What’s Important in a Winery Tasting Room?

Visiting a winery is one of the great adventures any wine lover should strive to experience at least once. Every continental state has a winery now, so it should be fairly easy to find wine country near you. We try to take a wine country vacation at least once a year to detox from the day-to-day, enjoy the scenery and visit wineries that produce some of our favorite wines and find some new favorites as well. In most cases, the way you go about tasting wines at a winery is by visiting their tasting room.

Having visited a few hundred wineries, my wife and I have found there are certain tasting room attributes we absolutely love and a few that we think really detracts from the wine and ultimately the winery brand itself. One thing we have all learned by now is that your tasting experience is affected by the environment in which you are tasting. It amazes me that wineries allow some of the detractors I will speak of to occur since the tasting room is where they make a first impression to a potential customer. Please share with us what your experience has been in tasting rooms and if you agree with the points made below.

People/Service

The people who are working and pouring in the tasting room can really make or break the tasting experience, which is why I list it first. In my opinion, tasting room employees should be able to adapt to the level of knowledge and interest of the customer. We have had instances where the attendant simply poured wine in a robotic manner spouting what was obviously a script proceeding to tell me what I should taste and experience in the glass. Well, gee, I could’ve just read the winemaker’s notes in that case, but I’d rather determine what I taste on my own. This is along the lines of the person who feels that they have to be the absolute authority on everything you bring up and discuss, even when they have often been factually incorrect in some cases. On the other hand, we value an employee who listens firsts and engages us in conversation and goes as much (or as little) as we want to go in the geeky wine talk. Often times an engaged and attentive pourer will get a feel for what the customer’s tastes are like and will be able to make suggestions, provide an atmosphere for personal discovery, share wines that may not be on the tasting sheet and generally make the customer feel part of the experience. We like that.

Swanson Vineyards

Wine

This almost goes without saying, but the wine (at least some of it) has got to be at least decent. I now rarely stop at wineries simply by driving by. However, it can be fun to be spontaneous from your rigid tasting schedule and you just might find a hidden gem. You will improve your chance of having the best wine country and tasting room experience if you rely on your own experience (what wines do you already like?) as well as those from trusted friends. I think many will disagree with me that this isn’t listed as the most important item in this post. As I mentioned, if the other things that impact the total environment and experience are taken care of, you don’t need to be drinking 100 point (on YOUR taste scale) wines to have a great time.

Trailer at Erna Schein

Atmosphere/Ambiance

The actual location and layout of the tasting room itself is also very important. On one end of the spectrum there are the immaculate castles and stone palaces of Napa and at the other end you have tasting “sheds.” One layout that my wife and I disagree on is the combined tasting room with retail space idea. She actually likes the idea of taking her glass in hand away from the bar and take a few minutes browsing the merchandise. Maybe that’s an XX chromosome thing. I like a devoted tasting atmosphere and prefer one with a view of the vineyard, inside a garden setting or even within a wine cave. If it’s something unique that other wineries are not doing then I love it even more. For example, Erna Schein on Spring Mountain host their tastings by appointment only within a trailer (pictured above). Note: a fabulous building, decor and views cannot make up for crappy wine or service. In this case, the capital is being invested in the wrong place and the business won’t last. Other things to consider include having ample natural lighting and being odor-free if possible, though it’s hard to control that English Leather grandpa standing next to you might be wearing. Also, some nice music (live, preferably) in the background can really go a long way in providing a wonderful wine tasting memory.

System

When I say “system” I mean the process or the structure of the tasting. In most cases, you simply walk up to a bar, which is obvious to see and easy to understand how to begin the tasting. However, if a winery is employing some kind of procedure that requires multiple steps and makes the customer have to struggle to understand how to begin enjoying their wines, it’s a bad first impression. There are two examples of this we have seen recently. Both had tasting layouts that consisted of separate rooms or “stations” for tasting. It was very Disney-esque and has felt like I was being herded along like cattle. First you pick what tasting you want (the regular vs. reserve as an example), pay for the tasting, then you are taken to the specific room or space where you would begin your tasting. Now, if the people are attentive and service is impeccable it makes this process trivial and I probably won’t care. Unfortunately, if upon entering it is not obvious where to go and what to do as employees tend to other tasks completely ignoring you then I consider that a big strike one and almost makes me want to just walk right back out the door.

Now, to be fair, there is another list that should be developed on how customers should behave and interact in a tasting room, but maybe that will be another post. In the meantime, check out this list form SeattleWineGal.

Those are just a few things we look for in a winery tasting room experience. Any tasting room stories you’d like to share, good, bad or even ugly?