Dealing with Reserved Seated Tastings<\/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":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3133"}],"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=3133"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3133\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3137,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3133\/revisions\/3137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}