Tasting Room Fees

[craigrow]

I haven't visited wineries outside of my backyard, but locally, the small ones with no tourist type facilities don't charge. The ones trying to draw tourists give free samples of their basic wines and charge $5 for a sample, usualy 3-5, of their single vineyard or reserve wines. Personally I'm happy to pay $5 for the opportunity to taste five different premium wines.

There is also a spa/resort near by that offers tastings for $10. They pour 3-5 wines from the same winery each night. Since they usually poor bottles costing $30 and up, I also appreciate the opportunity to taste several wines that otherwise would be expensive.

The other nice thing about this is the opportunity to taste several wines side-by-side. I can't do that at home without buying then opening one bottle of each, which would result in much of the wine being wasted.

That said, it sounds like those California prices are ridiculously high, but what's new about that???