Tasting Fees

It rained overnight and it is wet outside which means that instead of hurrying off to the vineyard, we can relax over our morning coffee so, the conversation at the table is about tasting fees. What spurred this discussion was an article my husband was reading from Wine-Searcher called Tasting Fees Skyrocket in Wine Country, and is condensed from Silicon Valley Bank's 2021 Direct-to-Consumer Wine Survey Report. What is interesting is that this report is based on 460 U.S. wineries who were self reporting their information.

• 69% of the respondants were from California and only 7.6% were outside of the West Coast
• The standard tasting fee in the U.S. is $25
• The average in Napa County is $58 and the average in Sonoma County is $30; if doing a "reserve" tasting the fees can run from an average of $90 in Napa and $50 in Sonoma
• Washington State is the bargain region for tasting high quality wines averaging $15 for a tasting
• More than 40 percent of wineries expect to hold tastings by-appointment only this year

The move to tastings by-appointment only was the result of Covid-19 restrictions. But when the wineries are fully open once again, the majority will retain a by-appointment option or remain fully by-appointment.
This works for us since our personnel consists of my husband and myself, we had long ago decided that when it came to wine tastings, we would be following the by-appointment only model.