Tips for Sips

Why tasting fees make a whole lot of sense

By Cameron Fries, White Heron Cellars

In the good old days, wineries poured tastes for free and everybody was happy. When the Napa Valley surpassed Disneyland as California’s number one tourist attraction, they deemed it was time to start charging for tasting. In effect, this is a reasonable concept as there are wineries that get over 250,000 visitors a year. That adds up to a lot of wine poured even at a one ounce pour—to be exact 9,377 bottles of wine.

It took us a bit longer to start charging for tasting here in Washington. This is because Washington State law did not allow wineries to sell wine by the glass. Eventually the Washington State Liquor Control Board (WSLCB) changed the rules primarily to allow wineries to charge for tasting, and we can now also sell wine by the glass.

From the winery point of view, charging for tasting is good for several reasons. First, it eliminates the people who are just stopping by for free tastes. Second, it helps to cover the cost of the tasting room.

If a winery makes wine with any character at all, then there will be people who do not like the wine. Often we receive visitors in our tasting room who like to ask many questions, tour the winery, and taste the wine. Often we will spend more than an hour with these people. They then say, “thank you very much,” and leave with no wine in hand.

This then brings us to a brief discussion of winery tasting room etiquette. There is certainly no reason to buy wine you do not like. At the same time, if you have spent a great deal of time in the tasting room expanding your knowledge base, then it is only normal to pay a bit for the experience.

The Washington Wine Commission recently conducted a study to determine some of the unique aspects of the Washington Wine Industry. One interesting conclusion is that quite often—far more often than in other wine regions—the person in the tasting room is actually the owner/winemaker/vineyard manager. Thus, visiting a tasting room can be a bit like taking a crash course in the wine industry. Once again, it is worth paying a nominal fee for this experience.

Here at White Heron, we do not charge for tasting. However, we do have a jar on the tasting room bar with a little sign asking for a donation if no wine is purchased. I find it ironic that the people who do not purchase wine often will put in a dollar or two (or nothing) after spending a good forty-five minutes in the tasting room. On the other hand, people who purchase a case often like to leave much larger sums.

Once again, this brings us to the idea of tasting room etiquette. First, if there is a moderately priced wine that seemed somewhat drinkable, then by all means purchase it. Having this wine with food will probably change your opinion of it and may open your eyes to new ideas. If there really is nothing close to drinkable, then I would say you should leave money commensurate with the time you have spent. Most tasting rooms charge five dollars to taste, and this does seem like a reasonable price for the average tasting room visit. Usually, wineries will reimburse tasting room fees if you purchase wine, or they let you take your glass away with you.

As a brief diversion, the oldest laws relating to tasting rooms date from Babylonian times. Clay tablets written approximately in 1000 B.C. have been discovered detailing laws for tasting rooms. No doubt these would have been written by the Babylonian Alcoholic Beverage Control (BABC)?

It is, of course, understood that the reason for a tasting room is to sell wine. This does not mean however that if the tasting room visit is a pleasant one there should not be some sort of recognition of that pleasure.