Tasting Fees

It always upsets me a little bit to have customers come in who are so clearly upset by our tasting fees. I think because this is a family business, and every bottle sale affects me personally. And as a family, we’ve put a lot of time, energy, and love into these wines so for people to say that it not only isn’t worth $10 to taste them but to be offended we’d even suggest such an idea, it gets me to the core.

Why do we charge tasting fees? Well, plain and simple, we are a business and we need to make money. We refund each tasting fee with a bottle purchased, so there’s no additional charge if you like our wines. But not everyone does, as is to be expected, no wine could be that vanilla. Or at least nothing we’d bother making, but in any event, we still open bottles every morning for tasting. These bottles last two days max, so if it’s not very busy, we can end up wasting several bottles a week. Tasting fees help to offset this cost. Also, sad to say, but it provides a barrier to entry. Not everyone comes to wine country with the intent of serious wine enjoyment. I’m not knocking this, there’s room for all sorts of visitors, but a tiny, boutique winery with fairly expensive wines is not the place for a drunken bachelorette party. And usually, if it’s THAT kind of bachelorette party, the $10 keeps them at bay.

A winery is a business, and in order to stay in business, we need to keep selling wine and so we’d like as many people that come in the door to be seriously interested in our wine. We know that not everyone can afford $32 bottles of wine, but if you love wine we think you’d want to spend $10 just to have the experience.

People who don’t think are wines are worth $10 offend me. I realize I’m in the service industry, I’m supposed to be catering to them, but please, they can just go down the road to Roche or someone who does their tastings for free. I don’t need anyone insulting my family’s creation coming through the door.