Charging for tasting at wineries.

[hncjc]

Actually, when I went to California this summer I did not mind the tasting charges at some wineries -- particularly those that served some of their reserve or better wines that way. A good example to me was Berringer, which provided a free tasting for their standard wines, but allowed one to taste the reserve and other special wines for a fee.

Phelps, which I otherwise loved, did not do this. I would have loved to taste some of their, for example sweet wines, which I can only sometimes find here in DC. They did not have any mechanism for doing this.

At Chateau Montelena, they charged a fee . But they provided tastes of the 1995 and 1996 Cabernet, not the Calistoga Cuvee. So, I got what I wanted.