Follow-up to Monday's talkshoe on Wine Tourism

I have a few anecdotes from wine travel to various regions and countries. One that Randy already enjoyed is posted as a footnote, Here.

The word "tourism" is ambiguous. For this talkshoe, I'm taking it to mean travel to a region, specifically to learn more about, or buy, its wines. A narrower, sometimes pejorative sense of the word "tourism" also appears, connoting casual sightseeing, perhaps in a group, without specific interest or knowledge of the wine. Employees of US winery tasting rooms are familiar with this type of tourism, and sometimes tell anecdotes of their own, online. That sense of tourism surfaces in a 1987 comment about California wine regions on the talkshoe forum. What I labeled a "wine enthusiast" there is what I have in mind for the talkshoe, but the topic is broad of course, and open to all.

In a lively well-participated discussion Monday, Wink described from a visit to the Russian River Valley (Sonoma County, California) busloads of eager thirsty winery sightseers. Albeit on a three-day weekend (which always prompts holiday travel in the US), still it's possible that such popular Sonoma County wine appellations now get the same visitor volume that one wine enthiusiast complained of in the Napa Valley in a 1987 comment I posted ("... In Napa, one is treated as a tourist!")

It would be interesting to see a history of US winery-visit patterns. I watched it, anecdotally, since the 1970s (living in northern California) and as I mentioned to Wink, the thirsty-busload syndrome isn't just atypical of winery regions worldwide, it's also atypical of California winery history, until the last couple decades.

I heard the report in the middle 1980s, from at least one respected winery already around for decades, that a travel magazine had trumpeted the opportunity for people to enjoy "wine for free" by visiting California wineries. That particular winery then began constraining visitors' use of its facilities, and others began charging "tasting fees." When I visit smaller or younger appellations like the Sierra Foothills cluster (Amador and El Dorado Counties) I find an informal, appreciative, older-style California reception. Winery principals serve samples, talk details, and don't charge.

Finger Lakes region of New York (and possibly Long Island wineries also) are now getting limousine/bus vistors at wineries. Some wineries flat out refuse to accept busloads. They don't have the staff/space/patience? to deal with an overwhelming crowd arriving at one time. I really did not encounter the busload problem while I was in Sonoma but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Maybe October does not see as much of that as July or August or maybe I was just lucky on my timing.

Max,

I'd be curious to hear if any wine producers in regions such as parts of Napa and Sonoma that are inundated with large numbers of folks seeking a visit have considered congestion pricing. Clearly, charging a tasting fee seems to be one of the few ways to be hospitable and welcome visitors while somehow regulating the enormous demand for visits (requiring appointments is another way). But I have always found it odd that wine producers in Napa and Sonoma charge tasting fees that are not high enough to deter enough visitors to prevent their facility from taking on a circus-like atmosphere, yet they often charge the same fee at 11.30 am mid-week when the place is empty and usually the only visitors are those who are seriously interested in learning about their wines, not just thirsty. Tasting fees have undoubtedly become part of the business model in regions where wine tourism provides so much foot traffic, but I am surprised that wine producers don't use them to encourage more visits during the week (via lower prices) and discourage visits by pleasure seekers on weekends. Perhaps the revenue produced from such causal weekend visitors is too important to live without?

Wine tourism, believe it or not, is relatively recent in Bordeaux.

Some châteaux have started making visitors pay to tour & taste.
But most don't.
However, you need to think ahead and reserve. You don't just drive up to Château Margaux and honk your horn!

Some châteaux such as Latour, and especially Pétrus, are very hard to visit these days.

The busload syndrome is alive and well here too. The finest estates often limit the number of visitors (15 or maximum 20).

Best regards,
Alex R.

Keith M posted a very thoughtful suggestion. I know that wineries vary in their strategic approach to handling visitors. (Silver Oak, a familiar name in US markets -- listed in 1975 as newcomer "Silveroaks Cellars" in an important book on California wineries -- built a modern flow-designed visitor facility cycling overlapping groups of a few dozen through brief orientation talk and then tasting counter, finally discharging them in the direction of a purchasing and gift-shop area. I was reminded of Disneyland specifically in the well-thought-out traffic-flow management.) But haven't heard of places charging the public high- and low-demand tasting fees (like hotel and airline rates).

But I'll elaborate an angle I mentioned in this or the Talkshoe-forum posting: De-facto separation between casual and serious reception has been possible in my experience, at wineries that get many casual visitors, by taking a non-casual approach. Either know someone (or visit together with someone who knows someone) at the winery, or make a blind approach conveying that you're not there for a free drink, you know about the winery -- you've done your homework -- you are a regular purchaser, or have deeper or technical questions, etc. This type of approach isn't advertised and isn't guaranteed, but I find it helps remarkably often.

I find that simply writing a letter or e-mail telling the winery who you are, and that you have a special interest in visiting their winery/sampling their wine usually goes very far towards a personalized reception.

That may seem like a very "Old World" approach, but it tends to work.

Best regards,
Alex R.