We have just returned from a family holiday to the US.

How do I know we are back? The 2-inch pile of credit card statements on the kitchen table, and the 2 kilo accumulation of American hot dogs somewhere else are two certain signs!

Actually this was THE family holiday for us.

We started in one of my favourite cities anywhere, San Francisco, and travelled down the gorgeous Big Sur to L.A. then on to Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon and back to SFO.

With Dominic now 11 and Emma not far behind, we decided to do it now, before they became full fare paying teenagers who ate fillet mignon washed down with expensive red or multiple handles of beer!

Bridget & I have always had an affinity for the States and have some lifelong friends there.
Bridget’s Aunty Lorraine & her cousin Kate live in San Francisco.
I was an AFS exchange student outside of Philadelphia in the dim long ago, and also worked the 1996 vintage at Oregon’s King Estate winery.

But, I digress!

Two days after we landed, Bridget & I headed an hour or so north from SFO to Napa Valley, leaving the kids to catch up on some rest.
It started off as a bit of a white knuckle trip. Driving on the right hand side of a busy, sprawling 6 lane freeway with Hummers coming from all angles at 130km hour gets the adrenalin pumping.
Bridget didn’t say one word when I missed the Bay Bridge on the first attempt!

We stuck to the ‘Silverado Trail’ which is away from the mass tourist route that runs smack down the middle of Napa, and visited four really good wineries that they call ’small to medium’ – Whitehall Lane, Duckhorn, Grgich Hills and Joseph Phelps. Without exception these are four wineries worth a visit if you are in that part of the world.

They were in the middle of a superb harvest and we were fortunate to be shown around behind the scenes. We sampled some top Cabernet Sauvignon grapes as they made their way to the crusher, some Sauvignon Blanc out of tank and tasted some very special wines.
It has to be said that in most cases wines of the Napa Valley appellation (especially single vineyards) are priced on the eye-watering side, from $US70-$US120 and more.

But apart from the price of the wines, it was the wine tasting set up that intrigued me.
As a winery owner, I have always found the reaction to a winery charging for tasting wine interesting. It ranges from mainly willing and understanding acceptance from visitors through to disgust and disbelief in others, and in some in between.

It’s something I have never quite understood.
Can you imagine what would happen if you went to New World and sampled your way around the fruit & vege section, or ate your way around the shelves at your local Baker’s Delight, and left without paying?

Ascension has always had a charge of some sort for wine tasting for 3 reasons – 1/ there is a real cost in terms of facilities, staff, glasses and wine to provide a good tasting, 2/ guests for the most part regard winetasting as ‘entertainment’ and are happy pay for other forms of entertainment and 3/ it actually removes that awkward moment after a free tasting when a customer feels compelled to buy a bottle even though they didn’t really want to buy one for whatever reason!

A somewhat archaic California law means that wineries there are not allowed to serve food as part of their business, so you won’t find a restaurant at a Napa winery in the way you do in NZ or Australia.

This means wineries put an extra emphasis on the wine tasting.

And that is where it blew me away!

Firstly, you don’t just rock up when you feel like it. You make an ‘appointment’.

Second, the tastings can be quite formal. At Duckhorn we were shown to a table and a knowledgeable young man served four different wines to us in Reidel glasses.

Thirdly, you pay, and you pay big.

The average tasting at the four wineries was $US30 each – no sharing!
The Duckhorn tasting of four reds was $US50.

I am not moaning at all. We had a great day & considered it good value.

It certainly didn’t deter other visitors either because these places were pumping! The ‘maitre d’ was seating people faster than politicians make promises at this time of year.

As we sat hand in hand outside on the verandah, in the glorious hot sun, gazing across copses of ancient oaks, and a valley filled with the ripe rewards of a year’s work, I pondered.

I pondered tasting charges.

In New Zealand, we pay very little if anything when we go to a winery, stand in the tasting room, ask questions of the staff, and taste wine.

As winery visitors (and I am one), we are fortunate to have it so good and should be thankful.

We should regard any tasting charge as a ‘ticket’, an entry into that winery’s wonderful world of wine!

We left wine country that day as the shadows lengthened and drove 2 hours south to San Jose (the knuckles had pinked up by then) to see Neil Diamond in concert that night. Trust me, he’s still got the moves and the tunes!

“Red, Red Wine” and “Crackling Rose” seemed a fitting end to a memorable day together in Napa Valley.

Cheers

Darryl

This entry was posted on Monday 3rd November 2008 and is filed under Vineyard News. Both comments and pings are currently closed.