bularry said:

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I have had some Aloxe Corton, Volnay, and Pommard before and never has them next to each other to compare.

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none of those were more than $50?

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bularry said:

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I have had some Aloxe Corton, Volnay, and Pommard before and never has them next to each other to compare.

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none of those were more than $50?

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GBMont3 said:

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I bought the prop red and the "new" cab last week. Love the prop red.

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FTAco07 said:

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Just got the offering for my favorite Oregon Pinot and they've upped the price to $210/bottle. I love the wine but really struggle with paying that.

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Chipotlemonger said:

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FTAco07 said:

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Just got the offering for my favorite Oregon Pinot and they've upped the price to $210/bottle. I love the wine but really struggle with paying that.

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Yea that is steep. So much great Pinot out there for less than half of that!

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cecil77 said:

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Chipotlemonger said:

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FTAco07 said:

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Just got the offering for my favorite Oregon Pinot and they've upped the price to $210/bottle. I love the wine but really struggle with paying that.

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Yea that is steep. So much great Pinot out there for less than half of that!

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A $300 cab is common in Napa now. At some point the buying public has to just stop paying.

You can get so much good aged wine now for less money.

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FTAco07 said:

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I am still a bit intimidated by BDX and my knowledge is nowhere near up to snuff beyond the handful of really famous labels. That said, about six months ago I realized that almost all of my favorite Napa wines are made by French winemakers.

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cecil77 said:

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I buy little new Napa wine anymore, my palate has move away from Napa stye. My new wine is almost all Bdx. Still buy Piper, quit Spottswoode when they went woke.

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I have a lot more faith that what I'm drinking has not been artificially enhanced.

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htxag09 said:

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Anyone buying William and Mary today? First allocation I'm considering actually purchasing this year....

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East Dallas Ag said:

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Looking for new Napa vineyards recs, will not be there too long (1/2 day, full day, morning then back to SMF) so looking to maximize quantity along with the quality. Not really looking for the 2-3+hr tasting experiences. We'll be staying in Yountville and don't want to waste much time driving so looking to keep things from Napa to St. Helena. Will be starting the 1st 1/2 day in downtown Napa so considering running over to Palmaz and then heading north, any experiences with Palmaz, have heard its a cool visit.

We'll probably have to make a quick stop at Silver Oak at some point for sentimental reasons, so another option along Oakville Cross might be good.

Good chance we make another stop at Chappellet, so another option along Sage Canyon would be useful.

We do like options where we can taste outside with a view over just a tasting room. I will typically buy some bottles from where we stop (especially if it gets the tasting comped), but I'm also not looking to drop $1k+ per stop, so if it's the type of mom & pop shop with high end wine and you're expected to drop some coin for opening their doors for you, that's not for us.

Here's the places we've been, so looking for recs outside of these:

Chappellet
Heitz
Duckhorn
Merryvale
Alpha Omega
Fleury Estate
Stuhlmuller
Preston family
Inglenook
Sullivan
Darioush
Clos du Val
Robert Sinskey
O'Brien
Silver Oak
Plumpjack
Caymus
Mumm

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aggiecive said:

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Chase Cellars and Anomaly are must go-tos if I go to Napa.

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Goose06 said:

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Haven't been since Covid but before Covid these places were all private tastings as opposed to a big tasting room with 2 dozen people. Personally, I find that far more enjoyable of an experience versus going somewhere more commercial.

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Goose06 said:

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aggiecive said:

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Chase Cellars and Anomaly are must go-tos if I go to Napa.

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Haven't been since Covid but before Covid these places were all private tastings as opposed to a big tasting room with 2 dozen people. Personally, I find that far more enjoyable of an experience versus going somewhere more commercial.

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• Nearly all tasting rooms are now reservation only. Much easier for wineries to control their labor needs knowing exactly what the day to day visitation is going to look like.
• Average cost/tasting has really jumped up. A lot of this includes the addition of tastings with an added on food component, but some of it is just a general increase. I think a ton of wineries and tastings are moving towards focused tastings with select customers. The $ spend for fewer guests that have a better more privatized experience has shown to be better for wineries than casting a wide net with cheaper tastings to a ton of people.
• Traffic from the bay really slowed down for a bit last summer amid recession concerns. With the tech changes lately, I imagine that local traffic and spend is down from the high water mark quite a bit. You may be able to visit currently and get more privatized style tastings just from this fact. Weekday tastings are so nice if you can swing it!

• Average cost for a tasting in Sonoma is going up as well. Great winery that we were members at for a while had a $25/$35 tiered tasting for a while. They have grown a ton since 2019 in clout and demand, they now offer more food with a pizza oven on site most days, and believe last I checked the tastings went to $35/$50. Update: Just double checked, I think they moved to one tasting price of $50 and probably now do a mix of blend wines and single vineyards. Off the top of my head, average tasting in Sonoma is about $40 range and Napa is up to $90. I am working off memory of some data and articles that I have read.

htxag09 said:

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Haven't most Napa cellars been appointment only since even before COVID?

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Chipotlemonger said:

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htxag09 said:

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Haven't most Napa cellars been appointment only since even before COVID?

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Oh definitely. It's always been the majority, but now it's a mega-majority. I should have been more clear. Believe pre-COVID to now the % of reservation only has jumped from something in the high 60% range to the 90+% range.

As for the permitting, that stuff is a mess. I don't think it has as much to do with the reservation vs. no reservation aspect though. Wineries can throttle walk up traffic, reservation or no, with wait times or refusing service. It is easier to pre-throttle it with reservations.

Permits and local regulations make the # of big events limited and greatly limits post 5 or 6 pm events (depending on town in valley).

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cecil77 said:

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Tastings, per se, are tough to generate profit. The entire point of a tasting is to sell wine. I'll take one whale over a dozen bachelorette groups.

Higher end tastings sell higher end wine.

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