Forget Wine Tasting - Have an Experience

by Gretchen Roberts, Posted Jan 23rd 2009 @ 2:01PM

It used to be that a trip to wine country meant trekking from winery to winery, tasting wine, cleansing one's palate with plain crackers, and then, stomach rumbling, heading over to a restaurant to satisfy the food craving. These days, plenty of wineries are trotting out more than just 1-ounce pours: they're putting out gourmet food, special events, and even live music to lure in and entertain customers.

For serious wine geeks, this trend no doubt annoys. Geeks would rather do what they do best--taste the wine, preferably covering as much ground as possible--and not have to consider that the cost of the live band has somehow worked its way into the case of Cabernet they just bought.

But for people who view wine-tasting and a visit to wine country as a social or romantic event, the wine experience can be a lot of fun. We're talking food and wine pairing classes; sessions with the winery's private chef, who may have been lured away from a top restaurant; music and wine pairings (and there's evidence to show that music does influence what you drink and how you taste it); and more.

More after the jump.

For the winery, attracting hordes of people to the winery is really important: according to Wine Business Monthly's third annual tasting room survey, wineries generate a large portion of profit from tasting room sales (more than half for small wineries, almost half for medium-size wineries, and almost 20 percent at larger wineries).

I couldn't possibly name all the wineries that do this, but a couple I've heard about or visited recently include Peju in Napa Valley, which has a full kitchen, classes, gardens, an art exhibit, and even a yodelmeister who performs live (I wonder what the research would say about that!).

Seghesio in Sonoma has a sit-down tasting upstairs away from the bustle of the tasting room, where you can try traditional Italian food served with Seghesio's library wines. When you're tramping around wine country all weekend, it's seriously nice just to have a seat for a bit.

Been to any really cool winery events lately? Please share!

Filed Under: Trends, Food Politics, Drink Recipes, Tastings
Tags: america, champagne, tasting, wine, winetasting