Tasting rooms less appetizing

Fewer people are visiting tasting rooms in California, but those who do are spending more.

According to Community Benchmark, tasting room visits are down from 2021 when covid-trapped people were seeking liquid escapes to wine country. However, wineries are reporting that average revenue from a visitor rose from $80-$100 to $110-$125.

At the end of the day, tasting rooms may prefer fewer but more discriminating people. Crowds often mean that people are there for the wrong reasons, so “invitation-only” tasting rooms result in more attention, more revenue.

The cost of premium wine tastings is often $50 or more. Long gone are the free tastings.

Wineries suffering too

You would be right to think that vines are not likely to suffer from the corona virus. But wineries will.

In the last decade, wineries have ramped up sales in their tasting rooms. Most of them have now closed their facilities to the public. Particularly hard hit will be the small producers who don’t make enough wine to distribute their product around the country through wholesalers. I’ve spoken to many of these wine producers from California to Oregon who have said that the vast majority of their wines is sold in the tasting room or through their wine clubs. Wine clubs won’t be affected unless shippers close down. But tasting rooms will be hard hit.

I’ve seen several California wine producers announce sales for those consumers living in states that allow alcohol shipments. Not only can you help your favorite wineries by ordering some wine, but you can get a good deal — especially for those wines that aren’t available in your local market. Check out the web sites to see if you can get a deal.